With one thing or another I haven't been able to catch up where I left off and have therefore fallen behind with posting to my Posterous blog....it's a long story and something which at the moment can wait.
Anyway where was I ...I was leaving LA!
&REWIND to March 29th 2011: In fact rewind further to when I was originally booking my trip home. I was originally going to fly straight from LA to NYC but then noticed the flight went via San Francisco. The first thing that struck me was how cheap the Virgin flight was from LA to NYC it was only $86. I then had a brain wave if I tweaked my flight to include a stop over ,it might not be that much more expensive, it turned out to be next to nothing... $40 for a day in SF. So I booked it and I was now leaving to head for my childhood Mecca.
San Francisco is a place I have always wanted to visit from way back when I was into skateboarding. When I was young it seemed to be the centre of the skateboarding world and since becoming an adult it has maintained my attention but now as the centre of the Technology world. I was therefore very excited to be finally visiting the place especially as it had always been too far from home to visit just out of curiosity.
My flight was with Virgin and it seemed to be very much what I would expect from a flight to San Francisco. The plane felt more like a bar with it's Chill Out music playing as you boarded and mood lighting adding to the effect. Once I sat down the Girl next to me showed me how to order drinks on the console and also pointed out that the plane had Wi-Fi something that impressed me much and made me wish I had charged my battery before leaving the hotel. The flight was only short but long enough to get a good deal of information from my co- passengers with regards to what I should do on my short visit. It was explained to me that my first Mission objective was to get the BART ( Bay Area Rapid Transit) from the Airport to my Hotel near Union Square then head out towards the mission district to an Irish Bar that I was promised would not disappoint.
The BART transfer took about 30mins and I departed the system in the centre of town. I was greeted by an array of Crazy people as I left the station, drummers , clowns , beggars and other buskers and so called entertainers. It was very surreal and took me a bit by surprise. I then had my first encounter with one of San Francisco's legendary Hills, after several months in Antarctic I found these to be quite a challenge especially trying to avoid just bursting into a pool of sweat. After about 10 mins of hiking I found my hotel a super boutique affair called the "Hotel des Arts" with rooms individually decorated by local artists, Ironicly my room was painted Blue and white and reminded me a lot of Antarctica in its design.
After having a quick wash I headed back out and onto the BART to the Mission district away from the main city. I'am so glad I heeded the advice because I had a brilliant night in the Bar and met some brilliant people. Two encounters in particular made the night a guy called Rush and a guy called Clint.
Rush was brilliant he came over and introduced himself to me as Rush he then kept on putting songs on the jukebox playing Air Guitar and asking me what I thought of Jane Addiction, Pink Floyd and so the night went on. He gave me the full run down on what I should plan to do the next day and even tried to make plans to meet me and take me for the best Clam Chowder in Town however unfortunately this didn't happen but I did manage to do all the things on Rushes Rush round SF which I will come to in a moment. Ok the other guy I met was called Clinton Golden who was in a band called "Carlton Melton". It turned out that this band was going on a European tour and would be playing in Liverpool in May...I have since seen them perform and had the chance to meet them on my home turf. They were brilliant..and at some pointbi will do a blog post just on them.
Anyway back to SF and I had a full day to kill. I took the advise of Rush and hired a Bike I then had the freedom of the coast. I head out from Pier 39 having indulged in some clam chowder and cycled the 8 miles to the Golden Gate bridge and up to Hoppers Hands. I then took in the view and made the journey over the bridge ready to get the ferry back to the pier. I loved every second of it and found myself very jealous of the Californians I saw running up and down the coast. I can't think of more sociable running experience and felt apart of it even though I was on a bike :-) It looked like great fun and something which one day I wish to participate in on foot.
My route back to the pier was on the ferry and then across the bay past Alcatraz. Which in itself was an fantastic to see, the place looked so haunting and I promised myself that if I ever got the chance to return to Sf then I would make a point of visiting the old prison.
Once off the ferry I hopped on to the tram to scoot back across to Union Square. stopped to watch the skateboarders and buy some cheap Holister clothing before grabbing my bags to head to the BART for a trip back to the Airport ready for the Redeye to NYC. oh what a day :-)
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