The Orange-Red Bridge

So, i've had two days here in this city, and I must say that it's actually very lovely one! I've been to some dumps in my life, but San Francisco really soes have some lovely things on offer....

Yesterday I explored the area not too far from my hostel (the area of my hostel is actually not so good...was wondering why I kept passing so many doped up people! Turns out it has a bit of a reputation! I feel fine there, though no walking there at night! Thing is that the hostel is actaully lovely! So staying put....and they give FREE breakfast!!!!). I walked up several of San Francisco's hills, walked around Chinatown for some time, looked at the cable cars, and wandered around the Union Square area, where all the very expensive shops are....mainly I just lay on a patch of grass for quite some time and read this book I got from Meike. It's a dutch book called "Ik was twaalf en ik fietste naar school" (I was 12 and I was cycling to school), which is the story of Sabine Ardenne - she survived 80 days with the most "evil man of Belgium" - Marc Dutroux. It was about 220 pages long and I finished reading it in two days....it was so engrossing! Really sad to think there are people there that like to harm others...

Today I rented a bike for 15 dollars for the day, and cycled close to 30 miles....and not FLAT miles either! Let me tell you! Some places were so steep that even with the smallest gear (and my bike had 24 of them!!!!) it took a lot of effort to get up some of them....but i was determined to cycle up the hill, even when at times I was passed by some very fit joggers! They just wizzed by! Lol! But stupid me, I forgot to put on sun screen and now i'm paying for it....I've been lucky with the weather today....sun and blue skies....but I now have a burnt face and burnt shoulders! And I didn't even manage that in Hawaii! But luckily I did drink a lot....so hopefully not dehydrated....

I basically got to see ALL the other sites today by bike: Went to Fisherman's Wharf (a very touristy area of redeveloped wharf area.....including the famous pier 39 where there was a colony of seals to be seen! Boy, did they stink or what?!?!?!?!!?), cycled through park area - Presidio (where there used to be a very lovely army base) - all around the coast to the Lincoln Park, on to Golden Gate Park (this park is apparently the biggest manmade park in the world....it's more than 3 miles long and is something like a mile wide) where I rode past several museums (wasn't really in the mood for art museums today) and stopped at the Conservatory of Flowers (a building that I swear was in one of my favourite movies "heart and souls"). This conservatory was amazing, and as luck would have it, it was free to enter today, because it was the first tuesday of the month! It was like I had planned it:-) One area had loads of water lilies and another room had orchids by the bucket load! But then again, i've seen they grow wild on the big island in Hawaii! THere was even a room that had loads of butterflies in them! felt a bit sorry for the ones that oviously wanted to get out....but it wasn't too bad, considering the room was really large and they had loads of flowers to chose from! Even got reminded of something that i'm sure i've heard before: Butterflies taste throught their feet! How cool is that????

From here I went back to the Golden Gate Bridge and went completely trigger happy:-) It really is a beautiful bridge! And I got to cycle over it...at one stage there was this policemen looking for something, so I asked if I could be of any help. Apparently they were looking for a cyclist, aged around 50 with a purple top, whom was crying and was threatening to jump off the bridge! But I hadn't seen her and so wouldn't help....I really hope they found her though!

I cycled to the other side and cycled to a tiny little historic town called Sausalito, which was really beautiful, and caught the ferry back to San Francisco....That ride took like 40 min....and we got to pass the famous Alcatraz prison....didn't look like a place I'd want to be!!!!! But I guess that's the point!

Anyway, I have to run back to the hostel before it gets dark.....don't want to walk in that area at night!!!!