January 31, 2009 by Harry
It
has been a long time between updates, but this week we will be catching
up a bit, so you can see where we have been this year, what happened
with my knee and much more!
We spent about 6 weeks in and around San Francisco,
a wonderful city in many ways. I will write a few posts about this as I
want to share many pictures, so we will be hopping back and forth in
time a bit 
SF: entering and viewing the city
After crossing the Golden Gate we stuck to the shoreline, not only
to avoid the heavy traffic, but also the steep hills! Yes, it is true:
due to the fact that some smart city planner placed the standard
grid-model on top of a hilly place, some of the roads are incredibly
steep, a few more than 30%! Still the place is bicycle friendly, with
bike lanes and-routes and off the main roads, the traffic is much more
relaxed and there are many cyclists.
Touring SF
We had met our new host Mitch at a CouchSurfing
meeting and he not only offered us a place to stay, but also took us on
some city tours, so we could get an idea of the place. As he is a great
photographer, we also finally got some images of ourselves!
.
Views from the Twin Peaks (we summited :), the old but still running
Streetcars and the famous Lombard Street, though it is not the curviest
street nor the steepest, it is fun to go down it. We spent the evening
playing ‘Rockband’ with Mitch, which was fun
.
Later, in January, we spent some more time with Mitch. We drank
Belgian beers, ate in Chinatown, walked to his friends house Downtown
and we had some great ‘mate’ on one of the western beaches before
dinner in a Burmese restaurant. SF is great, it is small enough to be
able to cycle around, but every neighbourhood is different and there
are many nice places to hang out or relax.
Culture & science
We also stayed a few days with Nate & Kim,
who lived quite close to Mitch, also in the Latino-flavoured lively
Mission District. Besides taking us to one of the best Mexican
restaurants, we also took advantage of the free museum day in SF, visiting the small Yerba Buena, the huge MOMA and the tiny Cartoon Museum before heading back on the bus.
.
Ivana managed to get into the new Academy of Science Museum
on the free Wednesday (otherwise $25), but when I arrived an hour later
after seeing the doctor, the line was so long that it was no use. She
enjoyed it a lot and will post pictures on her blog soon.
We also spent time (drinking Belgian beers) in Little Italy, Japan
town, Chinatown and Bernal Heights; every part has its own culture and
diversity of people and places, while being completely free of
strip-malls and McDonalds and such, SF is a good as a US city gets.
Tomorrow, in the next part: pain, ethics and doctors, civil rights and microcredits!
