So we made it to California, Our final destination on our USA trip. We were three weeks early for our flight, which is always being prepared. So what better to do than to hang around and do nothing like the rest of the people in this city. We were staying in the Green Tortoise Hostel in North Beach, which was quite a hefty walk from the transbay bus terminal. As you know if you've been here, or ever played a computer game San Francisco is very hilly. I swear the locals have double jointed ankles to survive or something. It was 12 noon, but due to being on the Greyhound all night it felt like 7. We hung around a little bit, taking little walks round Chinatown, and down to their piers. It was nice. And of course we knew are directions from Grand Theft Auto, set in San Francisco. Who said playing playstation would never help you in the real world.

The next day we walked to Coit Tower and looked at amazing views of the city. The sun was just about to set behind the Golden Gate Bridge, so we took the elevator up to the top, and took soo many photos of the city getting Dark, it was a beautiful view. Dejan who had said in the day time, he could really see the attraction of city, kinda changed his mind when he saw the hills light up with street lights. It was pretty cool. Thats views you don't get in Leicester.


On the notice board back at the hostel, I saw a note offering a road trip around California for a week. Checking out Yosemite, Death Valley, Vegas. That would be perfect for us. So I contacted Sebastian, and he was happy for us both to come with. Next week suddenly had a sense of adventure to it. Plus we had really really wanted to See Yosemite before we left.

Friday, a perfect day for walking for hours and hours. Leaving our hostel in the morning with the aim of walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, we detour through Fisherman's Wharf. A big mistake, we should have done the Opposite. I've never rushed through and area more quickly in my life. Don't go. No. Stop thinking about it. DON'T GO. You've all seen people dressed as statues before, so don't go. You've all been pissed off about tourist prices for food. So Don't Go. Are you getting this? Anyway, from the we took nice walk along the beach towards the bridge. It took about three hours. But the bridge was excellent, we sat underneath and watched surfers hurtling towards rocks in freezing cold water. Walking across the bridge was alright, not all that great. But there were Signs that said "There is Hope, free crisis counselling" signs posted along jumpable points along the bridge. We had been walking for hours when we got to the other side, but there was no sign of a bus. So we had to walk back across and wait for an hour before any bus heading to Downtown arrived. But we were sucessful and it was great day out.

We made plans to meet Nick, the english guy from Portland, who had also arrived in SF. As he clued into our diet of Burritos. We decided to go for a Burrito in the Mission District. Walking past lines of homeless people queuing for bed for the night. We arrived at Nicks hostel in the heart of the tenderloin. The Mission district was pretty cool, and the Burrito fantastic. Overcrowded and very recommended by guidebooks. I just can't remember the name, you'll know it if you see it. For some reason we started talking to the American SWP who were on the street, then a maoist group. Ah well, why not. they gave me a free DVD. Our walking tour continued up towards Castro, the gay district and then to Haight-Ashbury. It was tiring on the legs but we found Amoeba music, a huge independent record store. I Bought road trip music. Ok not really bit, I bought four cd's. We caught a bus back to our hostel to show Nick the Beat Museum a few doors down. I confess, i barely know anything about Jack Kerouac and the rest, but i learned a lot, and all the staff were so keen to tell you everything you needed to know. Recommended reading lists, places to check out. It was pretty fascinating.

We sat up that night making road trip plans with Sebastian, and now Ben, an Australian guy. The week was looking to be fun. Lots of driving but lots to see. We met another English guy (this hostel was full of them) who was insistent we drink beer with him. Which we did, we also met two Canadian Games Programmers who were pretty interesting. One of them looked like Marcus Bridgstocke. We met a lot of people that night, none of whom I can remember the name of.

Sunday, today we took a boat across to Alcatraz with Nick. The island was full of people, but it didn't make it any less strange that we were in a prison. The staff gave some excellent and imaginative talks about events on the island. The Audio tour was really good too. Except to fast to walk through without pausing and you always ended up having your player synced with someone else, so it looked like you were following them around. Worth it though. Back on real land. We went for chinese at the House of Nanking. I really liked my food, Dejan seems to have been put off chinese food forever. Ah well. More Burritos. Road Trip Tommorrow.

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