San Francisco and bringing it home

So to the last two weeks of my trip. San Francisco was an amazing city, there were all kinds of trips and events on offer - though I was acutely conscious of my fast dwindling budget so opted to do only free things. This meant I scaled almost the entire city by foot. I did not once take a subway/tram/bus/taxi or the like. As it goes, I was not only incredibly lucky with weather in Seattle but also in SF. Someone was smiling on me for once.

I did a lot of window shopping.

I walked the length and breadth of Market Avenue, with no particular agenda other than to see as much as humanly possible on foot. I found an amazing old arcade near Fisherman's Wharf which provided all manner of entertainment all for the price of a quarter or two. I experienced some impressive street art, saw (and smelt) seals, enjoyed the sea, took in the bridges, ports and boats. I had considered hiring a bike to cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge, but at $25 for the day it was well out of my price range. I was lucky (again!) enough to be in San Fran on the free museum days so got myself to the MOMA for an afternoon.

The hostel I was staying in had a massive communal area up front, which was pretty nice considering; so my evenings were usually spent hanging out here with a few tinnies from the corner shop opposite. Keeping it cheap there.

On my third day in SF Tyler arrived from London at around midnight, so we found ourselves in a 24 hour 1950s diner called Lori's eating veggie burgers and onion rings and drinking beer.

The next day was spent at an incredibly bizarre exhibition by Nick Cave - think all-in-one knitted body suits crossed with Sesame Street on acid - and finding our hire car. Having had a break from behind the wheel (for approximately 5 years) I was glad that cars in the US do all the gear shifting for you.

The highlight of that day was driving over the Golden Gate bridge at dusk, on the way to the Sonoma Valley to drink some of that Californian wine you always hear about.