SanFrancisco - Blogabond

San Francisco, United States

My journey started around the end of April. It was one of those lazy weekend days, barely past noon on a Saturday and blue skies sunny outside and I wasn't feeling like doing shit. Despite my bodies will I motivated myself enough to head over to the Mission District in San Francisco.
- meeting at medjool
- didn't like job
- casey liked my skills and mentioned a job at the collective
- got me thinkin about joining
- a week later I quit my job
-

Monday
- Packed all day, left 3:30
- Arrived in Reno about 8pm
- Mexican and beer
- Reno is like a wannabee Vegas
- Latins and white trash
- Bar and travel talk, politics
- San Severino
- Breakfast, nutella

written by

chris on March 29, 2006 from San Francisco, United States

from the travel blog: A global search for a meaning

tagged SanFrancisco and CouchSurfing

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San Francisco, United States

our big, crazy, but beautiful auckland family @ Auckland Airport

We left Auckland yesterday (30th) @ 7:40 pm. Arrived in San Francisco today (30th) @ 12 noon, which makes us technically 1 day younger. Haha! After going through the customs clearance (customs officer was a stern-looking Filipino man), we were really surprised – confused even that the big anxiously anticipated baggage inspection, was – well, there was none. We picked our backpacks off the carousel, dragged them a few meters to one doorway, and that was it. Out to the shuttle parking we went, took a shuttle driven by another Filipino man, hailed for us by yet another Filipino porter. It almost felt like we were in Manila.

Kennox helping out at the hostel

Our hostel is in Chinatown. We still feel a bit awkward about being a married couple in a mixed dorm room. Fortunately, our roomies – at least for tonight are another couple from Germany. We are slowly getting used to the setup. The hostel manager guy is quite a pleasant young guy who has lived in NZ before. He called us JAFAs! Oh well… and we just learned tonight that 'come to the roof top' means an invitation to go 'magsiga ng damo'. ooops!

These are just some photos we took this afternoon as we strolled down California & Sacramento Streets to find some grocery shop. A loaf of brown bread is US$4!!! A plain croissant is US$1! Heeeelllppp!

Joia in front of some building along California St.

kennox still food-bag-hugging in front of some chapelly-looking building

Grace Cathedral

kanuto hugging our food bag in some street in chinatown

We miss Auckland already and we haven’t even been here 24hrs. boohoo!

written by

garcia on October 30, 2007 from San Francisco, United States

from the travel blog: Got 2 see what's out there!

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San Francisco, United States

Prankster in action

we planned to head out the door by 8am today but thanks to jetlag, we only woke at 11am. we walked some blocks and ended up in Union Square where we bought city passports each. this we used to get on the cable car to Pier 39. our funny story today:

Prankster on Beach St.

San Francisco is home to many street performers. Our favourite so far is this man who hides behind bundles of leafy branches waiting for some happy wanderers to frighten. Fortunately, we spotted him from across the street doing his act to some other passersby. We had a good laugh! Well, the rest of the day, we basically were typical tourists exploring the city - which ic slowly growing in us.

some tunnel

this tunnel reminds me of a place in... it looks like, and even smells like it. since this is our first walk in a tunnel for a while now, we thought it was worth a shot. at the end of the tunnel was union square.

Fountain on Union Square

Thirsty?

beauty (wink!) and the beast

The park itself is beautiful and mostly clean. It's surrounded by probly a dozen of highend shopping malls. We even braved going into Saks fifth ave and came out alive - whew! There was a woman begging some people for money - but she was wearing nice-looking reebok trainers...

white horse

From Union square, we walked along to Powell station where we caught the historic cable car from. the ride was funny but certainly much easier than last night's walk uphill and down.

Cable Car

This lead us to Hyde Station near Pier 39. We saw this nice horse and carriage along Embarcadero which we thought was quite romantic, until we learned the coach charged $15/ride. Well, we got the better deal in this photograph - for nothing!

junk mail

Kenneth wanted a shot of this line of junk mailboxes. There's heaps of them in the city. ???

uhm... a boat

Alcatraz through a peephole

Walking further along the beach, we found ourselves heading to the end of a pier which offered a great view of Alcatraz Island. Took some shots for you folks.

big wheels keep on turning!

Sail away...

The following shots were taken at the Maritime Museum. They sell tickets to go onboard the ships, but we were quite happy just enjoying the displays on the free-walk:

hoot! hoot!

Nee-nor! Nee-nor!

We got hungry so we looked for some cafe. we ended up at starbucks. we took this shot (Right) of a nice cartoon art along the way and this shot (to the left) too... hehe!

Pier 39 - also known by us as Pier Massive Rip-off If Sucked In - is where you can get CRABS!

CRAB city

More photos at Pier 39:

missing North Shore City

Blokey shop... American Football

and man, those seals, do they stink!

Coit Tower

green Trick or treater on wheels

We also climbed uphill to the coit tower, which is well, a tower. On the way up, we got our first best view of the Bay Bridge (the other less popular but much longer and newer bridge on the other end of San Francisco). On the way down, we passed through a posh-looking neighborhood and spotted this funky looking pumpkin(above). Also walked further downhill through Little Italy, which was also a very pleasent and clean place.

Little Italy

We came home to some holloween-hyped up hostel peepz. They went to a street party which we were gonna go along to (kuno), except I (unintenionally???) crashed into bed before they even got out of the door.

