More San Fran Shinanigan's

So got up this morning, mucked around for a bit and then waited in the lobby to join the free hostel walking tour at 10am.  It was awesome, a local guy by the name of Brendon walked us around and showed us a bunch of spots around town. First we wandered down to Union Square where I had this photo taken;

We then went up to China Town, Which is apparently one of the first and largest China towns in America, it was really cool, lots of good sights and smells. We went down a tiny alleyway, that I'm sure you wouldn't go down normally and Brendon pointed out where the first fortune cookie was made and invented.  Not only that, but the fortune cookie was invented by a Japanese guy - hard case, I never knew that!!  This was also when I found out that Amy Winehouse had died, I didn't particularly care to much, but I think it is amusing that i will never forget where I was when I found out ha ha.

This little store front above is the fortune cookie place, there are a bunch of people inside stuffing little bits of paper into cookies - they make 20,000 a  day!                                                                                                                                          

Next we went down an alleyway and checked out the "City Lights Bookstore" this is where the whole "Beat Poet" and writers era occurred. I think the alleyway was called Jack Kerouac Lane.  It had a few quotes from him placed in the concrete down the lane.  Right opposite the bookstore was a little bar called Vusuvio.  Back in the 60's everyone wanted to be around these new exciting writers that were challenging the system and writing about drugs and free love and stuff, so this bar was a hang out for all sorts of people such as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Grateful Dead etc.  It was a pretty awesome place.

Next we took a walk up this seriously step hill, up to a place called Coit Tower.  This is named after a woman called Lillie Coit, who was a socialite back in the day, when San Fran was first being built.  There was a major fire on the hill and they were short of man power, so she volunteered and went up and helped them. The fire service became her life's work, and she ended up doing heaps of work and fundraising etc for them.  She sounds like a really cool lady, she would shave her head and wear men's wigs because she loved to gamble and smoke cigars and as a woman wasn't allowed into those sort of places. When she died she left 1/3 of her fortune to the City of San Francisco, so that they could beautify the city.  They placed the Coit tower on the top of a steep hill, and that is where we walked next.  Here is a picture of me going up the hill (I have added heaps more photo's to my facebook page, so if your enjoying reading my blog and want to see some more pics etc, check em out there.  The photos should be easy to recognise after reading this.)

We then kept walking to the top, and took some photo's of the view and the Golden Gate bridge in the distance and stuff.  From here we walked back down the other side, and wander through Levi Strauss plaza.  This is where Levi's became famous, as he was supplying jeans to the miners in the area.  It is now the headquarters of Levi's and has some really nice gardens and stuff.  We then continued down to the waterfront area, which is madness.  So busy with people bustling about all over the place, taking tours to Alcatraz, eating crabs and clam chowder and stuff.  This was the end of the walking tour (took about 2 and a half hours) and we were free to do what we please from there,  I ended up going out for lunch with an Australian guy and a Canadian guy.  Turns out that all people know about New Zealand is that we had an earthquake and the All Blacks are from there. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, I ended up telling the guy that's the way we like it, and that we just chill out, drinks pints and fly under the world radar. :-)

Anyway's these two wanted to head back to the hostel and I wasn't done with looking around the wharf, so I parted ways with them and continued looking around.  This is when I came across 'Bushman', in Wellington we have 'Blanketman' here they have 'Bushman' he sits and hides behind a bush and then jumps out and scares unaware tourists, so funny!! here he is;

He has heaps of tourists hanging around watching people getting a fright, so when you are walking along, you kinda wonder why all these people are videoing, while you are busy wondering that out he pops with a hiss and a raw, its so classic and he makes a pretty good earn out of it.  While I'm on the subject, there are heaps of homeless people all over San Fran, its quite out of it, cause you don't really see it as much at home.  They don't really bother you to much though, although I did have an interesting experience outside the hostel, but will tell you about that a bit later on.  Another couple of things - just as a side point - I constantly find myself waiting to cross the street and gazing around at the various sights, and almost miss the cross signals, there is no noise, no buzzer, no beeping, just a light with a countdown, so I often look back and people are in the process of crossing, so I hustle myself over the road.  Also, I am always trying to figure out which way the traffic is going, it sounds like a simple thing, but when your used to it being one direction your whole life, and then it is flipped around, it really gets you.  I haven't been close to getting run over or anything, but I have had a bit of a fright a couple of times.  So Anyway, I was really keen to go to Alcatraz, but it turns out at this time of year you need to book in advance.  Your only other alternative is to get to the wharf at 5.30am and line up for the first sailing which is at 9am.

