San Francisco Day One

So the flight went well over night, managed to get a few hours sleep, but not much.  Landed in San Fran about 10am local time (5.30am NZ).  It was incredibly easy going through customs etc, quick fingerprint buzz, take a photo, have a chat and then off you go, I was expecting more,  I walked out the door I was directed to and I was in the airport.  Took me a while to sort out getting a shuttle, and finding where they were etc, but I was at my hostel and checked in just before midday.   Pretty nice place and the staff are really friendly.  I had a quick shower and a bit of a freak out about what I should do next, and then went to talk to the woman at reception about what i should do on my first day.  I ended up wandering into the city, I'm about two blocks from union square, so I checked out the shops and stuff around there and then jumped on a bus out to Haight/Ashbury.  Haight and Ashbury is a really cool spot, (Birth of the hippie era around these parts - if you didn't know) so it's got an amazing history.  I checked out some shops there, well mainly this awesome music store called Amoeba Music, that had shit loads of vinyl, cd's dvd's and even tapes ha ha, I spent most of my time checking out the hip hop section, which was incredible, but didn't end up making any purchases.

I then went and walked around Golden Gate Park for a few hours.  Some shifty guy asked if I wanted to buy any weed, but I told him "No Thanks, I'm O.K" and kept walking.  (Turns out you smell marijuana everywhere in this city, it seems to just waft around on the breeze, it's crazy - Even watched a man on the bus who appeared to be homeless, giving a bunch of weed to a random stranger that he got chatting to, no body seemed too fussed about the whole situation, but it certainly made me crack up a little.) Any way back to Golden Gate Park, Its a massive park, I have developed my first blister and haven't even been here for 12 hours yet.  I went and checked out the Japanese Tea Gardens - it was pretty amazing, awesome trees and statues and shrines and stuff.  I then went and checked out the California Academy of Sciences - which is sort of like a museum, that has an aquarium and a Brazilian rain forest and stuff inside it.  The coolest thing was the "Living Roof", hard to explain but here's a photo, looks kinda like where the Telly Tubbies live. 

and here are a couple of snaps from the Japanese Tea Garden

So spent a few hours out there, then walked around Haight ashbury for a bit longer, bought a T-shirt from a cool little store there, then bused back into the city.  Once back at Union Square area, I checked out a few more stores and ended up finding the Nike store.  SO AWESOME! Three levels, and heaps of rad gears.  I ended up buying a Jordan Sweatshirt and a dope pair of low cut Jordans.   I then went and brought a six pack of Becks (Only $10) and am back at the Hostel writing this up, almost 7pm local time.   All in all it was a pretty busy first day - and I am loving every second of it, the weather is nice and warm, but every now and then a fog blows in off the ocean and it gets quite chilly.  Not sure what the evening has in store - I am yet to go and check out the basement of the hostel - where there is a bar and tonight they are doing karaoke,  (if you sing you get free beer!) So might go and do that.  I have put my name down for a free walking tour tomorrow, run by the hostel, so i might be able to get some photos with me in them hopefully.  Anyways, thats the first day - It has been an absolute blast and I don't feel jet lagged at all.  Here's a couple more random pics from today........ until next time.  D-Mizzle.

The Robotic Snake from Anaconda!!

The 'Living Roof' from inside the building.

Some Random Graf - Took heaps more pictures of local street art - but will save them for another time.