Planes, trains and... some other stuff

Well, today was our San Francisco Public transport day.
We grabbed a 1 day pass, which his valid for all SF metro trains, buses, Cable cars (like a tram, but powered from a centre track on the ground instead of overhead) and trolley buses (Like a bus, but powered by overhead power cables like a tram).
Throughout the day, our wanderings took us through much of the city, so I've taken the liberty of spending approximately 30 seconds drawing a map of our route.

(note: we started at the red star, and followed the red arrows around until we got back to our hostel at the red star.

Our first mode of transport for the day (after we walked from the hostel to Market Street) was a cable car. These iconic trams run on several routes through the centre of the city, and afford riders some amazing views of the city (like the golden gate and the trans-america building, alcatraz has this habit of popping up in every photo taken in San Francisco). At the end of the cable car route, we came to Ghirardelli square, where the world-famous chocolate of the same name was once made (nowadays, it's a shopping centre... how boring). taking a bus, we found our way to Coit tower, a monument to the city's firefighters (apparently it looks like a fire hydrant) built on top of Telegraph hill. Pip and I then took the elevator (they don't let you climb the stairs, how boring) to the top of the tower, which affords, in my opinion, the best views of the city around, with a 360 degree perspective of the White City (A name I understand much better now that I've seen it from above).

Climbing down Telegraph hill is an experience in itself, with a series of 'streets' in the form of steep wooden stairs and walkways leading back to street level.

Taking another cable car down California street, then a bus down Hayes, we passed Alamo Square and came to hippy capital of the world, Haight Ashbury. To be honest, despite some kooky locals and a couple of hippy-esque stores, the area didn't really live up to my expectations... imagine St Kilda, but without the beach, and with more homeless people (a big thing in SF), and you'll get some idea of Haigh Ashbury. Despite this, I did have a pleasant suprise when I was directed to a little place right down the end of Haight street called Amoeba music... now, don't let that 'little' remark fool you, Amoeba music is -huge-, even bigger than Rasputin's (which I was raving about a couple of days ago), and has a better range of used music. So I picked up a couple of bargains, and was happy.

Once we were done in Haight-Ashbury, we hopped a bus to Mission Dolores, the oldest standing building in all of Caliornia, erected in 1781 and home to a little cemetary where the statues cast some stunning shadows on the walls.

After grabbing lunch, we headed back by bus along Van Ness street and to our hostel. On finding out that said hostel was having a party tonight, we went to the movies, Hayley and I saw Jarhead (a Gulf War movie with Jake Gylenhaal that comes with my highly recommended stamp of approval), while the rest went to check out Harry Potter 4.

Tomorrow, we're gonna do a bunch of bits and pieces that we didn't get around to in the last few days, and make some preparations in anticipation of our departure for Yosemite early on sunday morning.

See y'all tomorrow.

The biggest Chinatown in the world... I mean.. the biggest outside of... ah forget it!

That's what they say about Chinatown in San Francisco. Just a fairly brief update today. Waking up this morning (hooray, I'm finally up to date with this thing!), we looked out our respective windows and saw... rain. Lots of rain. Then we had breakfast.... unfortunately, that seemed to have little to no effect on the amount of water falling from the sky (alot). So we got out our jackets, saddled up and began walking down towards the streets that make up SF's Chinatown.
Walking down the main drag, we saw a bunch of cool stuff, but given that I kinda wanted to, you know, use the camera during the rest of this holiday, I didn't take many pictures, choosing instead to shield the device from its natural predator, the rain. Shops that sold literally thousands of cheap (and not so cheap, I saw an antique carved wooden buddah with a marked price of $14,500) trinkets, traditional medicine shops with hundreds of herbs and spices which I couldn't even read the names of, let alone pronounce (let alone know what the hell they were for) and some truly stunning back alleys (what can I say, I love old-style fire escapes).
But I did manage to unravel one mystery today, that age old question "how do they get the fortunes inside the fortune cookies?". The answer? This lady, who it seems is single handedly responsible for San Francisco's lucrative 'baked goods with prophetic messages inside' racket. I won't tell you all what my fortune was, not because it was bad or embarrasing (do you reckon they sometimes throw in a 'your wife is cheating on you' just to screw with people?), but because fortunes kinda begin to lose all meaning when read 5 in the course of one 12 hour period.
After cruising through Chinatown, we came to the iconic City Lights Books, birthplace of the beat generation. We tried to get into the trans-america tower (huge San Franciscan pyramid shaped skyscraper) but apparently they don't have an observation deck (selfish bastards, keeping the best views in the city all to themselves). Then it started raining really hard, so we went back to our hostel. The end.

