Backlog Item #1 - Golden Gate Bridge, Chinese New Year and Missionary
Because I am determined to document my time there in California, I'm (hopefully) going to be posting a series of entries, mostly about the touristy type stuff I've been up to on the weekends.
We'd been in California for a whole without visiting the Golden Gate Bridge, so we decided it was a good day to visit one of the world's favourite suicide spots. (According to wikipedia, on average one persone jumps every two weeks.) Dan, Anton, Anton's roommate and I navigated the city's public transit system to get to the bridge and we walked across, since there is a pedestrian line.All I have to say is the bridge is frickin' huge and impressive. And orange.
Here are some pictures:
The Bridge, from an ant's eye view
The Bridge's Shadow, on the Bay
The view of San Francisco, from the Bridge
After being awed by this feat of engineering, we hopped back on a bus and headed to Chinatown to see the Chinese New Year parade. On the bus, I accidentally sat beside a missionary. I should have noticed the suit, nametag and bible before I sat down, but there were few seats available. Naturally, this guy wanted to talk to me, but at least he had the decency to make small-talk to before launching into the whole God thing. I told him that I wasn't interested in his message and, to my surprise, he didn't persist. A definite improvement on the christian groups that have approached me on campus.
After crawling through traffic, we reached the site of the parade. There were some cool floats and performers, though I'm not sure what kilted marching bands have to do with chinese culture. Also, standing in the crowd made me remember why I stopped going to the Santa Claus parade: people are not happy when packed closely together, and kids are whiney. We decided to leave early and beat the rush. Since it would only be appropriate to have chinese food for dinner, we went off in search of an appropriate restaurnt. After a bit of wander around, we went to the lobby of a hotel and asked the guy at the desk if we knew of any good places nearby. He was able to point us to pretty good place. Must remember that restaurant locating strategy for future reference.
We'd been in California for a whole without visiting the Golden Gate Bridge, so we decided it was a good day to visit one of the world's favourite suicide spots. (According to wikipedia, on average one persone jumps every two weeks.) Dan, Anton, Anton's roommate and I navigated the city's public transit system to get to the bridge and we walked across, since there is a pedestrian line.All I have to say is the bridge is frickin' huge and impressive. And orange.
Here are some pictures:
The Bridge, from an ant's eye view
The Bridge's Shadow, on the Bay
The view of San Francisco, from the Bridge
After being awed by this feat of engineering, we hopped back on a bus and headed to Chinatown to see the Chinese New Year parade. On the bus, I accidentally sat beside a missionary. I should have noticed the suit, nametag and bible before I sat down, but there were few seats available. Naturally, this guy wanted to talk to me, but at least he had the decency to make small-talk to before launching into the whole God thing. I told him that I wasn't interested in his message and, to my surprise, he didn't persist. A definite improvement on the christian groups that have approached me on campus.
After crawling through traffic, we reached the site of the parade. There were some cool floats and performers, though I'm not sure what kilted marching bands have to do with chinese culture. Also, standing in the crowd made me remember why I stopped going to the Santa Claus parade: people are not happy when packed closely together, and kids are whiney. We decided to leave early and beat the rush. Since it would only be appropriate to have chinese food for dinner, we went off in search of an appropriate restaurnt. After a bit of wander around, we went to the lobby of a hotel and asked the guy at the desk if we knew of any good places nearby. He was able to point us to pretty good place. Must remember that restaurant locating strategy for future reference.