San Francisco - Days 1 & 2

It is now time to share with you my Thanksgiving weekend. As it was a 4-day weekend and I have lots of things to say, I split it in two parts... Let's go for the first one: Days 1 & 2.

In the USA, Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday of November. This is a holiday, and many people, just like me, take a day off on the Friday to make a 4-day weekend. It was for me an occasion to travel far from Miami. At first I wanted to discover a city I didn't already know, like Chicago. But my friends Romain (from ENSICA) and Kevin (his roomate) convinced me that it was the only weekend we had to go to the West Coast. They wanted to discover San Francisco, a city where I had already spent almost two months in the past years. But people who have been there know that this city is one of the most amazing in America and may be in the world, thus it wasn't too hard for my friends to convince me... As you can see below, SF isn't a bad place to spend some holidays...

We left Miami on Wednesday November 24th at 8 pm. Our plane departed with a delay of 2 hours due to a technical issue...

We eventually arrived 1 hour late in SFO. We decided to go to sleep (it was 1:00 am, 4:am East Time!) in order to wake up early on Thursday to enjoy Turkey Day.

Our hostel was located in San Francisco Downtown, near Union Square (shopping district) and Powell Station, derparture of the world-famous cable car. Very nice location, very convenient too.

We woke up early on Thursday and, after a quick breakfast, reached Fisherman's Wharf with our first (and not the last!) cable car ride of the weekend. This is actually a great attraction. In spite of the cold, it is an amazing way to commute, feel like you are in an old movie by standing on the running board, hurtling the steep streets of San Francisco... And views from the cable car are very nice.

The cable car took us to Fisherman's Wharf, a very touristic place in front of Alcatraz. This is where I spent most of my time when I was studying English in San Francisco since my school was located at the very end of the cable car line.

We walked along the street to Pier 49, a nice shopping place.

There we also saw some sealions, but less than in the summer. When I came before, all the boards were full of that lazy but funny animal. it's possible to spend hours just watching them sleeping, playing and screaming...

After this first walk on Fisherman's Wharf, we climbed Telegraph Hill to the Coit Tower (don't ask me why it is called like that).

We wanted to enjoy the view from the top of the tower but it was closed due to elevator maintenance, but the view from the hill is nice as well, as you can see below.

From there we headed to the famous Lobard Street (yes, everything is famous in San Francisco) to reach the "Croockedest Street". On our way we passed by a church where Marilyn Monroe got married...

On Lombard Street, just one block before Hyde Street, there is what I called the "Crookedest Street". I don't need to explain where this nickname comes from, pictures are better:

Arrived on Hyde Street, we decided to go back to Fisherman's Wharf to eat. Even if we were only four blocks away from our destination, we took a cable car again to go there!

On the wharf we first had a Breadbowl Clam Chowder, one of the specialties of San Francisco Bay Area. Then we entered a restaurant to taste another local specialty, the Dungeness Crab. Well, that was a good lunch.

A short walk took us to the Ghirardelli chocolate factory...we were not that hungry anymore, but I can say these chocolates are good!

After that, we wanted to visit Chinatown...and guess what? A cable car took us there!

San Francisco's Chinatown is the second largest Chinatown in the USA just after New York City. A Chinatown is a little unbelievable because it is a real chinese city in the heart of an american city. When we asked people for directions, they don't even speak English!

Anyway, we followed Grant Street all along Chinatown, made some cheap shopping (one t-shirt = $1.88...nice!) and arrive at the end of Chinatown just near Union Square.

Back in our hostel, we found a nice restaurant just next door to eat turkey, like every American on Thanksgiving...or may be not every American. As we can see in San Francisco, many of them can't afford a turkey. Misery is omnipresent in there, beggars too...

We spent the end of the night visiting some bars in...Castro, the capital of the world gay movement. It was a little bit strange to go out there with two other guys, thus we just spent enough time to drink one beer and one mojito while some guys were staring at us, making us feel kind of uncomfortable...

Before we went to sleep, we entered an electro club near the hostel. Strange atmosphere too if you are not an electro music fan. It was time to go to sleep..

We woke up early again on the Friday because we had rented a car for the day.

We were in the store at by 10:00 am. The schedule was to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin County, on the other side of the bay, in order to drive on a great scenic road.

First stop: before crossing on the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked a little bit under the bridge, visited Fort Point (a fort defending the entrance of the bay) then went on the bridge... This was very cold but less windy than when I came in the summer, and also impressive. The towers are almost 230 meters high and you are 73 meters above the water when you enjoy the view of San Francisco from the deck.

This is also the most photographed bridge in the world, and I think I have largely contributed to that during that day (and in 2009, and in 2008), as you can see below...

A view from the bridge:

Driving on the Golden Gate:

Before the lunch, we had the time to drive on the scenic road on the other side of the bridge, where the view is just outstanding: the red shape of the bridge standing out of the blue sea with Downtown San Francisco as a background... Probably the most beautiful view of the bridge. And on the bay.

A quick view of the other side of the hill...

...and we decided to come back there for the sunset.

As we were hungry we drove to Sausalito, a small but charming and peaceful city right on the bay. We ate seafoods in one of the numerous restaurant built above the water, with a magnificent sight on the bay.

One coffee later, we were back in the car. We drove to a small beach of the Marin Headlands, on the Pacific side.

Then it was time to go back on the overlook to try to catch the sunset and probably nice colors on the bridge. Unfortunately some clouds decided we wouldn't see a real sunset...

By the way, I'm always speaking about a bridge, but I'm not sure you know how it looks like...? Some pictures may help you to figure out:

The night came early, it was time to give the car back. This night we ate a big hamburger then we went to Mission District, the latin neighborhood of San Francisco. Two pitchers of a very good sangria made us a bit tired...we went back to the hostel to get some rest before the two other days we would stay in SF.

To be continued...