Maui and San Francisco
Hello! (No longer Aloha)
So, we're in San Francisco. With net access again, hurrah! We're in a sweet hostel. Free wireless net access, a private room with our own tv and bathroom. This is living on the cheap.
San Francisco is freakin sweet. It has a real funky, liberal vibe. So liberal in fact that George Bush has never visited here as president. He is the only president ever to not visit this city. Basically him visiting here just wouldnt go down too well. The shopping here is awesome, and it's not as expensive as we had been warned about. Maybe that's because we'd just come from Maui, which is pretty expensive. The weather has also been totally sweet. It is not cold at all, in fact, in the sun it's pretty warm. It has been bright and sunny, with not a hint of the notorious San Francisco fog. Anyway, I'm totally going to move here.
We took a tour of the city yesterday that took in a whole bunch of stuff. Things of note were The Golden Gate Bridge, Amoeba Music, Haight Ashbury, The House where Mrs Doubtfire was filmed (one of my favourite movies), Twin Peaks, and Muir Woods. What are all these places? Well, the bridge needs no intruduction. Amoeba Music is like the biggest music store I've ever been in. I have never seen so many records before in my life.
That picture doesnt even do it justice, seriously. That's like one corner of it. They also had like brand new CD's for $3 and stuff, which beats those $10 Sydney stores :)
Also, Joel Gion from the Brian Jonestown Massacre works there. Amoeba Music was located in Haight Ashbury, which is the birthplace of the 60's hippy / free love / peace / whatever movement. Apparently it all started on the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets. These days, there's not so many hippys. But there's a whole bunch of funky shops, selling all sorts of new and used ultra-trendy clothes. At Twin Peaks we went up to a lookout that has awesome views of the city. After checking out the view for a while we drove out over the Golden Gate Bridge to the north of the city to a place called Muir Woods. Muir Woods is like this national park that has all these huge Californian redwoods. Some of them are over 1000 years old.
Today we went out to Alcatraz. Very interesting, especially some of the stories about the inmates like Al Capone. Also some beautiful views of San Francisco harbour. We also stopped by this pier that sea lions have completely taken over. They just appeared one day in the early 90's and havent left. Rather than making an effort to get rid of them, the state has protected the area and actually made it illegal for anyone to do anything to harrass the sealions. The sea lions, like a lot of the tourists, were loud, smelly, and obnoxious. But they were also the funniest things in the world ever. Although there are plenty of floating pontoons for them to sleep on, they fight constantly over just a few of them. The fighting is reminiscent of sumo wrestling, with each sea lion trying to wrestle and barge their opponent off the pontoon and into the harbour.
While we were out there this crazy fog moved in and totally obscured the bridge. It also signalled the end of the warm weather. We went shopping tonight and it felt more like we were in Europe than California. I picked up a rather snazzy little Calvin Klein overcoat for the colder weather ahead. I won't tell you how much it was, because you'll all have like an intervention or something.
Our last few days on Maui were filled with adventure, high seas, and a whoole lot of driving. We took the 2.5 hour drive to Hana which is around the back of the main volcano on the island it's only like 30 miles or something, but it is the windiest road on earth, and you have to take it easy because there's an SUV lurking around every blind corner.
After that we did some whale watching, and some horse riding. We also went around to Wailea which is where all the rich people live on Maui. It's also the location of the most exclusive resort on the island, the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel which has hosted the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Paris Hilton, and Andrew Henry. Well, they didnt exactly 'host' me, but we did use their beach for a while. The good thing about Maui is that all the beaches are public, the resorts can't buy them, and they can't stop people using them.
There was quite a bit of swell whilst we've been on Maui, but due to the wind direction it was pretty messy on the north shore where we were staying. In the mornings when the wind was a bit weaker people have been towing into jaws. We got a tip off from a local surfer who said there was a bay on the north west of the island which is protected from the wind but still gets a bit of the swell. So we took a drive around to Honolua bay and sure enough, the surf was sweet.
Also, a few american turns of phrase have snuck into my vocabulary, such as "shut up" (indicating incredulity). Eg.
Alex: Your name's Lisa? Shut up, I love that name!
Lisa: Did she just tell me to shut up?
Tomorrow we're off on a roadtrip. We're headed for San Diego via the scenic Californian Central Coast, and Los Angeles.
That's all for now, got an early start tomorrow. Hope you're all doing well and having as much fun as we are, or at the very least, being really jealous of us.
