The Streets of San Francisco
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Having seen the famous sony commercial (watch it below, recorded in San Francisco) we simply had to head up to the Bay area to check out this charming and supposively “European-ish” city. The cheapest and easiest option for us was to catch a Greyhound bus, leaving 5 times daily from LA. The bus was ok, for $45 each way we got a 8hr ride in a non-sleeping-friendly environment consisting of stiffy seats, crying babies, a very loudtalking driver and not to mention the same as us aged traveller who looked like MadMax and smelled like a rotten animal corpse….At first we thought it was the combined smell of all the passenger’s BO (of course including us), but the moment this guy left the bus…everything was back to normal. That last 30min of sleep really helped….
Even though the San Francisco Bay area is home to several million people, San Francisco itself only houses appx. 750,000 people. This makes it a small city compared to LA, NY and other famous US states. Nevertheless, San Francisco has charm, and LOTS of it… If I were to settle down anywhere in this country I would seriously consider to live in SF. The bay area around the city allows for plenty of trekking possibillities, beachtrips, sailing and huge national parks (e.g. Yosemite). During our 3 days in SF we didnt really see any drawbacks about living there…actually the only thing that really sucks about this place are the property prices! Even though California itself is supposed to be expensive property price, San Francisco boasts small charming city houses no smaller than Norwegian cabins…priced at $1,5-2million (if you’re lucky!). Below you can see a perfect example of one of these houses, situated in the heart of SF….With that price, you even get to park at an angle! WOW!
Our first day in SF was spent walking around, simply scouting sights…check out what to do and where to go. The hostel we stayed at (Amsterdam…dodgy name for SF but really a nice place…) was located on Taylor street, basically 10-15min walk from the famous Lombard Street, the world’s most curbing street.Below: Lombard St.
Next day we rented hybrid bikes, $22 for 24 hours. We figured this would be the cheapest and best way of exploring this fantastic city and the surrounding area. Biking over the magic Golden Gate and into the high-end rich sub-urban Sausalito, we left behind at least 30km.
On our way over the bridge:
The Golden Gate itself is the strait that connects the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate bridge was built in 1937 and is one of the (maybe the most) most famous suspension bridges in the World. The bridge is 27m wide, with 6 lanes and has a total length of 2,7km….with a span of 1,3km. Sadly the bridge is a notorius site for suicide, on average there is a suicide jump every second week. Funny though, compared to Sydney Harbour Bridge (The Coathanger)…The Golden Gate bridge has no anti-suicide measures other that the standard “do not jump” posters….I guess it’s all about the aesthetics.
With sun all day, we bought food at a local mart and ate lunch outside, roadside…frenchstyle!
After exploring the nearby towns, its high-class marina and the local forest/woods park, we headed to the nearest ferry point to catch a boat back to SF.
“The Rock”, Alcatraz
After logging onto MSN and randomly nicknaming myself “Martin in San Francisco”, my old friend from Norway…Torkjell hit me with an email saying that he was ALSO in SF. I did not know he was there, and he did not know I was there…appearently he had just arrived 2 weeks earlier to commence a study abroad programt at Berkely university. Anyways, Torkjell was excited that some of his fellow Norwegians were in town and even ditched a 3 hour lecture to join our trip to Alcatraz.
Alcatraz was very interesting…even though it was not that mytical and exciting as I hoped. The island and island-area was quite boring and a lot of the pathways were locked off, with a sign saying “Closed - for your safety”. Damn that! I wanna see more!…Actually, the only thing that caught my real attention was the prison cell audio tour, which by the way was ultracool. Everyone got a headset and we all walked around like zombies, guided by different voices in all over the place. The audio even included inside trivia provided by former inmates. On our way out, we stumbled upon a elderly man in the souvenir shop, he had been in for bank robber and did time from 1959-1963. Torkjell bought his book and got it signed.
Torkjell walks the line…
After spending more than a week in LA, meeting with Tommy’s relatives it was finally my time to meet some Svangtuns! Last night in SF, Carl Svangtun, my dad’s cousin flew in from Vancouver for a business meeting the next day. I had never met Carl before, but we’ve emailed a few times over the past years. Carl was superfriendly and very generous as he invited to a nice sushi place, buying us food, drinks and loading off a few clean Canadian jokes. We certainly had fun that night, and o’boy did we have a quiet and sleepy trip back to LA. As soon as we entered the bus Tommy hit the seat and slept ALL the way to LA. Thanks Carl!
at last…Our first YouTube video… a Seinfeld tribute (push play!):
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