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San Francisco is the centre of my Universe
- del.ico.us
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- Last edited: 14:54, Jun 18 2007
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San Franciso is a cultural mecca, with great views, a vibrant artistic community, left-wing politics and a highly visible homeless population.
My oh my, wasn’t I pleasantly surprised driving over the Bay Area Bridge at sunset, the skyscrapers silhoutted against the clear blue sky, the glinting blue waters of the harbour. Welcome to San Francisco Francis - and I am not just biased due to the namesake. This place is not L.A..
The first thing I proceeded to do in San Fran was get conned three dollars. The shuttle driver was a four letter word starting with C and wouldn’t drop me off at the hostel as I had arranged without paying him an extra five bucks. To spite him I decided to catch a bus there instead. My conman saw me coming, all backpack and mapped out, wandering around aimlessly. I knew the bus I needed to take was the number 30, but the dude on the bike assured me I was wrong and that I should catch the 38. Being nice and friendly he also gave me a guide-map to the city, so I tipped him three bucks. After he left I looked at my bus route map and realised that he had told me a route that went in the opposite direction. He is also a four letter word starting with C.
San Francisco is geared up for tourists as well as locals, there are always things happening. My first impressions that I got of the denizens of the city are very left wing, cultural and broadminded. There are several free broadsheets aimed at different liberal segments of the populace. There is also an inordinate number of homeless people. I have become good at either saying no or using my stare as if the person was a glass window look.
I proceeded to do every touristy thing I could, starting with a boat ride under the Golden Gate bridge and around Alcatraz. Lauren told me the ride was lame but I forgot. The first night I met Will, Dan and Bry - English people (the pattern continues) who were driving a campervan from Vancouver to Mexico. We went out drinking with two Irish girls and found a Latino restaurant that was offering free magarittas and sangria for it’s fifteenth birthday. Great time for me to stop drinking. We then moved to another bar where an African inspired techno band called Afrolicious was playing and we tore up the dance floor.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is fantastic with an extensive collection that continued where the Getty in L.A. finished off. Art museums always seem to be beautifully constructed as well. I also visited the Asian Art museum where there was an exhibition of manga by the artist Tezuka (created Astro Boy), and the Exploratorium. I think I regressed to six years old at the Exploratorium - it is a science museum where there is a lot of exhibits that you can push and pull. I spent the first half an hour arranging cogs and elastic bands to make a rubber fan spin.
I moved out of the Fisherman’s Wharf YHI and to one called Adelaide Backpackers near the infamous Ternderloin suburb, where it is not recommended to walk out at night. My survey and verdict of YHIs is that they are lame. They generally lack atmosphere, they don’t allow drinking and the people drinking attracts, are often huge and are full of school trips, grandmothers and families. The only thing going for them is they are clean.
The second night I went to a country and western band called Brothers and Sisters mistaking them for another band, Sons and Daughters. They were pissed as newts whilst they were doing their set which was good for a laugh.
On the Saturday I walked around the city to experience the different districts - the China town, Italian district, Lombard Street which is very steep and windy, caught the tram, the pointy Transamerica Pyramid building.
Busdriver and CSS were the bands on the third night. Busdriver is one of my favourite rappers and he lived up to my expectations. He came out on stage wearing a cardboard cone birthday hat and proceeded to wiggle and rhyme like a madman. I had never heard of CSS who are a Brazilian angry girl pop band, but they were very ‘cool’ - that is what the kids call it right? I felt a little bit old wedged at the front of a crowd fulling of screaming underage (21 years that is) girls. Why CSS are touring with Busdriver beats me. I got him to sign my t-shirt like a good little fanboy.
On the last day I visited Haight and the Haight Street Market. I have since talked with a guy who grew up in the 60s hippy heyday of Haight and he said it was wild. I was expecting the market to be incredibly hippy and out there but it was actually very typical. The music entertainment was heavy metal which didn’t fit with the whole atmosphere either.
I waited out the rest of the day before catching a Greyhound bus to Merced at Union Square. A guy came up to me and started talking. I immediately wanted to know his exact angle to get money out of me. He said that he was America’s greatest non-monetary philanthropist. He travelled from city to city making hundreds of sandwiches and he was well respected by Bill Gates and Bill Clinton. Had I ever done anything to help someone? If I had I could then help him in his giving, he wasn’t a beggar at all, in fact his car was just parked around the corner in a lot that he needed eight dollars to get at. When I said no, he walked away scowling and said that things always come back around. It seems wrong to find the beggars infuriating, yet after a while the stories and sheer number of them really start to make me jaded.
All in all I loved San Francisco, the politics, the culture, the friendliness of the people, and the scenery. The number of homeless people seems to be due to their treatment here, which is good, and it is easy for them to beg because everyone walks here. In L.A. there are reported to be whole streets of homeless people but they are easy to avoid when you are driving around in your car.
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