Day 1: The Upper West Side

Orange County and San Francisco, September 2006

DAY 6 – SAN FRANCISCO

I flew into Oakland late yesterday afternoon and after half an hour on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport System), I was making my way out of Powell Station and dodging the street hustlers. From Powell I headed four blocks towards Union Square and my hotel, which is in a really cool location on the corner of Taylor and Post, just two blocks from the square. My room is a good size with a fridge, microwave and free WiFi - very cool for £30 per night. I was planning to watch some punk bands at Stinky’s Peep Show tonight, but it seems that the show is off until next week, so I just bought a couple of Anchor Steam beers which I drank while watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

After my early night last night I was up pretty early today. From my hotel I struck out east to Union Square and then north towards China Gate and up through China Town. I’d kind of forgotten how big San Francisco’s China Town is, perhaps as big as China Town in New York, but a lot more pleasant.

Union Square

China Gate

Chinese Statue

As China Town peters out to the north, the views of the bay and particularly the Oakland Bridge grow nicer. As I headed towards Coit Tower, I heard an exotic sounding squawk that seemed a little out of place amongst the pine trees. It turned out to be the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill, who have now been immortalized in film. After shooting some photos, I headed up the steps to the tower, which has awesome views of the bay. On each step were the names of families who lost their lives during the 1906 earthquake and there were a lot of steps. I guess it should be scary to think that a quake could happen again at any time, but on this beautiful and peaceful day its impossible to imagine.

View From Telegraph Hill

Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Coit Tower

After my excursion I did a couple of hours work on my thesis, a chapter of which I really want to send to Geoff this week, but not before doing my Spurlocking duty. Today it was Quiznos - the Australian Subway. Quiznos push their sandwiches based on how much more filling they give you than Subway - and it’s true. My veggie sub was bursting with guacamole, black olives, cheese and salad. It was pretty damn good too, maybe an 8/10. Anyway, I’m off to the 7/11 for some more Anchor Steam. I’ll be meeting up with Richard tonight for drinks, which should be a lot of fun.

Quiznos

DAY 7 – The Autumn Moon Festival

Last night was wicked. We started with a couple of beers in an Irish bar near Union Square, then up into China Town for Dim Sum (fried turnip cakes, egg custard rolls, steamed vegetable dumplings and Chinese beer). After dinner, we headed up Columbus into what might loosely be called Little Italy. We stopped at Vesuvio’s Café for a few beers before heading back down towards Union Square via a funky little Czech place that had a good female-fronted folk act on.

We met up again this morning and headed on over to the Autumn Moon Festival that was being held in China town. The festival is big in China where it celebrates the first day of autumn and this is the first year that it’s run in San Francisco. There were lots of dancing dragons, drums, fireworks and traditional stores. I bought a batch of ‘moon cakes’ a traditional sweet pastry stuffed with lotus leaves, sesame and topped with egg - they were pretty nice.

Dragons

Curious George

A Gay Dog

One of the more dubious acts at the Chinese Moon Festival was ‘Dennis’ some poor kid whose singing is apparently a big hit in San Francisco. He’s flanked in these photos by the winners of various ‘Miss Asian’ beauty pageants who mostly just stood there looking awkward. My sister had asked me to buy her ‘a really big Buddha statue’ and I found a wicked one at a festival store. He’s now helping maintain my San Francisco Nirvana with the help of Anchor Steam.

Today’s Spurlock was Carl’s Jr. Carl’s is even less vegetarian friendly than Jack in the Box, with no Veggie mains. There were plenty of side orders though. I had criss-cross fries, onion rings and fried zucchini. The latter in particular was very good, kind of like chicken nuggets. I give Carl’s a high 7 out of 10. OK, well I’ve done my couple of hours of thesis for today, so now its off over to Fisherman’s Wharf for drinks.

Dennis

My Nirvana

Carl’s JR.

DAY 8 – The Financial District and Bicycle Thief!

