ARGGGGH - I'm sunburnt!! Today we took a number of double decker bus tours around the city, sitting upstairs and enjoying the sunshine (even though the sun is out it is FREEZING here at the moment - about 10-12 degrees during the day...brrrr....I had to buy a fleecy jacket!). Our first tour took us all around downtown, including the Tenderloin, which is apparently the seedy part of town, kinda like Redfern or Kings Cross in Sydney...or Panthers after midnight. We realised we were in the Tenderloin when we saw a homeless guy peeing against the side of a building in broad daylight. Maybe the guy was hired by the tour company in the name of authenticity, but whether it was contrived or not, it certainly lent that seedy quality to the area. The tour also led us to Fisherman's Wharf which should be nice, but is like a cross between Darling Harbour and Surfers Paradise and has twice as many tourists. Our tour guide warned us about the Bushman, a local homeless guy whose favourite pastime is apparently ripping the branches off local shrubs, shrouding himself in them and jumping out at unsuspecting tourists. So guess who got a fright from the Bushman?? Yep, that would be me. Even after being warned about him. My shriek of fright was quite amusing to the locals. Thankfully, ten seconds after he frightened me he got another tourist behind us. Phew! Rookie mistake...
We also took another tour over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito. The Golden Gate Bridge is an awe-inspiring sight...maybe even more breath-taking than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Got some great photos from Vista Point on the Marin County side of the bridge. Sausalito was lovely...reminded me of Noosa a bit without the mosquitoes. Apparently you can't get a property in Sausalito without spending a million dollars, so it was a bit like Noosa in that respect too. Lots of old men in windbreakers and shorts with socks and sandals. Very Sunshine Coast.
Once back in the city we decided to revisit a bar that I spent A LOT of time in the last time I came to San Francisco: The Gold Dust Lounge, a San Francisco institution (http://www.yelp.com/biz/gold-dust-lounge-san-francisco-2) where I had an Irish coffee, my drink of choice in 1996. It was just as I remembered it, but for the life of me I can't understand how I drank so many of them. They are lethal!
After that we took another tour, this time an evening double decker bus tour. Talk about freezing. With chattering teeth and blue fingers we took in the sights of Nob Hill, North Beach, etc. We should have twigged that the cold would be an issue when they offered fleecy blankets upon entering the bus, but no. Even though we had to break icicles off our noses, the tour was great and it was wonderful to see the city as the sun went down. We got off the bus in Union Square and went to Lori's Diner for dinner and to defrost, topped off by a few drinks at Lefty O'Douls (http://www.leftyodouls.biz/), a genuine Irish bar with a great vibe and a piano player doing blues versions of Johnny Cash and Elvis songs. While downing a couple of margaritas we chatted with a lovelorn local who sought our advice about what to do about his crush on the female bartender. We told him to go for it but he said he didn't have the "huervos" (literal translation: eggs, but in the vernacular can also mean testicles) to do it. We left him searching the bottom of his beer glass for the answer.
All in all, a great day. Tomorrow: Alcatraz!
Love,
Vxxx
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