Frisco fever

We return to fill in the gaps of our previous brief visits to peninsula city of San Francisco. Frisco is again good to us with the weather and for the next six days its sun and blue skies all the way. T-shirt weather at the beginning of February, excellent.
First stop is Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. It feels like a totally different place around here and is bit more tacky than I expected but it's not unpleasant. Fish-based food galore and shops selling varieties of rubbish along the pier. Decent views over the bay can be had from the pier and of the seal population that have moved in since 1990. The noisy seals have increased over the years due to the sheltered location from the bay and now many laze about year round on the floating docks.
We walk and a tramp approaches, 'Hey man, I've been lazing about in the sun all day so I'm a bit behind, can you spare any change?'. As if. Later I see him in a 7-11 buying booze, what a life!
We move around in motels to keep the costs down and end up in a slightly dodgy area for 2 nights. This is where we see another side of San Francisco. I'd heard that it was notorious for homeless but hadn't really seen too many until now. Walking along Market Street was like entering into a third world country. It was all a bit odd, especially as the flash Museum of Modern Art is located here amongst the vagrants.

The museum is funky looking from inside and has all the major artists works from the last hundred years or so from Warhol to Pollock to Picasso and Dali. Another lucky free entry day for us saves us the whopping $13 fee.
We'd already been to another free museum day that morning at the Legion of Honor with plenty of classic works and great views across the bay and of that bridge.
After leaving the Museum of Modern Art we take a look around the nearby grand buildings and realise that the United Nations are not only based here but were formed here. Funny that as there are scores of homeless scattered around on the floor and staggering around randomly shouting. The United Nations right on the edge of slumsville USA, what a joke.


More free stuff the next day at the Zoo. I don't like Zoos but as this was free and the fairly recent incident of a tiger attacking and killing someone intrigued my morbid side I had to have a look. The tiger and lion closure was typically shut anyway. The whole thing was dull and it seemed like there were more animals walking around throwing Doritos and humongous fizzy drinks down their necks than actually in the cages.
As we enter the Zoo a guy asks, 'How much would you pay for a hammer?'. 'I don't want a hammer.' 'Yeah, but how much would you pay for one? Where are you from?'. I said England and he just looked at me oddly and carried on walking. I can't even begin to understand what is going on in this country.


Next it was time to get to one of America's most infamous landmarks, Alcatraz. At least no tramps will have made their way across here. Although people did escape from this island prison no-one was ever proved to have made the swim across the frigid bay alive. The ferry ride across shows off both the excellent bridges and the city itself. The island is fairly small but the audio tour around is great stuff and you get to nosey in the tiny cells and see the living conditions of the place.

The most famous inmates here were the Bird Man of Alcatraz and Al Capone. Many high profile criminals were sent here, probably to set an example.
Before becoming a prison it was a fort to keep invaders coming into the bay and attacking and taking over San Francisco. This never happened but one such invasion in the 70's did take place. Some members of the native American population got together to try and reclaim their land back after boating out to the island as at this point it was unused after the prison had officially shut. This lasted until the Federal Government stepped in and cleared them off. The decision was then made to try and preserve the place and make a museum out of it.
Back to land and another landmark of San Francisco, the cable cars. Years ago passenger carts were pulled up the steep hills by horse. You soon realise walking around the place how steep these streets can be. A British bloke witnessed a bad crash when horses slipped whilst struggling with a cart up Clay Hill. He devised a system of pulleys and cables that would take people up the hill without the need for horses. This system grew and grew but was mostly destroyed in one of the large earthquakes that affects San Francisco from time to time. This one was on a massive scale and ruptured gas pipes that started fires that practically burnt the city to the ground. But gold is up in them there hills and the place was rebuilt back to it's glorious self. The cable cars were nearly scrapped altogether in favour of an improved government transport scheme. The people rallied together and saved the cable cars and now they're instilled in all that is Frisco and all that is tourism in the city. We have a look in the cable car museum which shows the running cables underground which the cars grab onto to get pulled around the city. It's a basic system but it works well.
Then we relocate to Lombard Street and immediately into a more upmarket area. The adjacent streets are bustling with boutiques, bars and restaurants. It's a decent place to stroll and thankfully it's also tramp free.
We take in another free but decidedly crap museum of rubbish science and tricks of the eye. However, it's set in the grounds of the great looking Palace of Fine Arts.

A superb round building with European designs, a surrounding lake and up-scale housing.
Then it's to the largest urban park in the US, the Golden Gate Park. It's immense and has many different areas. We walk to the beach whilst hordes of runners and cyclists pant their way past. The beach is busy with kite fliers and the odd surfer hitting the harsh looking waves. It's still a 20 minute or so drive from the city centre but a decent place to get away from it all.
As the city is split into many districts we try and see what we can of most of them. The Mission District is one we had to visit due to it's Mexican flavour. Basically California was under Spanish rule until Mexico won independence and took over. After hordes of American settlers began pouring into the area the Mexicans could do little to stop the steam rolling colonisation of North America. It was then agreed by Mexico to be handed to the USA. Unfortunately for Mexico gold was found soon after, bummer. Anyway, the Mission District is named so as it homes the oldest building in Frisco, Mission Delores. We visit here at night to check out some of the night-life and a free gig event. We wait over an hour for a bus again reaffirming my hatred for public transport. I did also think that if this were Peru I would've been on a bus to my destination at least 55 minutes ago. It turns out that Mission is a bit gritty. Rubbish is strewn across the streets and haggard individuals pushing shopping trolleys filled with belongings isn't uncommon. The gig itself was great and once the venue filled up it became a decent night. I get talking to some random American and we get invited back to a house warming party for a Welsh girl and friends after quaffing an excellent giant burrito in a Mexican place where it was easier to ask in Spanish for what I wanted rather than Lancastrian English.
We go along and have a nosey around the good sized San Francisco Victorian-style home and feel a bit jealous. Decent people but not exactly party animals.
We walk the near empty streets at 4 in the morning in a rush to catch the late night bus. Along the way we get accosted by an insane black woman/man/thing who walks with us at pace for quite some time. She/he/it rants on for a while and looks crazily around with huge white eyes and oversized head. Now and again she/he/it sticks out her tongue in my direction and gives me the nod. 'Excellent' I thought. 'I'm getting the come-on from what could well be a creature from some disgusting horror film or student comedy show.' Then it starts to sing as we walk, badly. As we wait for the bus the nutter goes behind the shelter and pisses on the street. Oh the joy. Thankfully we give he/she/it the slip on the bus. A strange way to end our San Francisco experience but it still didn't manage to dampen my thoughts of this great city. Homelessness is a problem but it's America's problem not just Frisco. This place has grit, chic, natural beauty and man-made excellence. It's got a decent history, as one of America's oldest cities, and it's got the atmosphere and night-life any decent city should. Some areas are rough around the edges but others shine with flashiness and a modern cosmopolitan vibe. One thing remains a constant, those great looking Victorian and European style houses that go on for the length and breadth of the peninsula.
Although in total it's a large place most of it is very walkable, fairly rare in America, and sometimes the transport system works well to get you to the many different colourful districts. Could I live here? Probably, but not for too long. Is it one of the best cities of our trip? Definitely.
As we drive East from the city I suddenly realise we missed out on the most touristy thing of all. Riding on a cable car. Well I suppose that's at least one excuse to go back.