If you're going to San Francisco...

Handy travel tip - the flowers in the hair business - not compulsary, and probably frowned on by customs actually. So now you know. No need to thank me - it's what I do.

So I'm all visa'd up and here in Canada at last. Had a good flight over to San Francisco, the timing worked out so I didn't have any jetlag to deal with. There was one moment of confusion on leaving the airport when one of the first signs I glimpsed on the highway I was sure said Brisbane, and I was thinking that can't be right, did I book a round the world ticket without realising it? Then the next one I saw was for somewhere called Cow Palace, after which I thought I had lost the ability to read properly and was just seeing gibberish, but after seeing them both on other signs I concluded there actually is a Brisbane in San Francisco (and a Cow Palace too - go figure) so was glad to have that sorted out.


The Bay Bridge at night.

So I spent a week in San Francisco to start with. It's a very pretty city and surprisingly cool for summer. I did the obligatory trip out to Alcatraz, the audio tour they give you is really good, very atmospheric. The rest of the time I mostly spent wandering around the city, walked across the Golden Gate bridge, something I've always wanted to do, and checked out all the different neighbourhoods, all with their own character - from the touristy Fisherman's Wharf, to North Beach (home of the Beat poets), the shopping district of Union Square (where I stayed), all the nice Victorian houses of Russian Hill and the Presidio, the piers lining the Embarcadero, Chinatown, Castro and the Mission, Telegraph Hill, it's quite a varied city.


San Francisco Bay.

I did two day trips out of the city, one down to Monterey and Carmel, which was great, seeing the coastline and ocean was the first time I really felt I was in California (although it's a bit weird to have the Pacific Ocean to the west now, it's throwing out my sense of direction a bit). Got to check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium, see the kelp forest and the giant octopus, as well as 17 Mile Drive, this private road which passes through this collection of golf clubs and expensive houses owned by people like Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Carmel was alright, but consisted almost entirely of art galleries and antique shops when what I really needed at the time was fish and chips so was a bit let down there.


Mmmmmm, fish and chips.

Also went out to Yosemite National Park for a day, somewhere I plan to go back and spend a lot more time later, but I couldn't stop by that close without at least going to check it out. It's an amazing place, with postcard-perfect views at just about every turn, and it was a great feeling to finally see familiar sights such as El Capitan and Half Dome in person and visit some of the ancient sequoia groves - the scale of the forests there is just phenomenal. Can't wait to get back there and explore it more thoroughly.


Lower Yosemite Falls.

As much as I did like San Francsico I was quite happy to leave by the end of it. I have a few issues with the layout - there's a few too many hills (all that walking gave me blisters), the Golden Gate is too far away from downtown to enjoy properly (and there's also the little matter of the San Andreas fault while we're on the subject of town planning). People in the street tend to be in your face a bit more too, whether it's canvassers (one guy followed me for about 2 blocks long after I'd stopped listening to him), people asking for money or just random crazy people, and then there were all the people who wander the streets all night screaming and yelling to show how much fun they're having, and of course the guy who'd always start singing Lean On Me at around 5am.

And then of course there's the saga of Escape from San Francisco. Firstly there was my room-mate on the last night, the 60 year old crazy naked drunk guy who called me all sorts of colourful things when I went to go to bed, among other things accusing me of dealing with demons and witchcraft (which kind of stumped me at the time, but I've since decided it might be some sort of resemblance to Harry Potter which triggered that) and decided making it down the hall to the toilet was too much trouble so instead got up periodically to pee in the sink (eeeewwwww). Which was near my bag. So that was a restless night, making sure we didn't have to try and overpower this guy if he went completely nuts, and making sure he didn't pee on my bag by accident. Next it was all the fun and games of the airport, where my booking hadn't gone through properly so I was sent wandering to all sorts of different counters which weren't the ones I needed. Then it was off to the security checks, and what do you know, I'd been randomly selected for a full check (probably on suspicions of witchcraft), so was put into a little corral with 2 other people to wait for processing (I think they forgot about us for a while too, and I never did see if the last guy made it out. He could still be there and one day they'll make a movie about him). Then it was into the air puffing machine to violated with multiple jets of air, and finally onto the plane where we had to sit on the tarmac for nearly 2 hours while they fixed some computer, while the guy next to me whined to his young son about having to wait.

(Would normally drop a picture in here, but unfortunately didn't manage to get one of the old guy peeing in the sink. Ah well)

So I was very, very glad to finally make it to Vancouver, where everybody seems much more normal and friendly, where I can actually use the money properly (do not even get me started on how angry American money makes me. I've ranted enough for one blog) and to be among forests and mountains again. The first time I heard someone say 'eh' I nearly hugged them, bless their little Canadaian heart. Will be staying put here for a while until I decide which direction I'm heading next, so it'll be either west to Victoria and Vancouver Island or east towards the Rockies.

Here's a nice happy picture of Half Dome to end on.