Welcome to the Hotel California...

Hotel California - The Eagles - Hotel California Album

Because today... I saw... THE Hotel California... 

Prepare yourself for a long one because today has been a LONG day!

So I have 1 day in San Fran… so determined to make the most of this I decided to purchase a bus ride thingy which takes me… everywhere!

Headed towards the golden gate bridge - went over the bridge, which was incredibly windy and cold. Stopped at the “vista” point that’s what they call lookout points over here… got the photos. Also was quite excited as was the guide and the New Zealand couple next to me because at this “vista point” they have… pohutukawa trees! Real ones!

Then we headed down to Sausalito which is the rich part of the bay – apparently it is one of the riches areas per capita in the whole of the US and has the highest average house price in the States.

It was amazing though! I could have spent the whole day there as opposed to 20 minutes. It has heaps of galleries and coffee and wine shops. Is just generally “cute” and sophisticated. Is located on the coast and there was this quaint little fishing port. I felt like I was in Portsmouth or somewhere. We also saw the the dock that inspired Otis Redding. (which was going to be my song until…)

We headed back to San Fran and that was the bridge tour. I then hopped on the bus to do the downtown tour. This took us everywhere really… Fishermans Wharf, Ferry Building, City Hall, Union Square, Chinatown, The financial district, Italian district, Lombard Street, Pier 39… basically San Francisco in a nutshell.

I hopped off in Chinatown and walked through the area… was completely different to NYC Chinatown… seemed way more legit! Went to this random place Uncles for lunch and had the best Sweet and Sour since Brunei times… was soooo good and cost me $4.55!

Finished the tour at Pier 39 which was quite a weird place to be honest. Very touristy… so basically they had a massive earthquake early 20^th Century and 2 days after a bunch of sea lions arrived on this pier… this is apparently a very exciting thing to look at (if you haven’t been to Kaikoura) and so around it is this hideous Americany fair ground slash concentration of tourist gift shops… mhe.

I did go to a bakery though where you can buy shaped bread… like lobsters and crabs! was amazing!

I then decided I was going to find the City Lights bookshop… which I had heard about and was interested in going to. So tried to find it because I thought it was in the Fishermans Wharf area… I literally wandered for about an hour then was able to steal the Hilton’s wifi and googled it to find it wasn’t in that area but in Chinatown… so I trekked for about 30 minutes up a massive hill to find this bookshop… but it was so worth it.

Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark." Although it has been more than fifty years since tour buses with passengers eager to sight "beatniks" began pulling up in front of City Lights, the Beats' legacy of anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking continues to be a strong influence in the store, most evident in the selection of titles.

The book shop The City Lights mast head says A Literary Meetingplace since 1953. Ferlinghetti, the guy who opened it (he was a writer/poet) used to say it was as if the public were being invited, in person and in books to participate in that ‘great conversation’ between authors of all ages, ancient and modern.

And I love that!

So basically was in heaven! They had upstairs a poetry room where they had gatherings… oh man I could have actually spent hours there…

Was really bad and totally couldn’t resit a hardcopy of the first print edition of On the Road… heavy luggage or what! But seriously… I was so stoked!

Then popped into the alley way next door where… Dylan did the photo shoot for Blonde on Blonde… and then to Vesuvio which is the bar next door… which was frequented by several beat generation celebrities…

So that was all just a whirlwind of magic!

I then ran back down to Fishermans Wharf to catch the 6’oclock night tour bus… picking up a gelato in the Italian part on the way.

Caught the night tour bus around a different route of the city was cool.

Did you know… That there is this statue in Union sq here where they needed a girl to pose naked for it (see statue below) so this art student did it, and then she became really popular and then ended up marrying the richest man in San Francisco who was 28 years older then her. He was the richest man as he held the monopoly on sugar… and thus the term “sugar daddy” was born!

And then we headed up to Nob Hill where we drove down Stiener street and saw the seven ladies which… the yellow one is the house on Full House… (see previous post)

So really that was my day… I have a mixture of sun burn and wind burn…

See how windy it is!

LA tomorrow!