July 12th: Walking around San Francisco a bit

 [ all pictures from this day: https://picasaweb.google.com/110144623598348247797/20110712?authkey=Gv1sRgCM_gn9OZ7P6yLw ]

I had a bit of a sleep in. However, again because of the time zone change, I got an extra few hours of sleep for free! So I think I actually got out of bed at a fairly respectable hour.

I stumbled upstairs to the kitchen area and asked one of the guys there if he knew where there is a supermarket. Then I headed over there. I was very hungry.

I got to the supermarket (SafeWay) and I think I bought cashew nuts, flat bread, hommus, water, strawberries, and maybe something else...

This building is about two blocks away from my hostel I think. My first impressions are that this is a really cool city. I like the feel of it.

I ate my foods at the end of this jetty. It was very nice!

Looking across the bay.

Then I decided to wander up the big street that sort of curves up along the side of the peninsula. I think I was heading for the place where the tours to Alcatraz island depart. I got there and unfortunately they were booked up for the next two weeks! So I was a bit disappointed, but there's not much I can do about that. I'll just have to come back someday!

Checked out some boats...

Had a look at pier 49. It's a bit touristy.

I had a look inside some stores. It wasn't really my kind of thing. I think I took this photo because I thought it was ridiculous how many different types of things they can stick some mildly funny phrase onto in order to fill up a store.

First glimpse of the golden gate bridge.

Alcatraz island.

The seals! ... They've all gone away for the summer to somewhere a bit cooler. There are just a few seals that decided to stay. They are the ones who are "out of the game". They just do their own thing now.

I decided to walk up to the top of this "tower hill" thing. This is a thing where there is a tower on top of a hill.

I found this city to be a bit strange because there have been about 5 computer games that I've played that have been set in this city: San Francisco Rush 1 and 2, GTA San Andreas, Project Gotham Racing, and maybe some others... so everywhere I decide to go is probably partially known to me through one of these video games. In GTA I've committed some atrocities in this city...

The streets are often fairly steep!

I found a path up here so I checked it out..

Everyone had been going on about this "planking" thing, so I decided to give it another go, in addition to the one I did at my Aunty and Uncle's house on the 11th.

This was a very strange sight to me after all this time away from Australia. I didn't really want to go back to Australia to see more of these.

This is the tower at the top of tower hill. I think it was going to cost about $10 to go up to the top of that so I decided not to. It probably would have taken a long time with lots of people in narrow corridors, too.

I like the vibe of the city. It's very similar to Sydney.

I had just been trying to find a place to hire a bike because my Auntie was telling me that it's a very good thing to do in San Francisco. Then I found a place that does it! Hooray. I took a pamphlet so that I could come back another day, because I wanted to have enough time to spend a long time riding.

I think this is Lombardo Street... the windy one...

I bought a sandwich earlier. Now was time to eat it. I'd been searching for a place to sit for a long time. The sandwich had tomato, avocado, cheese, and a bunch of other stuff in it. It was made by the guy right in front of me. But not like at Subway. I like how they do this in the US.

...I enjoyed eating it...

fog. I decided to just wander around for a while at this point.

This is an octagonal house. I went in and there were some old ladies sitting in there who were fairly excited to tell me about the place. However it was a bit weird because they sort of wanted to guide me around, whereas sometimes I just stand and stare at one thing for a long time and I think that makes some people awkward. But they were also nice people.

Here's an ad for a house. It's been reduced to $649,000. I think that was a typical price.

I wandered around and had fun looking at these houses. I expected to see houses like this in San Francisco because it's famous for this style. But for some reason I wasn't really prepared to find that every single house was like this. It was pretty cool.

This plant has been through a lot.

I decided to wander around and see if I could find that line of houses that is in the opening sequence to Full House. I don't know why I decided I should do that. But I didn't find it.

It's made of concrete...

I went home and I think I probably cooked some food for myself. I had a good day. It's a great city.

I chatted with the girl from the hostel and told her how I found a place to hire a bike. I was excited because the price seemed fairly reasonable. She asked how much it was, and I told her (maybe $32 for the day. Something like that). She was horrified and said that was way too expensive. I was a bit confused because I thought that was reasonable, and I think I saw others that were more expensive. I asked her to tell me where the cheaper one was and she did. (In a couple of days I think I paid $17 or $18 for the day for a bike)

I met a girl in my room who was pretty cool. She is from Puerto Rico but is studying in Melbourne to be a vet. She says that she has been to Adelaide while she was on the way to Kangaroo Island. I had to ask her what that place is like because I've never been there. She says it's her favourite place that she has been to so far in Australia because there were lots of animals there and she is into that kind of thing.

I walked quite far on this day. All the hills are a bit exhausting.