San Francisco!

Sunday we got up pretty early and bought 7 day transport passes for $24 which considering how much transport we are using is actually quite a bargain.  Our first means of transport (besides getting to the hostel) was the iconic cable cars (not very cable-like though) and went to Chinatown where they were having the moon festival so basically it was jam packed full of American-Chinese people.  Had a look round there and sampled some free juice then left and had some very delicious crepes with lemon and sugar in a cafe and Ria had a massive doorstep tuna sandwich which I helped her eat!

After that we looked around Macy's for some flipflops as mine were starting to hurt and found a nice pair so I'll only be leaving my flipflops in SF and not my heart!  We then sat on some steps at Union Square and watched the world go by and listened to some man having a conversation with himself!  There seem to be quite a few crazy people around and even more homeless people who keep begging which is quite a put-off.  That evening we went to Castro which is the gay/lesbian area of SF and had a bite to eat there - Thai of all things and it reminded me of the noodles I got sick of whilst I was in Japan so needless to say I didn't really enjoy it.

Monday we had a bit of palava with Ria's bank as they refused to let her transfer some money so she basically spent a while and lots of credit on her phone sorting that out.  Luckily it's all been sorted now.  We then did the Alcatraz tour and we both really enjoyed that and found it a little eerie.  After we did the audio tour where mine stopped 2/3 of the way through it made me want to watch Escape from Alcatraz so maybe when we're back it's something I can do.  Afterwards we walked down to Pier 39 on Fisherman's Wharf and walked around and saw the sealions which smelt rather fishy and had jumbo shrimp cocktail and some mini donuts (7 instead of 6) .... just coz we could! 

Yesterday (Tuesday) we took ourselves off to Japantown and had sushi for lunch - it was little boats on water going round with dishes on - so cute.  So Ria had her first ever sushi which she enjoyed although we played it safely by having prawns, tofu and imitation crab(crabsticks!).  After that we took a bus to Pacific Heights and tried to find Mrs Doubtfire's house - we failed!  The houses are lovely though - typical American style.  After that we went back into Castro for a hot drink and then took a bus up to 'Twin Peaks' which is a look-out point over the city.  Unfortunately the bus only took us so far and we had to climb quite a few steps to reach the top - the worst thing was the wind - so felt a little blown away after that!  Got some excellent pictures though.  We then came back to the hostel and had some dinner - microwaved lasagne for me and soup for Ria.

Today we are planning to cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge (ahhhh) and get a ferry back and also visit North Beach which is their version of little Italy.  Plsu we're going to stop by the 'crookedest street in the world' so a busy day ahead for us.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to SF and take a shuttle bus to LA and we're staying in San Pedro right on the beach so we can relax before we spend a week in LA/Hollywood doing all the studios etc.  Apparently the weather will improve too as SF has it's own weather system where it's quite chilly here but go half hour inland and it's gorgeous so tan's here we come!