Holloween w/ them hostel peepz

Six hours of walking meant some really tired JAFAs. Ngorrrrkk! Enjoy the photos... more to come.

written by

garcia on November 1, 2007 from San Francisco, United States

from the travel blog: Got 2 see what's out there!

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San Francisco, United States

detailing @ palace of arts

sorry guys, been 2 busy for blogging. here's 2 sum up the rest of our time in Sweet San Francisco. We decided that afterall, we do have great memories that we could take from this city.

Bottle brush

There are some very kind people here, very accomodating of tourists. The other day, we had a very proper lady offer us directions. Yesterday, a very kind and pleasant looking man offered to take pictures of us in a quaint little town along the coast - he even thanked us for visiting their place. And today, on the bus to the church, we didnt have the exact amount for fares - we had an angel in an older lady sitting next to us who gave us her ticket as she was getting off at next stop, and even gave us a dime to complete the other fare needed.

Day 3: Tandem Biking

pit stop

we took the cable car again from Powell to Hyde at the wharf. From there, we rented a tandem bike (a first for the both of us) for the day @ $45. we got on the seats - on tiptoes - given our ungenerous heights, and started pedalling. It was surprisingly easier than it looked. The funny thing about tandem biking is that people you

pit stop

pass by the road always seem to find it humorous and you get these very funny but friendly grins all the time. Just as we were starting to enjoy it, we were heading uphill. Then the arguements and uncoordination set in. We were basically fighting halfway thorugh the route, yelling at each other everytime we get a chance (away from pedestrians). And then back to being the perfect team again when we get to a crowded area. haha!

Kanootz being the Captain relied on his stalker, Joia for directions. But she isnt a big fan of maps. Plainly, her navigational skills suck! The good thing about this is that we were always pleasantly surprised when we got 2 a really cool place that we hadnt expected.

Palace of Arts

Just like taking an impromptu turn when we saw a big dome which turned out to be the Palace of Arts. Jane, remember the place? movie? papa Richard G? haha! It was next to an exploratorium - which required a ticket - so obviously, we decided that best things in life are... ehrm, FREE!

pillars @ palace of arts

Leaving the exploratorium meant an uphill ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. It also meant a lot of arguing. Kanootz would change gears without telling, and this would make Joia's pedals jerk so that her feet would slip off of them.

black & white golden gate

It wasnt until we got on the bridge that we figured out that sometimes, it can actually be easier for Joia if Kanootz lifted his feet and just drove, while Joia pedalled. Yay, now we're a happier team! haha!. And Kanootz got to rest on some parts of the route.

Riding on the bridge is an amazing feeling! The view is needless to say - magnifico! The city is partly covered in fog, the bridge beams in the sunshine... WOW!

Kanootz on Golden Gate Bridge

Following bike routes, we got to this pretty little town called Sausalito. Overall, this is our sweetest memory of San Francisco. Mostly because it reminded us a lot of certain parts of Auckland. Funny that, it's like that quote we read somewhere saying we actually really travel to seek the familiar in the unfamiliar.

Sweet Sausalito Shore

Haha! Sausalito is a quaint little town along the coast, posh-looking and very scenic, peaceful, victorian homes, romantic. For lunch, we had creamcheese & bagel and then we shared an icecream while waiting for the ferry back to San Francisco. The icecream, man, $4 a scoop. oh, but it was worth it - Ultra Chocolate, it was called, and yes, it was ULTRAH!

gelato del cioccolato in Sausalito

On the ferry from Sausalito back to San Francisco

On the ferry back, there was this seagull sitting on the flag pole. We were taking a photo of it when it - pooped! Haha!

Ferry Flag

Just as well the wind wasnt in our direction. And from the ferry is where Kenneth got a pretty shot of the San Francisco Skyline. We were knackered! What with the sun constantly on our necks, our legs sore from pedalling, and our bottoms scorched from the tough bike seats and bumpy hills, of course we would be. Ngorrk! That was us for the day.

San Francisco Skyline

Day 4: Alcatraz... not!
Tired from yesterday's tandem biking, we only got up at mid-day. We took the cable car to the wharf only to be told that tickets to Alcatraz were sold out for the day. It was amazing how we quickly shrugged our shoulders at the little disappointment. We had some help from the hostel manager telling us last night that he's never been to Alcatraz. Apparently, the city government chose to lease Alcatraz licence to a company who hired less skilled people at cheaper wages.

Ferry Building

We then decided to just take in the atmosphere, do some people-watching - which is always interesting anyway. The money we save on the Alcatraz, we agreed that we'd spend it on 1 decent San Francisco dinner. We had grilled salmon - teriyaki for Joia, mango seared for kanootz. Ooooh, that was yum, smokey!We stayed out till late so we were able to grab some sunset photos.

Day 5: Rest Day
By this time, we are pretty tired and as much as we've enjoyed our short stay here, we have had enough. shame though, as we've only just figured out their MUNI public tranport system. In the morning we went to church. We were just happy we could keep Sabbath this week. Anyway, the afternoon meant packing up and finishing this blog entry for you guys. We love you, and y'all stay well.

written by

garcia on November 4, 2007 from San Francisco, United States

from the travel blog: Got 2 see what's out there!

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Heading South?