San Francisco. I forgot to wear flowers in my hair... :-(

After 42 hours of travelling, we finally arrived in San Francisco 2 days before we left...(The time zone difference is still something I'm trying to get used to).

What a trip: Cape Town to Dubai. Dubai to New York. New York to Detroit. Detroit to San Francisco.

Me trying to log onto the non-existent Wi-Fi in the Dubai Airport

Final stop, our hotel, The Edwardian. We arrived at the hotel a little after 23h00, only to find that they had not reserved a room for us!! I suppose all the emails I sent before we left, and the phone call from Detroit airport earlier that day to confirm that we would be a bit late was not clear enough as confirmation that we would be staying there... Luckily the hotel made a plan, and they were able to put us in Harry Potter's old room under the stairs... at least it was clean.

Liesl outside the hotel built by Munchkins...

After a good night sleep, we were finally ready to embrace San Francisco and all it's FABULOUSNESS!!

In Union Square

Art on display in Union Square

Liesl in Union Square

Chinatown

Chinatown

Chinatown

Chinatown is strange and very confusing. Every street looks the same. Lots of cheap things (awesome, some not so) to buy, ugly jewellery, and Japanese curio shops and restaurants (what's that about?) (not discounting the 1000s of Chinese takeaway places). I have it on good authority that some of the best dim sum in the world is served within the confines of this complicated "town"... however we did not have have time for that dining experience. Next time!

Clang, clang, clang...

San Francisco Trolley Cars

The trolley cars are pretty cool. They are the only moving national monuments! The San Francisco system still uses the original tracks and operating systems from yesteryear. There a variety of cars from all over the world which are used. In the window of each it tells you where the car is from. So you could be riding on a trolley car from Canada, Italy, Australia etc.

 

A fun trip to Fisherman's Wharf. There are loads of restaurants, curio shops, the marina where rich people keep their boats and the famous Pier 39.

Let's go to the movies..

We opted for a San Francisco Movie Tour, instead of the standard sight-seeing tour. It was awesome! We got to see most of San Francisco AND watch movie clips and learn about shooting locations at the same time!

L-R: Cafe Zoetrope owned by Francis Ford Coppola. The Vesuvius bar from So I Married an Axe Murderer. The Mrs Doubtfire house. Liesl in front of the Painted Ladies (opening to Full House)

As mentioned in a previous post, "What's Up Doc?" is my favourite Barbra movie. This was filmed in San Francisco. YAY!!

Uncle Vito's - the pizzeria from the opening scene.   Lombard Street from the car chase scene. The crookedest street in the world

The Church where the beetle is stolen. The Stairs (which were wrecked) during the car chase scene. The real Hotel Bristol

 

Us at City Hall- lots of movies were previously filmed here. However, not anymore due to a certain director flooding the place by accidentally activating the fire sprinkler system...

Come out, come out wherever you are...

 

We took a couple of trips to The Castro area. Which is the gayest place on earth!

 Also the former stomping ground of gay activist Harvey Milk

Liesl in front of Harvey's old camera store; The Harvey Milk Plaza; a restaurant; a plaque.

It was in the wonderful word of The Castro that we met our new fabulous friend Patrick at Mix... who then introduced us to his fabulous friends, Matt, Chris and Natalie. Patrick is from Missouri. We discovered that no-one in San Francisco is actually FROM San Francisco....

Patrick (Missouri), Matt (Los Angeles), Chris (everywhere, but mainly Boston) and Us (Natalie is from Sacremento...)

Patrick also introduced us to the wonderful world of The Edge - a wonderland where every drink costs $1!! Needless to say, all I can remember of that night is that all drinks in The Castro are triple strength, and they make THE BEST margaritas at Mix!

We also made a couple of trips to The Haight.

The Haight is everything you expect it to be. Buzzing with budding artists; vintage clothing stores; quaint cafes, tattoo parlours and alternative music stores. The perfect place for a stress-free lifestyle. (Read as: begging street performers; second-hand clothes; dodgy cafes, grubby tattoo parlours and grunge music stores. Riddled with homeless people).

The former residence of Janis Joplin - just off of Haight str.

The Rock

The famous prison, Alcatraz, is within swimming distance from the Fisherman's Wharf (not really). We took a trip out to Alcatraz - I'll post this separately.

Here's the view of Alcatraz from Fisherman's Wharf

San Francisco is also famous for it's "Painted Ladies" Victorian houses. Just stunning.

The Palace of Fine Arts is in the Marina District. It was built for the World Fair in 1915. Stunning building (you will learn throughout the course of this blog that I like buildings)

Shopping!

We did a bit of shopping in and around San Francisco. The best shopping area is at Union Square. A lot of designer stores, so not for the feint-hearted. There is also Westfield Centre quite near by. This has a variety of shopping delights to suite any pocket. 

My new favourite store is Bettie Page. It's cool. Period.

Bettie Page. It's awesome

It was really cold in San Francisco in the evenings. So we bought hats.

Our hats. Aren't they cool? I was going for the "Fargo" look.. but ended up with Angry Birds instead

We took a day trip to the neighbouring town, Sausalito, which meant that we had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. It's such a stunning bridge. The view of San Francisco and surrounds is beautiful... assuming you can see it through all the fog which regularly clouds the view.

FOG!

THERE IS HOPE!

We had a FANTASTIC time in San Francisco. It really is the most amazing place, with lots to see and do. I think what made it most enjoyable was the people. Everyone we met were so helpful and friendly. Our time spent with Patrick and co. really added that extra something special to our trip. In my opinion it's going to be hard to beat. 

If you would like to see more photos, you can check them out on Facebook. There was so much to cover in San Francisco and the Bay area, I'll be posting additional info and photos other cool stuff :-)

xxx