This is the third stop on my first Big World Trip after retirement with my son and it will explore the great city of San Francisco. From being locked up to witnessing the biggest sea gulls I have ever seen.
This post continues on the journey I took with my son in 2010 around the world. If you would like to see the story so far you can start it all here.
LINK: My First World Trip : Where It All Started
The Hostel
I’d always wanted to stay in a backpackers hostel as some of my friends had said even for older people it was a cheap place to get accomodation around the world. Over the years we have found much better accomodation and we will discuss that in future trips.
So after forcing my son to sign up with the international hostels group through our local hostel chain. We booked into the Pacific Tradewinds Backpackers in Chinatown in San Francisco much to his objections that I would not like it. We both think life is for experiencing new things and living though so we gave it a go.
On arrival we found there were four people in each room. They were set out with 2 sets of double bunks and we had one set on one side of the room. The storage was under the bottom bunk with big steel drop down doors that always seemed to be slamming somewhere in the place as people didn’t realise the weight of them. Thank goodness we didn’t have much luggage as we only had carry on and it fit in.
We had a girl in the other top bunk and a guy who’d just come back from hiking through Nepal on the bottom bunk. The girl on the top bunk seemed to be the town bike and both nights she had a friend in tow if you get my meaning. The other guy back from Nepal was not paying being a friend of the manager. He had not bathed in a while and was a white guy with dreads, you know the type. He was a nice person though and did clean himself up.
One of the strange things about this place was that there were no doors on the showers, so my son had to hold up a towel while I took a VERY quick shower. Not something any mother or son wants to experience, but we managed it without either of us getting too scared for the rest of our lives. Bit Weird!!!
The hostel was very noisy but as we were doing a lot of sightseeing each day, we were really tired by the time we had a meal and got back to the hostel. Only had to have the usual shower and hit the hay.
Needless to say that was the one and only time I stayed in a hostel in my life. It had nothing to do with thinking we were above it but when you split the bill between two a twin bed motel or hotel roughly works out the same. But another thing ticked off the list.
As the weather was a bit cold and we hadn’t brought very many warm clothes. We spent a bit of time down in Chinatown scratching through the jackets looking for something that would last us till we got to warmer places.
Hence the iconic bright blue jacket you will see in many of my son’s photos which made him easy to pick out of a crowd. In hindsight it probably just made us more of a target to any would be pickpockets, street hustlers and tourist ticket sellers. They did keep us very warm for the rest of the trip and they even made it home with us. Bargain buy!
Red Bus Tour of San Francisco
My son had already done a lot of travelling and knew the Big Red Tourist busses were a great way to see the major sights in a small amount of time. This was back in the day when they had real tour guide operators and not just a headset and a plug in the bus wall. So each bus you got onto had a different character telling you what was happening.
The above tour guide is one of the many men my son thinks I thought was “A bit of alright” on the many journeys we have shared. While I wouldn’t mind someone to share time with I keep telling him that I am closed for business ;o)
The weather was really great so we took the Red Bus around all the loops, getting off every now and then to check out interesting sights, taking photos, or to find somewhere to eat or to just do a bit of walking.
We took a break near the Palace of Fine Art, such a grand building. Surrounded by a large lake with fountains and manicured parkland. A really nice place to sit and rest the weary feet. We seem to do at least 10 to 20 thousand steps a day touring, so every break is very welcome.
Further on we passed a lot of beautiful old houses, three and four stories high, painted in bright colours and in great order. They are a historical landmark called “The Painted Ladies”. This old part of town survived the 1800 fires.
After wandering around for a while taking the odd photo, we ended up on Nob Hill, what a view of the Bay. While one of my enemies is hills and stairs, the view when you get to the top is always worth it. My son seems to delight in sometimes taking the hardest way up sometimes as you will hear about later in Paris.
Your first trip to San Francisco is not complete without a ride on the trams so jumped on to ride them over the hill.
We then took the cable car ride down to the Fishermans Wharf to try the Clam Chowder from the many stands that are there. We thought with it being such a beautiful day it would be great to sit outside and wondered why no-one was doing that, we soon found out why!
The chowder comes in a Sourdough cob loaf, which just so happens is very portable as we found out later. The seagulls being the size of small cows, well at least compared to ones we have in Australia.
They had worked out that Clam Chowder is good too, and the unsuspecting tourists made an easy mark. After watching an Asian couple get dive bombed, which no doubt caused them to have a change of pants, the seagull flew off with his prize.
Golden Gate Bridge and Sausalito
The last day on the Red bus took us over the Golden Gate Bridge, what an amazing site. We stopped for photos at the lookout at the far end of the Bridge. You get a great shot of San Francisco from here too.
We passed the US Army Corps of Engineers buildings and then went over to Sausalito. It is a lovely little seaside village full of cute cottages with some of them built over the water. I guess they’d be way out of my price range. Lots of houseboats in Richardson Bay which were built by artist squatters after WWII, and also a really big marina.
Got off the bus for a break and as there was an Ice Cream Shop nearby, you guessed it I had to have a double. On the way back to San Francisco while we were crossing the Golden Gate Bridge a large container ship was slowly chugging underneath us heading for the open sea.
Got off the bus in the city centre and did a bit of window shopping at Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Marshalls, and of course I bought another pair of walking shoes. One of the best value purchases for longer travel is a good pair of walking shoes.
These days I always have some shoes with memory foam as they seem to be the best on my feet for comfort and lots of walking. Around the world you are guaranteed to find them in Sketchers but in the USA you can get them in Walmart just not the Sketchers brand. I never pay full price and always get the last season Sketchers from the outlet stores.
Alcatraz Prison
On the last day we took the ferry from Pier 33 at Fisherman’s Wharf over to Alcatraz Prison known as The Rock. It was opened on the 11th August 1934 and closed on the 21st March 1963. It’s 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco.
It was first a lighthouse, then a military fortification, a military prison and lastly a federal prison. It closed because it was too expensive to operate so the prisoners were transferred to other facilities.
It’s now open to tourists. When we arrived we were warned about the large seagulls that were nesting there. As we already knew they were enormous and also very protective of their eggs.
We wandered through the prison, in and out of buildings, reading about all the history of the place. We discovered beautiful hidden gardens that have been restored, old fruit trees and bird habitats. There is a lovely view of San Francisco across the Bay.
Had my photo taken in one of the cells which are so small. Glad there wasn’t a lock of the door. So much historical information, photos and examples of what it looked like when it was used as a prison. The freezing cold waters stopped most people from escaping.
We decided to have our last meal in San Francisco at a popular little restaurant called Orphan Andy’s. It was very crowded. We had a great night chatting with the locals and got quite a few free drinks.
Americans love Australia and are very interested in getting first hand information about all the different tourist sites, our way of life and the different food we have. We told them that we’d eaten kangaroo and crocodile meat, but don’t think they believed us even though it is true.
I can tell you don’t believe me either so here is a kangaroo meat supplier in Australia
We are one of the only countries in the world to eat everything on our coat of arms. Personally I have had kangaroos and crocodiles but not emu.
Then we headed back to the hostel to pack up as we were taking a night flight to the East Coast.
New York here we come!