A big bridge and a little island, California

Namely The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz island.
After enjoying the view from our window the night before, we set off on the morning of the 30th to experience one of the most famous sights in the United States, the Golden Gate bridge. We set to walk across the bridge, and while the first stretch is fenced off, the majority of the bridge has only a handrail separating you from stunning views across of the white city. As we went further along the bridge, we saw some bizzare objects lying on the pylons on the outer edge of the bridge, but looking a little further, Hayley spotted dolphins in the bay below (poor picture, I know, but that's the best one out of about 12 shots). Eventually, we made it to the 2 main towers of the bridge, which provide some sterling oppurtunities for arty photography. Reaching the other end of the bridge, I gained a different perspective on the small, closed off building I had seen before, but was no closer to finding out what it once was. Despite the cold and windy conditions up on the bridge, it was a fine morning, weather-wise. The ocean, on the other hand, was not so hospitable.
The walk across the Golden gate bridge really is an amazing one, and a great way to get a sense of the history and scale of the whole city.

After visiting the bridge and taking a drive through the lovely Presidio (which I was so taken with, I forgot to take photos >_> <_<), we made ou way down the the famous pier 39, which is basically a tourist trap nowadays. This is somewhat redeemed by the colony of Sea Lions that resides on a series of barges nearby. You could stand for hours and watch these amazing animals sleeping, swimming, fighting and scratching themselves, they provide an excellent oppurtunity for some hardcore anthropomorphism ("look, he's waving to us" and the like).

From the moment we stepped onto the Alcatraz ferry, but especially once we reached The Rock itself, I'm afraid I got a little snap-happy. I think I've fallen in love with the little island in the middle of the bay which nowadays, half in ruins, provides a wealth of places to explore and discover, albeit in a somewhat limited manner (I hate these signs. If only I had the guts/stupidity to ignore them). All of Alcatraz is stunning, but I particularly loved the fact that, by virtue of its position in the very centre of the bay, you can gain some very unique perspectives on San Francisco. Imagine being an inmate here between 1934 and 1964 (when the island served as a maximum security federal penitentiary) and seeing one of the most beautiful cities in the world so close, yet so far away...

After a short ferry ride back across the bay, we stopped for what I'm told is an authentic specialty of the San Francisco wharfs, Clam chowder served in a hollowed out sourdough roll... All I know is that it was delicious.

Just a quick note, while I'm posting a reasonable number of pictures up here each day, I'm taking a whole bunch more. Today, for example, I took 120 odd photos. If any of y'all wanna see the unabridged photo 'album' when I get back, just tell me and I'd be happy to burn you a copy or something.

If you're goiiiing.....

To San Francisco, the song says you should wear some flowers in your hair. Well, our first full day in the White city, we woke up to rain.... It was regular, foggy SF weather. Our first port of call in the morning was the marin headlands national park... It turns out though, that there was fog down to about 100 metres, so the scenic lookout right above the Golden Gate bridge wasn't exactly scenic.... Either way, we headed down to the base of the bridge, where you could at least see the bottom of the Golden Gate. Unfortunately, due to 'security concerns', much of the area below the bridge is fenced off. Our morning of exploring the fog-ridden headlands had given us quite an appetite, and luckily Hayley and Mum knew a great little diner down in Sausolito, the Lighthouse Diner where you can watch the short-order cook whip up your 1/2 a pound of cheeseburger and home-fried potatoes. Finally, we crossed back over the bridge, and saw the fog beginning to lift!

Our first stop on the other side was the Palace of the fine arts, an ancient roman/greek style building built back in 1915. While the rain had stopped, it was still overcast, which made for some pretty uninspiring photography. But believe me, it's a beautiful place, and well worth the visit.

Driving vaguely in the direction of the hostel which was to be our home for the next few days, we experienced some of the spectacular sights of San Francisco, where it seems that a breathtaking view can be found at every intersection.
We saw the crazily windy Lombard street, then went up to the base of Coit Tower, which gave me an excellent chance to do my best Zoolander impression (trendy sunglasses courtesy of Hayley).

After checking in and getting settled in our room, we walked the couple of blocks to Union Square, where we found the spectacular Macy's christmas tree. I was feeling arty, so I got up into Macy's, and took a shot across the square. But the highlight of the night was discovering a little store called Rasputin's, 5 floors of new and used music and DVDs of all sorts. This is my idea of paradise. So I wnet home satisfied, and determined to go back to Rasputin's in the next few days and buy some ridiculously cheap music. Hooray!

Monterey -> Sausalito

Waking up on the Monterey peninsula, in the beautifully kitsch, beautifully pink Palm Grove motel, we set out on the morning of November the 28th for a tour of the super expensive 17 mile drive, home of such identities as (now deceased) former president Ronald Reagan. We took a look at world-renowned Pebble Beach golf course, then continued through the 17 mile drive and some stunning coastal views and similarly amazing houses. We then drove on to Monterey proper, and visited the genuine fish markets (not the touristy cannery row section), where we had another close encounter with some marine wildlife. And then, we were headed North, through Northern California, past freedom (Boulevard) and into the kind of country that you imagine of middle America, homely, ramshackle and pretty. We stopped for lunch at the pigeon point lighthouse, then pushed on, but as we got closer and closer to San Francisco, the weather began to close in. So we drove across the most famous bridge in the world in the rain, but I'm told that's par for the course in a San Franciscan winter. We eventually found accomodation across the bridge, in a pretty little town called Sausalito, and bedded down for the night, rain bucketing down outside, in preparation for our first day in the white city.
Argh... I'm still a day behind in updating this thing, but I took 80 photos today, and I don't think I have time to do justice to my first day in SF. So tommorow then.... See y'all, and keep commenting, It's great to keep in touch.

