This morning we had pieces and crisps for breakfast (trying to save money). We walked to the bank which declined both our cards. So, we headed down to fisherman wharf in the hope of finding wifi.
Our hotel is on Lombard street, so we continued down it until we got to the crookedest street. It took many hill climbs to get there. It is so steep! It is the “crookedest street” in California. The view from the street was also amazing as it was on the top of all the hills!
We walked down to fisherman’s wharf. As we walked down we had a great view of Alcatraz. Down at the wharf we wandered around looking at all the restaurants and stores. We saw some war ships and submarines. Here there was an old mechanical museum which had many arcade games from the past. Some were very strange!
We walked down to pier 39. Here there were many more stores and restaurants. There was a carousel and some games too. We also took some photos of Alcatraz near the water.
We found a McDonald’s so stopped here for food and wifi. Scott and I shared some burgers and fries. I logged in to see my bank had no money. That may be why it was declined… So I transferred some money over. As I did this I noticed two homeless people sitting eating burgers. One asked the other how long he had been homeless for. He said a year and a half. He asked him why he didn’t just join the army and then he wouldn’t be homeless. The guy just shook his head in silence as if to say ‘no way’. I thought to myself that I’m sitting panicking about having enough money to enjoy our next few weeks in America whilst this guy doesn’t have a house and may well still be honouring his morals in spite of that. Doesn’t matter if you’re in the poorest country in the world or one of the richest, you see things around you that open your eyes all the time. I think once your eyes are opened, they never close again.
We walked back to pier 39 and purchased city bus tickets. We felt it was the only way we would be able to see everything as it was now 3pm and we only had tomorrow. We swayed whether to get the two day or one day but felt as the day was nearly done to just get one. So, we decided to buy one day bus tickets for tomorrow. It included a downtown tour, golden gate tour and parks and beaches. As we bought them the woman told us the passes would be good for today and tomorrow. We asked her to confirm what she said and she did in fact say we could use them for today as well. What’s the point in the two day pass?! I asked myself. Not complaining, we headed straight for the downtown stop to do the downtown tour.
Soon, a bus arrived and we jumped on. After two stops it stopped and everyone got off! Apparently we’d boarded at the end of the tour 😂. The next tour was in 30minutes so instead of trying to get on the bus in front which was packed, we waited on our current bus. At 4:30pm we were off on our downtown tour. We passed the financial district, the tenderloin, union square, china town.. We learned lots of interesting facts and about the destruction of San Francisco in the earthquake. It’s amazing how quickly they rebuilt from near annihilation!
We jumped off at the Lombard street stop (the stop before the one we boarded at). And we walked back to the hotel from here. We had another walk through crookedest street which was still mobbed with silly drivers driving down it and stopped for pictures holding up everyone else. Crazy people!
Back at the hotel we were starving and trying to decide what to have for dinner. We decided on taco bell for cheapness and walked along. Turns out Taco Bell was INSIDE KFC. Like a weird mash up. Both menus on the wall behind the one counter. The floor was sticky, the queue was huge and the place was disgusting. We quickly retracted this idea and headed back to the buffalo wings next door to our hotel. We both got a burger, garlic fries and some buffalo BBQ tenders. It took nearly 40 minutes, I think they forgot about us, but eventually we had our take out. It was so much food! We lay in bed and enjoyed it whilst watching TV.
Around the world in 190 days 