Even if you queue at that time they only take the first 50 people, so I decided that that was a crappy idea, and jumped on a small boat that took trips out and under the golden gate bridge and around Alcatraz.  Way cheaper option and still heaps of fun.  The reserved tourists on the boat found it hilarious when I struck this pose, the guys running the boat thought it was awesome though and took a bit of a shining towards me.  Had a good chat with them about various things, and I brought up the Giants game that is on tonight.  They told me if I go outside the stadium and wait i will probably get offered a ticket for cheap or even free - they reckon as a 'kiwi' I would get looked after and it is a heaps cheaper way of doing things.  (Long day though, so not up to it tonight - but there is another game tomorrow afternoon, might try it on then.)

Above, a photo of Alcatraz (again there are heaps more photo's on my Facebook page) and here is one of me on the boat with the city behind me. 

So yeah I got off the boat and walked back down the wharf towards town.  My eyes are constantly bugging out of my head as I walk along.  I came across a small stage where they were holding auditions, to find people to sing the National Anthem before the 49'er games.  So hard case, 3 hours of people singing the same song, over and over again, and Americans cant get enough of it.  Suffice to say I didn't hang around there long, watched two performances and that was enough for me, after each one the crowd that had gathered would go nuts, cheering and yahooing ha ha.  They were really good singers though.

then while wondering back down the wharf, a huge black man riding a Harley Davidson caught my attention, he was blasting music form his motorbike and due to my 'New York State of Mind' I had to video it, (having trouble uploading it here, but will add it to facebook or something as well)

So next I walked back through the city center, I went to Macy's and sorted out my visitors 10% discount (They have a visitors centre where you show your passport and they give you a card)  I brought some sunglasses, some shorts, socks and boxer shorts, probably all the clothes shopping I will do here for now, until I hit the outlet stores in NY, not the best at shopping for things by myself and appreciate a second opinion, so figure I will wait till I'm with the family and the rest of the crew in New York.  By now my feet were killing me, my new kicks served me well, but the miles I put in were paying the price, so I decided to cruise back to the Hostel, once there I sat outside and had a cigarette, (I'm intending on giving up - and have been cutting down heaps, but do enjoy one now and then, nice to sit and just chill for a bit.) this is where the homeless woman I alluded to early comes in.  She was a hard out crack head, she asked me for twenty dollars, and said she had nineteen dollars in quarters but needed notes to catch the train, blah blah, scam, blah etc.  I told her I had no notes on me, and she proceeded to sit down beside me.  She then asked if i had any cigarettes, so i gave her one of those, that's when I noticed the glass pipe in her hand, that she had been smoking crack cocaine out of, she started mumbling about having awesome coke, and started picking her teeth and other parts of her body (a real full on addict) she then continued mumbling about needing money and went on a prostitution rant - I'm sure you can imagine - I promptly put out my cigarette and wished her a nice day, and then got the FUCK out of there.  Back into the hostel.  Where I now sit, drinking Becks and writing my blog. Had a shower when I got to my room, and it turns out I got quite a bit of sun today, minor sunburn that should turn into a tan pretty quickly I hope (didn't hurt too much in the shower).  Have decided to flag the baseball tonight, but might go back into town later and check out Captain America in 3D or "Real 3D" - not sure what the difference is, but there are two types of screenings.  So thanks for reading my blog, hope its not too long or boring for ya. I will write some more tomorrow.  All in all though I am having the time of my life! Peace out yo.

Miz