As we walked over to Fisherman’s Wharf through the financial district I snapped a few shots. San Francisco’s financial district may not be as large as New York’s but it still has some appealing architecture:

Transamerica Pyramid

Random Skyscraper

Toward Fisherman’s Wharf

As we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf, the weather began to change, growing chilly as the fog rolled in. We explored the wharf and Pier 39. The candy shop there was the only place I’d seen ‘Nerds’ (little sour crunchy candies) since I was a kid, so I had to buy some. After the pier we nipped into the International House of Pancakes to warm up before walking back along Columbus. Even though we ate at IHOP I don’t think I can rate it based upon a single short stack of pancakes, so I’ll try to revisit it when I return to America in November. As we passed the Church of Saint Peter and Paul we noticed a big crowd of people who were gathering for a film in Washington Square. After grabbing our jackets and a bottle of wine we settled in for the show. The film was a cool Italian movie with subtitles called “The Bicycle Thief” and I’d highly recommend it. After the film, we walked down Columbus, stopping in Little Italy where we had pizza and beer.

IHOP

Church of St. Peter & Paul

Bicycle Thief

DAY 9 – The Golden Gate and Around

I write this final entry from my United Airlines flight to Chicago from where I connect to Manchester. Today has been frantic and farcical in equal measure. I woke up late, rushed to the BART which was also running late, got on the wrong shuttle train at SFO and arrived to find a two-hour check-in queue that I had less than an hour to pass. Thankfully the understanding people at United let me queue-jump, but my tribulations weren’t over yet; oh no. My bag was now too heavy to check, perhaps because of my sister’s giant Buddha, so I had to split stuff up at check-in. I got through security with about 10 minutes to spare and raced across the terminal to my gate… before realizing I’d left my passport and boarding pass back at security. I *just* made the flight.

My last day in San Francisco was fantastic. I met up with Richard around lunch time at our customary meeting spot on the steps opposite the war memorial in Union square. We decided to walk out along the bay and across the Golden Gate, so we first hopped a bus over to Fisherman’s Wharf, where we had lunch at ‘In ‘n Out Burger’. I was really looking forward to adding ‘In ‘n Out’ to my Spurlocking list, but unfortunately they didn’t have anything veggie friendly. I contented myself with a chocolate milk-shake and their foamy fries, but they weren’t much good. I’d say 2/10. From Fisherman’s Wharf we headed west along the coast, stopping of at Ghirardelli Square for a bite or two of their famous chocolate before heading on up the coast road, from which the views were magnificent:

View of the Bay

Alcatraz

View of Coite Tower

Unfortunately as we approached the Golden Gate, the fog began to roll in and soon the whole bridge was obscured, though the views back toward the city remained nice:

Richard

The Golden Gate

San Francisco Cityscape

Just before we turned back, by the hill that leads to the bridge we saw a classic bit of Americana. A cop pulled up in his cruiser and jumped out. He fit the American cop stereotype to the letter, being overweight with a crew cut. As he ran away form his car he forgot to let go of the dashboard radio transmitter which upon reaching the end of its stretchy cable jerked him back towards the car almost knocking him off his feet. The radio was now trapped in the locked car door and I couldn’t help but chuckle as he tried to untangle it. Who says American cops are dumb?

After returning to the city I did some last-minute holiday shopping before dinner in a nice Italian Diner on Mason. Unfortunately, due to my 11AM flight out (which I was late enough for anyway as it would turn out), I couldn’t stay out drinking for very long, though I did try what is supposedly San Francisco’s best Bloody Mary. Whether or not it was the best, it was certainly the scariest cocktail that I’ve ever seen, with more garnish than a typical salad, including: a celery stick, pickled asparagus, olive and pickled onion. The cocktail itself was pretty good when I finally got to it. I think Richard snapped a photo of the beast which I’ll nab as soon as he uploads it. Anyway, my battery runs low and I’m getting close to Chicago, so this is me signing off for the final time. California was great and I’m not looking forward to returning to the rainy English autumn :-(