We arrived back at San Fransisco on Thursday arvo. We dropped off the car and hauled our packs to the HI in the downtown district. This is the area that we were advised to avoid by the last San Fran hostel we stayed at. It was an interesting walk puctuated by odd smells and homeless people.
The hostel is a very nice old building that was a hotel, but due to the location (nearby to homeless shelters) could no longer survive. But that's ok becasue we have a lovely 5 share dorm with a private bathroom. It's the simple pleasures in life.
We saw most of what we wanted to see in San Fran on our last visit so we had anticipated some down time. We have been sleeping in a bit but still taking full advantage of our 'free' breakfast that consists of yummy bagles with strawberry jam.
The highlights of our time here have been walking through the Golden Gate park, which is sort of equivilent to the yarra and the botanical gardens in Melbourne. We also had a fantastic time at Alcataz. We did the night tour which left at 6:10pm so the ferry ride over was still day light so we had a really good look at the whole island. It wasn't long after landing that it started to get dark and a bit spooky looking, this was helped by the fact that it was FREEZING and most of the city was not visible due to clouds. We did the audio tour which was very interesting and gave an insight to the history of the island and also how the prisoners lived. We were also lucky enough to tour the hospital wing and hear stories from one of the tour guides. The last part of the tour was a demonstartion with the doors. This sound has been recorded and used in Jerrassic Park and Terminator. Very cool.
Sunday morning we also got down to the Mission district which is where the spanish population is. The had a Carnivale Parade and festival which was interesting, everyone from the primary school kigs to the elderly were parading on floats and dancing down the streets.
Leaving San Fran we are flying to Denver before taking another car through the Rocky Mountains all the way to Seattle.
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