Tuesday, October 17, 2006

on leaving san francisco

highlights...

- eating a f******* excellent burrito on mission street
- the circular view of the city from the summit of buena vista park
- the expressions of incredulity and amusement that played across s.'s face when i made two of the most idiotic comments i've ever made, one about iTunes not having an easily searchable index as i sat at his mac searching iTunes and one about never having seen the pacific ocean before, knowing full well i'd swum in it in sydney many times
- driving back to san francisco over golden gate bridge with the sunlit view of the cityscape in the distance and the bay covered with white sails bobbing up and down on the choppy water
- standing in the dark looking at the dozens of patches of flickering orange light from the camp fires dotted along the sand of ocean beach
- eating a strawberry and whipped cream crepe in richmond
- dancing into the early hours of the morning with an excitable crowd who were up for a good time at the stud on harrison street
- walking up russian hill drinking a creamy strawberry shake from the original swenson's
- riding a cable car up knob hill and feeling very juvenile as i smiled at the innuendo-laden name
- enjoying mugs of strong tea made in a proper teapot - the best i've had since arriving in america
- the view of golden gate bridge from fort point - the classic view used in 'vertigo' and 'high anxiety'


lowlights...

- realising while driving down a less salubrious part of market street that san francisco has more scary street people per square mile than any other city i've visited
- arriving at the palace of the legion of honour on sunday and realising we didn't have time to go in as kailik had to get to san jose to get on his plane
- arriving at the palace of the legion of honour on monday and realising it was shut
- remembering as i stood outside the palace of the legion of honour that i had read many times in my lonely planet city guide that it's closed on monday
- v. breaking his leg in a rugby game
- walking along fisherman's wharf which was unpleasantly like a combination of blackpool, great yarmouth and southend


comparisons...

- for wooded footpaths in golden gate park read hampstead heath
- for ocean beach read bournemouth, skegness or any other english coastal town sea front or bondai beach
- for marin county sea cliffs read cornwall coast


and it was a pleasant surprise to find that the castro was more restrained than oxford street in sydney and not as in your face trendy-gay-lifestyle-like as old compton and canal streets in london and manchester

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