San Francisco

After LA it was time for a little road trip to San Francisco on Wednesday and, as I mentioned in my last post, Hugo and I had rented a car to drive that little 6 hour stretch.

It was pretty cool but it was also kind of thirsty! We used almost two tanks of gas but we managed since it is so much cheaper over here than in Europe...

At one point I got tired of driving so we pulled over to switch. By coincidence we stopped at a Danish hotel in the middle of nowhere!

Notice that it says "velkommen" in stead of "welcome"

Anyways, we finally got to our hostel around 7.30pm (which has been rated as #2 in the entire US and with good reason!). There was a board at the hostel with information about the day's events. That night there were $1 drinks all night long at a bar not far from the hostel, so we figured we might as well give it a try :P It was a pretty cool place but we paid the price in the morning! We had to get up early to turn in the car Thursday morning. Also, we had to be ready for a guided tour around the city at 10am.



The guide took us around in a minivan and he was so funny and he knew all the interesting stories because he was born and raised in San Fran. He took us to a lot of different neighborhoods and even though it was pouring down in the beginning, it was definitely worth it! He took us to Twin Peaks, which is a hill not far from the center, and the view there was absolutely amazing!

Next up was the corner of Haight and Ashbury.

All the "true" hippies used to live in that neighborhood during the 60s and 70s but now, Dylan (the guide) told us, that it's mostly wannabe hippies that live there. Because of the general demographics in Haight and Ashbury, there are a lot of people smoking many other things than tobacco ;) At the same corner, there was a watch where the clock is stuck at 12 all day long.

The reason behind is that 12 o'clock is also known as "HIGH noon" = it's always high noon in that area! Jimmy Hendrix and The Grateful Dead also had their houses close by.

But it was an interesting place to be and there were many funny small shops

We also came by those famous San Francisco houses. They where some of the only houses to survive the great earthquake in 1906.

Maybe I should tell you that San Francisco is actually quite small. It's only 7x7 miles so everything is close by!

Then we drove to the coast to get a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

After that stop we got in the car and drove to Muir Woods where they have those tall trees. On the way we crossed the Golden Gate

These trees grow more than 100m tall and they are 6-800 years old!

After Muir Woods, we drove back to the hostel crossing the Golden Gate for a second time. Our tour was over and we definitely got our money's worth! 5 hours around my new favorite city in the world with the best guide ever for only $45.

We were pretty tired when we got back so we took ourselves a good 2-3 hour power nap before getting something to eat and going on that night's pub crawl arranged by the hostel.

Friday we had planned to go to Alcatraz but we almost didn't make the ferry because we were late as always :) We were the absolute last people to board the little boat at 12.34 and they closed the gates at 12.35!

We got our to the small island and walked around for a couple of hours, seeing everything along the way.

When we though that it was time to go home, we missed the ferry by literally one minute so we had to wait for the next one... but at least I'd rather have it that way than missing our ferry to Alcatraz!

Back on dry land we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 where all the sea lions are. It's kind of a tourist trap with a lot of different artists and weird souvenir shops.

Saturday (yesterday) morning we took the plane back to San Diego.

In total San Francisco is an amazing city! If anybody is considering to go, GO! The fact that it is so small and compact with a lot of different neighborhoods makes it so special. It hasn't been taken over by all the big companies so you wont see a Mickey D's or Starbucks on every corner. And unlike cities like LA, Philly and Washington DC it doesn't seem like there's that many really bad neighborhoods close to really nice ones. In those cities just mentioned I have been in a very nice place, walked two blocks down the street and find myself in the ghetto...

Next stop on our little trip will be VEGAS tomorrow (monday) :D
We have two free nights at the Harrah's. I might do a bit of gambling and we also wanna drive out to see the Grand Canyon.

That was it for now! Take care :)