Thursday 14 November 2013

America!

San Francisco // Week One

Hey everyone!

I've been so excited about my holiday to America I can't even begin to tell you! It has been a dream to visit Los Angeles since I was a child so finally making it here feels really surreal. Jenny has been equally as thrilled about visiting the states, so we just couldn't wait to get there!

The plane journey was extremely long, freezing and seats were way too tight. Let's not mention the food or the service provided... The only good thing was I got to watch Monsters inc University, but I then fell asleep half way through.. For an hour.. And the only hour I managed to sleep on our 11 hr long flight!

We finally arrived in San Francisco, where we got picked up by this really nice guy who's house we were staying at in Castro, gave us a tour around the neighbourhood showing us the cool cafés and the steepest road I've seen in my life!



Castro was a really cool place to stay at, very friendly and full of nice places to eat. The view from our window was amazing! 








There was an old-fashioned theatre/cinema down the road which projected old films two/three times a week. We decided to go and see 'The Wicker Man' which we assumed was a horror movie.. Turned out it was the original from the 70's. We really enjoyed the film and the popcorn was amazing! Had some trouble ordering water...Americans can't seem to understand our accent so I've been practicing speaking in American and I just sound jokes! 







So, the first night we arrived we took a stroll down Castro which for a Monday night seemed pretty busy! Managed to find a cool diner and headed home for some needed rest.





The next day we decided to explored the central part of the city. I was so jet-lacked and turned out San Fran was extremely smoking unfriendly.. So I can't say I was bouncing off the walls, but managed to get to Union square and then walked to China Town. There we saw loads of really cute shops, mainly souvenir ones, but found this one shop which had the tiniest cat rings (toy cats stuck on rings for people to wear) and toy cats curled up in a ball, so cute I nearly died! Not too sure where you'd keep them, but still pretty interesting! (Unfortunately I couldn't take a photo)





Kept finding really jokes programmes on t.v. Like "Bad Girls Club", "He's mine not yours"' "I hate my Butt"... And "My Big Fat Revenge"... Which was basically about overweight people who have been made to feel bad by an ex boyfriend due to the way they look and now decide to lose the pounds and get a revenge by humiliating them in public... It's a shame I fell asleep half way through. 



That evening we went to meet up with Daniel, who we arranged to meet outside this bar called something Castle but got really lost and ended up in some dodgy area where we politely asked some guys if they knew where the place was and a girl told us it had changed names and was now called Divas.. Turned out those people were having a laugh and sent us to some gay strip club! Which was jokes, unfortunately we didn't go in. When we finally met Daniel we chilled at a really cool bar and then went to a diner where I had pancakes! (For dinner) Mum's are still the best ;)



The next day we had planned to go to Alcatraz, but the government decided to take the piss and close it down for the duration of our stay, which really sucked. Instead we went to Golden Gate park where we rented bikes and cycled like crazy on no food and got lost too many times, but still had an awesome time and then headed to Fisherman's Wharf. Jenny had some food at In 'n' Out Burger which apparently was amazing and I had my first Clam Chowder in a bread bowl!! Also pretty amazing! Then we all went to this really old school arcade, full with freaky fortune teller dolls who's predictions were actually pretty accurate..weird. I was hoping I'd wake up as a kid the next day, like in that film with Tom Hanks : D






The next day we got ourselves some burritos which were so yummy, but ridiculously huge, we barely made it up the road! Whenever I see aTaco place now I feel like I'm going to puke!



Found this place called Haight and Ashbury which once was a hippy area and had loads of retro shops. 



We found the coolest book shop with amazing comic novels and special edition books and it also lead to the Golden Gate park, so we ended up there again and saw the De Young Museum, similar to the Tate, got to see the view of the entire park from the top of the building which was really beautiful!





Finally made it to Golden Gate and turned out we were really lucky with the weather. Managed to walk the whole length of the bridge which was quite long and it was boiling, pretty sure the back of our necks burnt.. So when we got to the end we decided to get a tour bus back and the driver told us normally there is a lot of fog and people have to photoshop the bridge in, so lucky for us we'll save some time before posting our photos on facebook. :D






One of the things I really loved about San Francisco was the architecture of the family homes and colour palette, which in general consisted of pastel colours, my favourite! 



Our last day was chilled out, decided to do our laundry on the day of a carnival which took place on our road and pretty much all of the shops were shut, which meant walking around like headless chickens in the heat with our washing, but luckily managed to find a cool laundrette in the end. 


We then took a stroll down the carnival which seemed really busy and consisted of loud music, half naked men and dressed up pets! 



Managed to get a photo of this dog which was dressed as a bat and ..omg.. A cat on a leash!





We then quickly managed to visit the pier again and take photos of the sea lions who were adorable and made the funniest noises in each others faces before heading to 'Little Italy'. Basically an area full of Italian restaurants, we were recommended a restaurant called 'Stinking Rose', the food mainly consisted of garlic dishes, i had a muscle soup and Jenny a veggie lasagna, it was really yummy!




We'll be back in San Francisco for our last couple of days, but overall had a really good time, managed to do a lot and people in general were really nice and friendly! :)

Off to LA!!! Wooooo!!!

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