San Francisco

Hello all!
San Francisco...is...well, let's start from the beginning...
A long time ago San Francisco was a thriving gold mining town, thousands of people flocked here and the town grew large. Then, one day, everyone who wasn't a homosexual, mexican, chinaman, hippy, prostitute or crack addict up and left! What remains is a city like no other. It might sound like we are stereotyping these minority groups, but it really is true! We have never seen a city that has so many different minority groups that are so segregated.

On our first day we accidentally found ourselves in 'Tenderloin' also known as crack-town. Innocent and naiive, we were shocked to find that we were seemingly the only sane people left on earth. Rake-thin people passed us by either half asleep, muttering to themselves, yelling at each other, conducting shady deals or listening to the ever constant blare of police sirens in the background. It was like a scene out of 'Dawn of the Dead'.

After narrowly avoiding a large gang of shady characters on the corner, we jumped on a bus towards 'Haight-Ashbury'. When we stepped of it was like a time-warp to the 60s - long dreads, peace slogans, hemp, that funny-smell...yep, you guessed it, we were in hippy town. About 5 minutes after walking into the park we were asked if we had 'smoked a killer bud cos we had a purple funk' (??).

Another bus ride took us into 'Castro' - Gay town. We were confronted by a large amount of poorly disguised women/men/God knows what in leather mini skirts and heels. Jack clung to me as we navigated the crowds of rainbow 'gay pride' shirts and eccentric shops polluting the air with the likes of the Village People and Abba.

The Mission district...little Mexico...also lived up to its reputation, suddenly everyone was a little bit shorter and didn't speak English.

After discovering the different sects of the city, we headed up to Fisherman's wharf, the tourist area. We passed the 50 or so stores that will sell you 'I heart San Francisco' merchandise and took a boat tour to Alcatraz. The prison was interesting, we took an audio guide that told us about all the escape attempts and fails and day to day life in the prison. There is only one possible escape that succeeded when 3 guys dug through their concrete cell walls with spoons and climbed out and made a life raft out of rain coats. Their raft was found but they were never seen or heard of again...

On Saturday we hired some push-bikes and rode across the Golden Gate bridge. The scenery was beautiful, and well worth climbing up all those hills for! We continued past the bridge to a little town for lunch and then took the ferry back to town.

On Sunday we went back to Golden Gate park (hippy town) and walked through the huge park to the beach, the surf was huge but the concrete walls and dirty sand just didn't hold the same charm as the 30 degree climate, clear water and golden sand that we can find at home.

So that brings us to today, and we are flying home this evening! San Francisco is a raelly amazing city, despite sounding somewhat cynical, we have had a great time here and, even amongst the interesting/strange/downright crazy people that we have met, we have yet to meet an unfriendly person...maybe it's the drugs. The little that we have seen of America has been really welcoming. When lost, all you have to do is ask a stranger on the subway or the street and they will go out of their way to help us out. Some American tourists in Europe have a bit of a bad rep because they can be loud and to the point, which could be interpreted as obnoxious, but after being here we understand that that's just the American way. People here are frank, they will tell you what they think to your face, even when its yelling out across the street to 'have a good day folks' or 'you have a keeper cheif'(once again...what??)

So after seven months and roughly 14 countries we are heading home today. We have had a fantastic time throughout and have seen some really amazing stuff...the Great Wall of China, the Terracotta Warriors, Halong bay, the Cuchi Tunnels in Vietnam, the full moon festival in Thailand, Zurich, Oktoberfest in Munich, Paris and the Eiffel tower, Amsterdam..., London, Scotland and the Highlands, Vodka in Poland, the Berlin wall, the Vatican city and colluseum in Rome, the canals of Venice, Florence, New York and a fitting last stop...San Francisco! We have met crazy, friendly, happy and the occasional rude person and managed to make some real friends along the way.

After seeing the world for ourselves, we still call Australia, the best country in the world, home.