- It took us a very long time to wake up on Tuesday. I think it was the jet lag kicking in: we were still both on NZ time, so trying to wake up at 8am in San Fran was actually like trying to wake up at 5am. I don’t like to do that. It took us over an hour of snoozing the alarm before we managed to drag ourselves out of bed, and mostly because we didn’t want to miss out on free breakfast. Free breakfast was delishus, with bagels, jam and cream cheese, fresh fruit, or porridge or eggs.
After breakfast we kitted up and headed out down Broadway, towards the water. Once we hit the Embarcadero, we walked along the waterfront, past all the piers.
We stopped at Pier 39 to look at all the touristy stuff: Chocolate shop, Bubba Gumps Shrimp place, pretzel stalls, past the aquarium, the kite shop.. so many things to see!
We also stopped at the sea lions, which were pretty damn noisy, barking at everyone and everything They have a set of rafts in the harbour, where they relax in the sun, and have play fights, pushing each other off into the water. Apparently they came to shore on the wharf soon after the last major earthquake, decided they liked it, and some have been there ever since. To get them off the wharf and away from everyone, they set up rafts for them to use, with a viewing platform nearby for people. They are amazingly noisy, later in the day, when we climbed Telegraph Hill, we could hear them faintly from the top. Still barking.
We wandered further along to the Fishermans Wharf, and then stopped in a tiny cafe in the middle of nowhere for lunch. We stopped at the library for a while then, and man, it was nice to sit down.
There are a lot of homeless people, it is sad to see, but I’m not sure what to do about it. You want to be helpful, but if you tried to help every one that you saw, you would end up with nothing pretty quick. They seem to manage themselves well, for having no home. many have trolleys and blankets they carry around with them, and we even saw a couple with pet dogs.
Later on we made our way back towards home, with a brief detour to climb Telegraph Hill. The Coit Tower is unfortunately closed, but we happened to be on the hill at sunset, so got to see some lovely colours over San Fran and Bay.
After that, was a quick walk back down the hill to our Hostel.
Dinner was at a greek/Italian restaurant around the corner, for a lovely cheap price, and we chatted to someone from New York, and from Argentina.
Dale and Becca 