walking Keyword
San Francisco
It is strange to think that San Francisco had a population of only 1,000 people when the gold rush hit. The search for riches caused the number of residents of the bay to swell quickly to 25,000 in just one year. It must have been a crazy time, how ever San Fran’s history stretches as far back as 3000BC when local Cali Indians once called the area home before being displaced in the 1700′s by the Spanish. Now home to around 800,000 in the metro and 8,000,000 in the surrounding ‘burbs San Fran is a buzzing city.
The entire metropolis is quite beautiful and new, mainly due to the great fire of 1906. Over four hundred thousand San Franciscan’s were left homeless after an earthquake levelled buildings and ruptured gas lines causing massive devastation. Today the town is full of life and history. Its famous trams rumble through the city and the streets are teaming with tourists. Along the port restaurants and museums line the piers. Out to the west in the suburbs is Haight Ashbury, a very alternative neighbourhood with a cool scene. Grungy, dirty bars and music stores run up and down the main street and bums and hippies sit on side walks calling for donations towards cannabis research.
On Sunday Chinatown hosted a party, filling the streets with parades, food and music. The Chinatown in San Francisco is one of the oldest in the entire USA and it is huge, but difficult to find nice cheaps eat’s in. A few bars are scattered through the streets of Chinatown, and around the city in general but the best I found was The Utah. It sits on the corner of 4th and Bryant and is a great venue with music almost every night and an awesome vibe. The locals are friendly and the bar staff fun and tough.
In the evenings the fog that during the day contains itself to the bay creeps into the city turning it into a frigid yet beautiful place. It wafts into the streets and blows a cooling breath over the entire metropolis. It is so thick you can feel it dusting your face with a light mist.
I got to catch up with a couple of mates in San Francisco. Jenn, who kindly put me up for a few nights and Emmett who took me around the city on Monday and to Fishermans wharf in the evening. I had a great time here and I’ll be back for one last drink before flying to Hawaii in about a week. But right now I am due to catch a flight to Vegas.
Seattle
People look at me strange sometimes when I say I love the states, but damn it: it’s true. I have had nothing but good experiences here. The people are lovely, and everyone that I have met from the states, save a few obnoxious hangover exacerbating types, have been great, honest, confident and friendly. So it was nice to step off the boat from Victoria to be greeted by Seattle on a warm October afternoon.
Seattle, home of Grunge music, dot com darlings Amazon, Boeing and other cool businesses, is a beautiful city. Teeming with life and coffee shops the city stretches out from the west coast, up and over it’s many hills. I am staying in Capital Hill, a pretty cool district with some interesting characters and great nightlife.
I haven’t done all that much exploring as yet, haven’t even checked out the Space Needle, but I plan to remedy this after Penny Arcade Expo is all done. I did get a moment to wander around downtown though, where I met some locals in a bar who graciously offered to take me bar hopping around the town. As it was midday this was great as I got to see and take note of some cool bars to check out later. I also had a bit of a gander at the famous Pike Place Markets, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with crowds so I just stuck my head in for a bit of a sticky beak.
I got to go to “The Central” on my impromptu little tour. This bar is pretty famous for having rock 365 nights of the year and has played host to some of the greatest bands ever when they were just starting out. They also have some pretty awesome graffiti in the toilets. “The New Orleans” on the other hand had the creepiest graffiti in theirs, with thousands of little faces staring you down while trying to do a slash. Damn weird.
I am liking Seattle. I can’t wait to see more of the town.