San Fransisco
The trip from Portland was interesting. We have month long rail passes with the local (and only) operator AMTRAK. Well, lets just say they are almost as good as the bus service in Hawaii!
Basically there is a lot of variety between their customer service agents. Some are excellent and even friendly - the rest well...
So we rocked up for our short rail trip (4-6hrs) as told by AMTRAK and our hostel in SanFran. Arrived 17 HOURS LATER (inlcuding 1.5 hours late). Lost our deposit on hostel room and had no booking for following night! Fun. Was great to finally brush teeth though.
Once we settled in San Fran is our favourite city so far. Just a cool vibe, lots of openminded areas and a lovely, pretty city to boot! Stayed in a hostel where we had separate rooms and were forbidden to visit eachother or bring alcohol into building. Plus there were about 50, 13 year olds on school camp screaming for their lives. Felt like we were in Alcatraz so got the heck out of there!
Hired bikes for 8 hours and rode to golden gate bridge and under and around scenic (steep) drive on cliffs with tiny (none) bike paths! Was hairy at times and Dani rode brakes almost all the way down. J was thinking he was a BMX bandit taking off his shirt and riding with no hands. On the way back after Presidio and Golden Gate Parks (magic) we ventured off track (read: got lost). The return journey (3hrs) was spent going right through the middle of the city in peak hour UP and DOWN those enourmous hills until we found Fisherman's Wharf! What a ride! And they aren't big on stack hats here either.
Hung out in the Itialian and Mexican areas and in The Castro and around Haight Ashbury where we were lucky enough to catch this really cool annual street party with lots of food and music and dancing and excellent people watching!
We joined a walking tour at the hostel with a guy who is firmly stuck in the late 60's and had an intersting manner. After he took about 10mins to say 2 words most of the group deserted. J and D hung in there (with 3 others) and were rewarded (?) with a detour into the house of his friends in the Castro. We all held hands in a friendship circle and gave thanks for our day, then we had a message stick session where we all spoke in turn about our travels and experiences so far. Was weird but harmless. Not sure what we expected!
Had a night out at a blues club which was fun. Met two travellers the next night who are living in their car. They were a great laugh. One was American and the other English. There was a significant age gap and one snores - you could see where there might be tension even though both are very chilled out guys! At the end of the night they just went out front and got into bed - we had to walk miles home!
Next we went to Yosemite National Park. This was an incredible experience. Went with a small group with local tour operator and awesome guide Aaron. Nice bunch of people. Great meals, drinking by the fire, relaxing in jaccuzi under the stars at night - surreal. Went to Sequoia groves to admire enormous and really old trees. Rode mountain bikes down really really steep cliffs and jumped off rocks into freshwater river and beautiful cool clear waters. Did a few small walks one day then a full day hike (easy) on the mist trail. The scenery was indescribable. So green and lush and waterfalls everywhere and big river rocks. Loads of squirrels but no bears unfortunately. On the last night D,J, Aaron and Karen from Surrey had a few drinks and slept on hilltop under stars. Shooting stars everywhere and the sound of howling cyotees (spelling) in the distance. An unforgettable trip.
