San Francisco

The Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco was the final stop on our great adventure. We were both excited to see the city and sad that this would be the last place we would visit before heading back home to England (in the middle of a recession woo!).

It’s definitely feels like the most European city we’ve been to in America. They have trams and places like ‘little Italy’, and shockingly the food portions are actually quite sensible! We were staying the Green Tortoise, a really friendly hostel with an enormous social area that looks like it used to be a ballroom. We can highly recommend it, the rooms are ok, but they do brilliant free dinner nights a couple of times a week. Now normally when traveling ‘free’ is slang for useless (think free internet, free breakfasts…), however here it was actually quite tasty!

One of the best things about San Fran is that you can pretty much walk everywhere. There’s a few places a bit further out, but most days we were packing in the miles on foot, it’s a great way to experience the place.

On the first day we had to drop off Hank, our trusty Dodge Charger hire car. Hank had been perfect for the big American roads – I’ve never driven a car so enormous! Whilst all that space inside had been great on our 12-14 hour drives across states, now, in a busy city with a confused sat nav he was proving to be a bit of a liability. We eventually found the underground carpark where we had to drop him off. I can only imagine it was designed with the specific purpose of making you crash the car seconds before you return it, incurring an enormous bill. Never has such a big car made it through such a twisty, complicated and tiny carpark. Olly was dripping with sweat by the time we handed over the keys, but somehow he had navigated the maze safely.

We arriving back on the surface, now without transport and quite some distance from our hostel. There was only one thing for it, we would pub crawl our way home. Any distance can be covered provided there are enough drinking establishments on the route!

We were not to be disappointed. San Francisco has one of the liveliest and diverse bar scenes we’ve come across. We visited hotel bars, famous bars from the last century and dive bars very much from this one. However none were quite as special as the anonymously fronted Bourbon and Branch. With no sign and no windows it’s not exactly easy to find. But we had read about it in the guide book so we knew it had to be there. The best clue came about when two very stylishly dressed people walked up to a plain door in a grey wall and pushed the buzzer. The door was opened only a fraction, only darkness could be seen within, and after a brief exchange the couple were ushered in and the door quickly closed.

This must be it we thought! As the most stylishly dress that evening Olly was selected as our representative and we tentatively approach the door. He pushed the buzzer and girl answered “What’s the password?”.

“Err… can we come in for a drink?”

“Sorry we’re full”

And with that the door was closed. Clearly “can we come in for a drink” was not the password. However we are not easily beaten, so it was off to the Apple store to use the free internet (another place where ‘free’ is actually good) to do some research. Time was of the essence, we were quickly sobering up and still had a few miles to cover. After a bit of detective work we discovered what we thought the password was and returned to try our luck once again.

We pushed the buzzer again and did our best to look ‘cool’.

“What’s the password?”

“Um… books?” I couldn’t believe this was going to work.

“I’m afraid the library is full tonight, but I can offer you a booth in the bar”

We were in! The door was opened and we walked tentatively inside. It was dark, lit only by very subtle low lights giving the place an orange glow, it looked as it hadn’t changed in 50 years, it may not have. We were taken to our booth, past all the unrecognisable silhouettes and handed the most comprehensive cocktail menu I have ever seen by the welcoming waitress.

“Is this your first time here?” I think she could tell.

She rattled off a list of special cocktails, the likes of which I have never heard of, included one called The French Girl from Ipanema, how cool is that! We ordered our drinks and took in the surroundings. It turns out that the bar used to be an old Speakeasy, one of the secret bars from prohibition times and they had continued the tradition. When I noticed the bookcase opposite us open up to reveal a secret bar, apparently the library, I realised we were in the coolest bar I had ever seen.

Sadly cool doesn’t come cheap here though and we could only afford the one drink, so it was back on the road to the hostel. We made it back feeling we had seen a great deal of the famous bar scene we’d heard so much about.

The next few days were spent doing all thing things you would expect. We visited the Golden Gate bridge, an absolute must if you’re in the city. Went up the Coit Tower, which probably wasn’t worth it in the end, and took a trip across the bay to Alcatraz which really is worth every penny (especially is you’re a fan of the film The Rock, like Olly).

As it was our last city we threw caution to the wind and ate out and drank like there was no budget. We had some great times in bars like Vesuvio in North Beach where people like Jack Kerouac, Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan used to hang out. We saw a pilot for a new crime show being filmed on a hill next to our hostel and nearly got run over by a real criminal as his car flew over the intersection we were crossing, complete with police car blaring after him.

That’s what’s so great about San Francisco, it has a roughness, a feeling that art and culture are closer to the surface here and if you stayed long enough it would influence you in ways you never thought possible.

Sadly though, we wouldn’t have time for that, and we boarded the plane for the long flight home to England. Lamenting the fact that the trip was over, but excited for the journey we were about to begin.

Jun 29, 2010 | USA | Leave A Comment »