I am sat in Heathrow Terminal 2 about to jet off on my second holiday of the year (check me out) when I notice that actually I have not finished writing the blog for the first big holiday of the year - San Francisco. I have never actually been to the US of A and so what better place to start than one of the worlds most important gay holy cities. Famed for its rainbow crossing, Alcatraz (did not visit - sorry) and the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco was definitely a place to visit.
Travelling from Termnial 2 with United Airlines, I have to say, I half expected to get dragged off the flight for double booking - the media scares you like that. In reality, it was one of the most comfortable flights I have ever had. An entire row to myself, no children and very friendly air hosts. I was even offered (and gladly accepted) second meals. Speaking of food, SF was not good for my average body mass. The food was just exceptional. Mexican, Korean, Chinese, American, Italian, Japanese, anything you can think of, they had it there and it tasted amazing - albeit a little expensive compared to lots of other places I’ve been. That is to be expected I guess considering people like Mark Zuckerberg and other tech nerds with big salaries live there. One Mexican place in particular sticks out, if you walked in to the same place in the UK then even if you are not a snob about the state of restaurants etc, you would probably have raised an eyebrow. This place was well and truly local and you could see that although very friendly, they clearly didn’t worry much about losing business from snooty tourists. They didn’t have to worry though, the burrito I got was the size of my head and (unlike the UK) actually packed with stuff that tasted heavenly - you didn’t even have to pay 80p extra for guacamole!!
Aside from the food, San Francisco has a very split personality. It is a city famed for being close to Silicon Valley, the 5 sisters and its ‘caring’ attitude towards the homeless and lost. In fact, as you walked around the city, there are homeless people literally everywhere. You can at one moment be walked through very very fancy looking houses and apartments but around the corner a totally different picture. On one occasion, I was walking down a road and there was a guy sat there injecting himself with some amber looking stuff. That said, walking around these sorts of areas should seem threatening and indeed, if I was in the same sort of area of London then I would feel threatened. But in SF, these two worlds just sort of rub against each other but do not mix or bother each other. Nobody tried to ask for money, nobody even looked your way, they just went about their own business, chatting with each other etc. I suppose if the wealthy were being harassed on a regular basis then something would be done.
It is nearly time to board so I think part 1 will end there. Part two very soon, with photos I hope if this iPad does as I want.
