It has come to the day when I am finally travelling to a state I have wanted to go to for years, California. Our overall plan is too have 4 days in San Francisco and then 3 in LA; we did want to go to Vegas, but not being 21 yet makes that very difficult!
We managed to get really cheap return tickets from Miami International to San Francisco International, around £250!! (I recommended looking on not only sky scanner but also cheap flights, it's a free app).
When arriving in San Francisco, we were faced with how to get to our hotel without breaking the bank. Friends had warned us that there are a lot of homeless about, but 3 british girls thought they could take that on, so off we went to use public transport. We used the Bart connection, like the London Overground. It was $8.50 each and probably took 30 minutes. However when walking the subway and the streets it became apparent to us that we were not in a nice area of SF. We just kept walking in circles and people were looking and hounding us, especially seeing as we looked like tourists with all of our bags! Jumping into a taxi that night was our best idea; I can honestly say I thought my friends and I were in serious trouble.
We checked into a fairly nice looking hotel, The Encore Express located on Bush Street. I mean it was kinda dingy but you get what you pay for and we were just happy to be off the streets!
Because of our experience the night before we had to start our first proper day with fresh minds and let SF take our hearts. So we started to walk, following a paper map, and eventually obviously we got lost. We just kept walking with our heads held high until the SFPD pulled up alongside us and just said 'are you guys lost?', he then proceeded to tell us that we were walking in the Tenderloin and that we need to keep walkingatraight to get out and stay out. Whilst walking/running out we realised this is where we had been walking the previous night; tourists and locals are warned to steer clear of this neighbourhood especially at night!
From these situations we kept on getting ourselves into, we decided to buy a ticket for the Big Bus Tours. This was legit one of the best things we did on the trip to Cali. It took us to all the landmarks, the tour guide who we originally got and then luckily kept getting, Anthony, was amazing, so knowledgeable and funny with it too. The first day sightseeing consisted of: The Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street and China Town. Unfortunately for me China Town was a little bit of a let down but still worth a look, they did have cheaper tourist 'tack' than other shops in Fisherman's Wharf.
Our second day was my favourite day! We visited Haight and Ashbury, which is SF's version of Camden. It was in my eyes the life and soul of San Francisco. There were vintage shops, restaurants, tattoo shops, tourist shops and it had a real good buzz to it! We then took the MASSIVE hill up Steiner St to get us to the Mrs Doubtfire's house. The two trees outside were covered in messages to Robin Williams, it was very touching! Included in the $55 we paid for the Big Bus Tour we were given a night time tour of San Fran. The tour was well worth it, with every bus having a tour guide, you find out some very interesting facts about this amazing city, and they even put a bus back to Union Sq from Fisherman's Wharf.
Day 3, was when we explored Fisherman's Wharf. Also included in our Big Bus Tour was either entrance into Madame Tussaud's or the Dungeons. We picked Madame Tussaud's, however I wouldn't recommend paying to go into this one, it is rather small. Saying this, we had fun having funny pictures and most of the statues had props which you could use which made it even funnier. We also tried Boudin Sourdough bread, which you can only get in SF, (TIP: it is $1.50 for a small baguette but it was filling and cheap lunch, it could of done with some butter though!!).
It came to the last day of our tour of San Fran and we ha decided that we really wanted to go to Alcatraz; unfortunately this meant getting up at 4am to queue for the same day release tickets. Arriving at Pier 33 at 5 in the morning was freezing, it was like being in th UK again; if you go much later than this, especially in the height of summer you won't be getting tickets! But it was well worth the wait, when the ticket office opened at 7:30am, we finally knew we were definitely going to the island. It was worth every cent, it was a fantastic experience. There was quite an eerie feel to the prison however the culture and history behind it all is really quite interesting. You find this information out via an audio tour, which is free. We were even lucky enough to meet a past inmate, who was signing his autobiography about his crimes and stories in this famous prison.
The time has come to leave this lovely city, overall thoughts is amazing city but unfortunately there are a lot of homeless and this can make you feel uncomfortable. Highlight: Haight and Ashbury is an amazing place and probably been my favourite place on my travels so far! Next stop LA
stay safe✌️
Lucy
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