Sunday, 20 July 2008

Don't call it Frisco! Day 1 in SF

After a slightly shorter flight than anticpated, made up for by someone connecting the dockway correctly, and the customary greeting from US customs - I was in America!
Choosing to take (cheap) public transport I trained into the central city, getting off below the giant Nordstrom store. And what should be there? the cable car.

Having never done it before I proceeded to buy a ticket, and joined the rather significant queue. Lessons learnt:
1. Not a fast queue,
2. Not a fast method of transport,
3. Not good transport if carrying a backpack of all your wordly possessions,
4. Did I mention the queue?
None-the-less, now I feel like an actual bona-fide San Francisian.

The hostel is a simple walk around the waterfront from the cable car line, so naturally I went completely the wrong way. I blame my guide book for running out of map.
Once there, time for shower and back around the waterfront (the fast way) to hire a bicycle and commence the ride across the Golden Gate bridge (again the waterfront)
By the time I hired the bike, I had 2.5 hours until the place closed, and they charge by the hour so I wasn't hanging around. Unfortunately I didn't account for the wind, which obviously had been watching Wellington and 'upsized' it in typical American fashion. Round trip was a fast 1hr40, of which 30 minutes was the return journey (with the wind).

The only thing seemingly unaffected by the wind is the haze. It's miraculous.

Tomorrow - The Rock.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4628621a11.html

Hmm. Haze. What I'd do for haze...

Tell me what remarkable American style foods you've been eating!

Is SF a friendly sort of place?

Russell said...

America is generally very friendly, and quite polite. The worst you will usually encounter are the large numbers of homeless people, which can be disconcerting.