The Fog City

We found San Francisco to be a stunning city, so vibrant and colourful and with a great vibe - music everywhere, street entertainment, sunshine... except for when the fog hung around, but it was never over the city, instead floating down over the bay and the bridge. Beautiful.

We saw all the famous sites: the Golden Gate bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, the windiest street (it criss-crosses up a small hill), the Victorian houses at Alamo Square (of Full House fame!) and the cable cars. We did not visit Alcatraz - apparently we should have booked weeks in advance. All booked out.

There were a LOT of homeless people here. We had a few conversations with people. One guy said 'you're looking rich today'. On every corner people sat there with cardboard signs. They weren't menacing at all like in some other cities - they were more... hopeless. One guy wanted a bite of our souvlakis and kept persisting despite us telling him no and asking him other questions - he just wanted a bite. He walked off saying 'you're terrible people'. In hindsight: we should have given them to him and bought ourselves another. Damn hindsight! Or lack of foresight.

Highlights of San Fran: drinking Starbucks (America's Starbucks is alright! Nothing like the dirty water Australian version), the drive into San Fran with messy traffic, and riding the cable car in the morning - we stood on the outside so we had the best view.

And lastly, some observations of America so far (oooh here it is!):
- It's so common for someone to be walking down the street alone, singing at top note, without a single inhibition! Sometimes accompanied by dance moves.
- US flags are everywhere in some places. Australians just don't plaster their houses with flags. I wonder why we don't and they do.
- Jaywalking - I knew it was illegal here (and probably is at home too, but no one enforces it) but they actually cross at crossings, and wait for the signal. Adrian and I went to casually cross the street in Santa Barbara and a cop came from nowhere on his motorcycle, turned off the engine and said 'you guys can't cross here. you gotta go to the crosswalk'. It was a single lane of traffic that we were about to cross!
- Burgers, 'grills' (still don't quite know what they are) and Mexican food is everywhere. They eat so many burgers! And food ending with 'dog' - corn dogs, chilli dogs etc
- Huge cars (but I think I knew that already)
- And everyone is so polite and well-spoken. Australians aren't impolite... we're just laid back :)