San Francisco Part 2

Wow. I am just so happy to be in this fantastic city. What a great place to live in. What I love is how relaxed the place is, yet also so cool and on the pulse. It has surprised me how friendly, without being annoying, everyone is. There is a kind of underbelly of true friendship here. I found out from the server in the 'Hottest Chilli Sauce Shop in the World' that SF has just won the World Series so everyone is really happy at the moment. I'm glad about this even though I have no idea what sport the World Series is.

Last night after blogging I went up to my room and ended up chatting to my roommate Nicoletta from Turin in Italy and she took me out around North Beach and Little Italy. She has been here a few times and knows it well. We had the most fantastic pizza.  She's off to Mexico on Friday, I wish I could get on that plane to Mexico too. In fact no, sod it, I want to stay here.

Slept like a dream in my bunk last night. V. Comfortable and this morning after my super soft bagel and delicious peanut butter and jam I was ready for the day. I have found I adore peanut butter. Catherine Blay  you are right  Reeses Pieces are delicious. 

This morning I faffed about for too long and had to charge up and down the hill to pier 33 for the 9.30am ferry to Alcatraz. I was in such a mad rush I wasn't even able to stop to take a photo of all the Chinese women with their fans a flapping doing SF style tai chi in the park. maybe I will catch them tomorrow.

Alcatraz is only a mile off the coast so I was there in 15 mins and then the joy began. I thought it was gonna just be a dank, yucky prison on a hill, a grim adventure which all tourists blindly partake in but NO WAY. It was fantastic. 

I really enjoyed the gardens. Flowers which the families of the wardens started, prisoners with privelidges enhanced and now the National  Park is continuing. I loved that such lovely flowers were surrounding such an imposing and forbidding place.

 Alcatraz gardens with Golden gate Bridge behind

 in the gardens

On the boat across

 I also loved the Park Rangers personal tours. To be honest most spoken guided tours in the UK are just a bit worthy. Guides are often knowledgeable but as dry as old bones, and the ones abroad are just totally incomprehensible  but here people are passionate, knowledgeable and entertaining. They can hold the attention of the WHOLE crowd no matter how big or varied in age and, as a teacher, I loudly applaud their style and dedication.

I especially like how they twisted everything and made me think.  What was the purpose of Alcatraz? Food here was the best of any penitentiary in the USA. Guards never used guns on the shop floor. Guys stayed calm and even learnt how to crochet and read on average 75 books a year. Was Al Capone really such a criminal? MAybe if he had been an Irish hard man he would have been employed by the NY fire or police service. People of Italian decent were discriminated against too. But don't get me wrong this place was not the first port of call for prisoners,it was full of the guys who broke the rules inside of prison.

 Guys were so bored that one guy who knew how to crochet from his gran.taught a few of them the art. The image of these hard men sitting with pink yarn in their 5 foot cells did make me laugh.

 The audio tour inside the jail was excellent too. It really got the atmosphere of the hideous place and how the noises of the city carried across the waters to make the inmates even more aware of their awful fate. The isolation cells were the worst. Really super grim and the size of the lock ups was just obscene.

But the unexpected highlight was the Ai Weiwei installation in one of the employment blocks. It was so moving and bloody brilliant. To be honest it made me cry. Yes, Im that To see such exuberance, joy, energy, creativity and beauty in such a grim backdrop was breathtaking.the Chinese dragon was AWESOME.

And as for the amazing lego installation of political prisoners all over the world laid out on the floor of the factory.  WOW, it was brilliant.  Not to mention that in the dining room of Alcatraz you could personally write to any of the political prisoners you chose with individually addressed postcards. you then put the postcard in a box and hoped that the rangers kept their promise to post them all! ( I wrote to a guy in Iran and told him I was on holiday in SF and that I hoped one day I hoped to visit his country too.)

 All made from Lego.  Ai Weiwei wanted the public to be able to walk on them but Alcatraz said no.

They were all so well created. Bloody HOURS of work!

Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowdon too. the whole world was there for you to support or learn about their struggles.

Each person was in a file and had a personal postcard you could send them .  Iranian prisoners all had tulips like the one I chose above.

 A few more of my photos and time for bed.  I had a great clam chowder this evening and a couple of beers as I walked along the Wharf but by 5 it was pitch black so for safety reasons I had to turn around and come back out of the park.I loved how the wharf I was walking on was so derelict.  It kind of a added a bit more atmosphere to my views of The Golden Gate Bridge.

 Me, Golden Gate bridge and seagull

sticky up hair selfie.

 Coit tower

 East Bay-Oakland Bridge from Alcatraz

Derelict wharf  and Golden Gate.

A few more funny photos before I go to my room.  Typing and adding photos here is a dream compared to China and other places where I haven't had the quick, free access.

 Quiet back room of the liquor store on this block.  It is full of prostitutes and their prospective clients.It smells like a tart's boudoir. I had to take a photo of the oh so bloody cute, weird bunnies on the wall.  WTF?!!

 My hostel.A piano, a ship in a glass box and a flat screen TV all surrounded by pink flourescent lighting.