So, we're in San Francisco. With net access again, hurrah! We're in a sweet hostel. Free wireless net access, a private room with our own tv and bathroom. This is living on the cheap.
San Francisco is freakin sweet. It has a real funky, liberal vibe. So liberal in fact that George Bush has never visited here as president. He is the only president ever to not visit this city. Basically him visiting here just wouldnt go down too well. The shopping here is awesome, and it's not as expensive as we had been warned about. Maybe that's because we'd just come from Maui, which is pretty expensive. The weather has also been totally sweet. It is not cold at all, in fact, in the sun it's pretty warm. It has been bright and sunny, with not a hint of the notorious San Francisco fog. Anyway, I'm totally going to move here.
We took a tour of the city yesterday that took in a whole bunch of stuff. Things of note were The Golden Gate Bridge, Amoeba Music, Haight Ashbury, The House where Mrs Doubtfire was filmed (one of my favourite movies), Twin Peaks, and Muir Woods. What are all these places? Well, the bridge needs no intruduction. Amoeba Music is like the biggest music store I've ever been in. I have never seen so many records before in my life.
That picture doesnt even do it justice, seriously. That's like one corner of it. They also had like brand new CD's for $3 and stuff, which beats those $10 Sydney stores :)
Also, Joel Gion from the Brian Jonestown Massacre works there. Amoeba Music was located in Haight Ashbury, which is the birthplace of the 60's hippy / free love / peace / whatever movement. Apparently it all started on the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets. These days, there's not so many hippys. But there's a whole bunch of funky shops, selling all sorts of new and used ultra-trendy clothes. At Twin Peaks we went up to a lookout that has awesome views of the city. After checking out the view for a while we drove out over the Golden Gate Bridge to the north of the city to a place called Muir Woods. Muir Woods is like this national park that has all these huge Californian redwoods. Some of them are over 1000 years old.
Today we went out to Alcatraz. Very interesting, especially some of the stories about the inmates like Al Capone. Also some beautiful views of San Francisco harbour. We also stopped by this pier that sea lions have completely taken over. They just appeared one day in the early 90's and havent left. Rather than making an effort to get rid of them, the state has protected the area and actually made it illegal for anyone to do anything to harrass the sealions. The sea lions, like a lot of the tourists, were loud, smelly, and obnoxious. But they were also the funniest things in the world ever. Although there are plenty of floating pontoons for them to sleep on, they fight constantly over just a few of them. The fighting is reminiscent of sumo wrestling, with each sea lion trying to wrestle and barge their opponent off the pontoon and into the harbour.
While we were out there this crazy fog moved in and totally obscured the bridge. It also signalled the end of the warm weather. We went shopping tonight and it felt more like we were in Europe than California. I picked up a rather snazzy little Calvin Klein overcoat for the colder weather ahead. I won't tell you how much it was, because you'll all have like an intervention or something.
Our last few days on Maui were filled with adventure, high seas, and a whoole lot of driving. We took the 2.5 hour drive to Hana which is around the back of the main volcano on the island it's only like 30 miles or something, but it is the windiest road on earth, and you have to take it easy because there's an SUV lurking around every blind corner.
After that we did some whale watching, and some horse riding. We also went around to Wailea which is where all the rich people live on Maui. It's also the location of the most exclusive resort on the island, the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel which has hosted the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Paris Hilton, and Andrew Henry. Well, they didnt exactly 'host' me, but we did use their beach for a while. The good thing about Maui is that all the beaches are public, the resorts can't buy them, and they can't stop people using them.
There was quite a bit of swell whilst we've been on Maui, but due to the wind direction it was pretty messy on the north shore where we were staying. In the mornings when the wind was a bit weaker people have been towing into jaws. We got a tip off from a local surfer who said there was a bay on the north west of the island which is protected from the wind but still gets a bit of the swell. So we took a drive around to Honolua bay and sure enough, the surf was sweet.
Also, a few american turns of phrase have snuck into my vocabulary, such as "shut up" (indicating incredulity). Eg.
Alex: Your name's Lisa? Shut up, I love that name!
Lisa: Did she just tell me to shut up?
Tomorrow we're off on a roadtrip. We're headed for San Diego via the scenic Californian Central Coast, and Los Angeles.
That's all for now, got an early start tomorrow. Hope you're all doing well and having as much fun as we are, or at the very least, being really jealous of us.