Cambria -> Monterey

You know, I always feel incredibly lucky to live where I do. To be surrounded by that kind of beauty is something I'm genuinely thankful for. But on our trip up the Californian central coast from Cambria to Monterey, I came across one of the few places in the world where I could honestly see myself packing up my life and leaving for. I'd say that I'd let the photos speak for themselves, but they just don't convey the impact of the Big Sur coast. If any of you ever get the chance to take the drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, grab it with both hands, it is quite possibly the single most beautiful place I've ever seen.

An early morning at the Cambria Palms motel began our day, and from there, we took it slowly down the road. Stopping frequently, we took off down the road, and throughout the day saw a wide variety of animals, our first Californian wildlife experience.

Once again, I find myself at a loss to explain the spectacular drive we had up the coast. Along what's known as the Big sur coast, the pacific highway (US highway 1) hugs the side of a long chain of steep cliffs where the mountains drop of into the sea. The road is dotted with tiny 'towns' which usually amount to no more than a cafe and an expensive yet impossibly cute gift shop. The road is also dotted with the houses of the super rich, and the hippy outposts of the 70s throwbacks. The road, being so close to the coast, also occasionally includes stunning and famous bridges, towering hundreds of feet above the canyon floor below.

Other highlights of the day were Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park, with its redwood grove and California's only coastal waterfall, a truly spectacular sight. We also stopped in the town of Big Sur itself and came across an arts and crafts market in and around an old hall in another redwood grove at the bottom of a valley. I wish I could describe it, or had decent pictures of it, but I just can't... Guess y'all will just have to experience it for yourselves. When we arrived in Monterey, we found a very nice room in a pink motel (picture tommorow), a perfect end to a spectacular day.

LA -> Cambria

Saturday the 26th of November, and we spent the day travelling from Anaheim to Cambria. After leaving at 7 in the morning, we arrived in Malibu, home of the rich and surfing just North of LA. After a couple of hours of driving through bland, industrial wasteland, we got out to the country, and into the pretty country of the Californian central coast. Santa Barbara, a pretty, spanish style college town was our next port of call. After brunch in a beautiful spot out on the local pier, we headed up to the outskirts of town of the Santa Barbara mission, the oldest mission in California, and a relic of the 16th century when catholic missionaries travelled up this coast and named -everything- after some saint or another. From Santa Barbara, the road veered inland and we travelled through some stunning hilly country toward San Louis Obispo (oh, and Adel, not sure if this'll mean anything, but I was within 2 blocks of being 'on Johnson avenue in San Luis Obispo'... though I wasn't listening to dance music >_> <_<). href="http://www.hearstcastle.com/">Hearst Castle. Check out the website, and you can see that it was built by super-rich early 20th century media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Anyway, after a short movie on Hearst's life and the castle (I use that term loosely, as it's not exactly a medieval English joint, more Spanish, to be honest) we took a bus ride up the hill to the compound itself (it's a series of buildings). The sun was low and quite yellow when we arrived, making for some brilliant shots of the huge pool and surrounds. Flash photography wasn't allowed inside the castle, and it was quite dark in the interior after the sun went down, so I didn't take many photos there, but believe me, it was incredibly, outrageously lavish and expensive. I did, though, manage to get a couple of picture of the indoor pool, which was one of the most magical places in the gathering dark.
Once we were done at Hearst Castle, we returned to Cambria, a place so insanely cute and small town-esque, it makes you start dreaming of retiring and wandering the friendly, small town streets browsing antique shops and knowing everyone by their first name... or is that just me? either way, dinner was a giant pizza between all five of us (note the hand, included for scale)... these people sure know how to do food.

Anyway, today was absolutely amazing, I saw some of the most stunning sights I'm ever likely to witness, but it's late and everyone else is already in bed, so I'll leave that update for tomorrow. Tomorrow, we'll be travelling on and reaching San Francisco, note sure what the internet situation will be like, but I should be able to at least stay only 1 day behind... Seey'all later.

Live from Cambria, CA

It's the Jonathan Russell travelling wifi show! While the motel we've booked into for the night in Cambria (a lovely little town, by the way)doesn't have wifi, We've managed to find a place a couple of doors down that does, so I'm writing this while sitting in a minivan outside of a motel, 'appropriating' wifi bandwidth. Today was great, driving up from LA, and we saw the amazing Hearst Castle (google it for more info). Will update fully in a couple of days.