San Francisco

I arrived in San Francisco in the evening of the 20th of June after a very long day. My day started, as you know, in Sydney with my flight leaving at 13.30 and my almost missing it. It continued with a film packed 14 hour flight - I tried to sleep but in the end I gave up and just continued watching movies.

This meant that when I arrived at 9am that same morning - ooOooOOoOoh Time Travel!! - I was extremely tired. By the time I was through security and had retrieved my luggage is was about 10am and I had 5 hours before my 3 o'clock flight to San Francisco. Well it turns out that LAX airport is pretty damn small! So I found an empty corner, rolled up in it and then went to sleep for several hours.

About an hour before I had to go to my gate, I uncurled and went to use the internet via the wall-computers. I spoke to my parents, letting them know I arrived safley and then made plans with Rachel and Iman from IC11.

My flight to San Francisco was pretty uneventful except for several beautiful views. I arrived at 17.00, got my luggage and went to meet with Iman. Unfortunaltey, our plans fell through and I didn't get to see Iman and because she was off to Oregon the next day, I will have to wait until I go to Lake Tahoe before I get to see her (but that's me getting way ahead of myself).

I got a train into the city, then a subway to my Hostels street and then was walked to my hostel by a very friendly black homeless person. It was a very short walk to the International Hostel so I wasn't worried. I arrived, checked in and went to my 4 bed dorm room. The price was scarily more expensive than in Australia ($64 for 2 nights) so I made thr most of it and went straight to sleep.

The next day, I woke up around 10 am, walked around the area a little and then met up with Rachel and her friend Julianne in a little cafe near my hostel. We spent the day being tourists and going shopping. It was great fun hanging out with local people and was a real contrast to having spent so many days with other travellers.

San Francisco seemed very happy, laid back and gay-friendly (there were gay pride flags everywhere, which I now realise was to do with the upcoming changes to the Californian law). Driving through it was kind of confusing and scary, the roads were not very clear on where to go/where the bus lane was compared to the normal lane but we survived it, so all is good!

We drove down Chessnut Street, which was beautiful, as well as seeing some wonderful, very expensive houses along the peer and driving down the wonkiest road ever - look it up on google maps, it looks so weird! I also had my first taste of Brandy <3 Melville, a currently extremely popular  italian boutique clothes store. 

The girls dropped me back at the hostel that evening and Rachel promised to pick me up at 10 am the next morning (check out time). I basically just went back to bed (but not before my roommate told me that I had once again laughed and spoken German in my sleep!)

On the 22nd of June, I met Rachel outside of my hostel and we drove around San Francisco, looking at peer 39, although we didn't stop or take a longer look because the parking in that area was just ridiculous! $40 no matter how long or short you stayed.

The Golden Gate Bridge

That evening, we drove back to Rachel's house, but not before stopping off at a beautiful lookout place overviweing San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, which for anyone who doesn't know, is red and not gold! After getting a couple of shots, we drove down to Mill Valley and a little place called Strawberry, where Rachel lives with her parents.

Till next time,
Lucy xxo