San Francisco Day 1.5

Sunday 08-Oct-2006 21:30 (San Francisco Time)

Well, here I am in sunny, sunny San Francisco. I couldn't have asked for nicer weather for my arrival, that's for sure. It's been quite warm and walking in this city makes for a hot way to spend a few hours.

The flights (Melbourne-Auckland & Auckland-San Francisco) were good, as far as long-ass flights go. I have to say I was extremely impressed with the entertainment system on board. Being able to watch a couple of episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Pixar's Cars and ALL three Lord of the Rings movies over the duration of the two flights made the 15+ hours go kind of quickly.

Flying into San Francisco I was over a wing so my view was limited and I was also on the wrong side of the plane to get a glimpse of the Golden Gate or any other landmark I could identify as SFC. Honestly, I could have been flying into any city anywhere. What was interesting though was as we approached the shoreline I could see low clouds butting up to the cliff face along the coast line. I'm sure if you were standing on the top of those cliffs at that point, you wouldn't have been able to see the beach below for cloud. From the plane I certainly couldn't see any sign of it.

Immigration was quick and painless. I'd even declared I had a suitcase full of Tim Tams, Freddo Frogs and Caramello Koalas but it seems that those particular items don't even cause a blip on their radar. It's kind of strange having to be finger printed and photographed to be allowed into a country but there you go. It has to be done. It was over in a jiffy and before I knew it I was on a lunatic driven shuttle bus (they really are the same all over the World) heading for the Green Tortoise Backpackers in Downtown SFC.

Arriving at the hostel about 13:30, I was able to spend most of the afternoon wandering up and down the city. I say, 'up' and 'down' because that's all you seem to be doing - either walking up an incredibly steep hill or walking down an incredibly steep hill. The only flat bits are the middles of the intersections. To give you an indication of how steep some of the streets really are... To get to the Hostel reception from Broadway you need to climb one flight of stairs - no mean feat with a 20.9KG bag, I might add. To get to my room you then have to climb a second flight of stairs. When I got to the room I realised looking out the window it was, in fact, at street level! The side street off Broadway is THAT steep.

I think I've managed to get a feel for the place and shouldn't have too much trouble getting around in the next three days. I now know where Old Navy, The Disney Store, Borders, Safeway and Walgreen's (Priceline on 'steroids') are, so it's all good. I also walked through Chinatown and perhaps, on Tuesday night, I might even get adventurous and go get some Dim Sum for dinner. Not real sure what Dim Sum is but it's everywhere, let me tell you.

Side note: After about 4hours of walking around the city streets, I have only seen ONE McDonalds :)

I've met two of my room mates - one from Sydney and one from Leeds, England. Not sure about the other one. They seem nice enough.

Well, that's about it for now. Time for me to have an early night. I have been up for what seems like an eternity but in reality is only about 28 hours. But hey, it's still been a killer and they don't have Pepsi Max over here to help me along. (Diet Vanilla Pepsi, whilst extremely nice, is only a marginal substitute at best)

At the minute there is a live band playing in the 'Ballroom' at the hostel but believe me when I say it is NO where near as glamorous as it sounds. Oh, have I mentioned that the area the hostel is in is probably akin to King Street in Melbourne? And they call it Broadway. Huh!

Tomorrow I plan on going to Haight-Ashbury, Alamo Square and Golden Gate Park. I might try and make it to Lombard Street also (that's the really steep twisty street) but it's in the opposite direction so perhaps I'll save that for another day.