San Francisco Journeys

Ever since the gold rush San Francisco has been a place where people come to reinvent themselves. San Francisco is the city by the bay, the liberal utopia. San Francisco is in the north of california and the city is on the peninsula where the Pacific Ocean meets San Francisco Bay. San Francisco is supposed to be foggy but the weather is often sunny. The district of North Beach is just near downtown and you can find somewhere to stay for about fifty dollars a night. You might get a cabin on a rooftop.

San Francisco Cable Cars

The trams go up and down the hills are not just a tourist thing, the locals use them to get to work and get around the city. It costs about six dollars for an all day ride on a cable car. Next stop for Chinatown. San Francisco is the biggest Chinatown and the chinese came during the gold rush. Chinatown is like a city inside a city. There is chinese written everywhere and chinese spoken everywhere. Go and get a Chinese meal for a fair dinkum taste of real china. The original chinatown first started in the square. Eat your dim sums with chopsticks in the park. Most of the people still speak cantonese. In many of the parks in the city, people are practicing tai chi in the morning.

The italian quarter is near north beach. During the sixties it was the area for the beatniks and was a mecca for the beat poets. Kerouac made up the name beat for beatitude and that is why he drank so much to reach a state of bliss. Bohemians in San Francisco are on the edge of the ocean and at the last frontier. YOu can go and listen to beat poets in a cafe today.

San Francisco Alcatraz

Alcatraz is one of the hottest tourist attractions in the whole USA. In the 1930's all the big crime bosses did time here and it is said that no-one escaped from Alcatraz through the shark-infested waters of San Francisco Bay. You can go on an audio tour listening on a walkman as you walk around the alcatraz prison. In the hospital, the birdman of alcatraz stayed there. You can go to solitary confinement if you have been real bad. And they will lock you up and throw away the key.

There are lots of internet cafes where you can find what the cool things to do are. Each year you can go on the cyber bus where they stage art and street theatre events all night. The space walk is the best way to get around San Francisco. The people on the walk stage events and the police come and move them on.

Alternative San Francisco

You can take a day trip to Muir Woods on the Green tortoise bus which has been running cheap tours for years since the seventies. Everyone gets to share everything and there is a funnel for a pee. At Muir Woods there is a land that time forgot. The redwood trees are about a thousand years old and they grow to two hundred feet tall. The redwoods trees are considered immortal. MOst of the trees were logged years ago in other parts.

Just south of the San Francisco city center is the Castro, the most famous center for gay people. Cruising the castro is a tour of the gay scenes in San Francisco. The castro street area is where the gay community own and control it. The names project is a quilt that has been a commemoration of the people that died from AIDS.

Earthquakes in San Francisco are a big issue and everyone is waiting for the next earthquake. If an earthquake happens get out of the way of the falling glass. South west of the financial district is Haight-Ashbury. In the sixties this was the center of the hippy universe. There are still a lot of people that come here for the flower power theme park. The Red Victorian bed and breakfast is the last vestige of hippy culture left in San Francisco. You can get a room that will make you laugh. The flower child room is so colourful and done up in a real sixties style. Tune in turn on and drop out baby.

Golden Gate Park is big and beautiful and has ducks. Hard core vegans love to eat in the park. There are seals that go ark ark bark. The last friday of every month bikes some out to stop traffic and it is called critical mass. Oil is being used too much. The cycle route is kept a secret until the last minute just to keep the motorists off guard.

Just south of San Francisco is the mission district and it was founded by monks hoping to convert the native folk. The Mission is one of the city's most vibrant neighbourhoods. It has an earthy working class Latino feel and smells of Latin America. You can get a taco and other good mexican food. At night in the park there is a celebration of the dead. The day of the dead honours all those who died and happens in february each year. It takes a day to celebrate all your ancestors in the Mission. Some people dress up and dance and drum.

The beaches are cold and foggy and it is not advisable to swim but the surfers are still out there getting sick waves in their wet suits. Pacifica is a good beach to learn to surf and you can take lessons so you can catch a tube. The water is freezing and the waves are dumping and closing out.

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