6th of October 2007: A Day in San Francisco
Pictures in this page are courtesy of (and owned by) Deidre Radford.
When I wake up things look a lot cheerier. I've slept for over nine hours and I'm feeling a bit more on top of things, if still very tired - it's going to take some time for me to catch up my enormous amount of lost sleep lately. But it's a beautiful fresh morning, and let's face it, I'm waking up in a guesthouse on the Haight, in San Francisco, California!
First priority is to shower, breakfast and resume the search for Gadget. The guesthouse turns out to be rather amazing - a very tall, narrow building with all sorts of odd nooks and crannies, corners and siderooms. There's a kitchen on each floor - I'm on the second, and I walk first into the kitchen then straight out onto a balcony with an amazing view across the city roofs toward the distant hills over the city.
I try Deidre from the payphone once I've showered and changed, but there's no answer - presumably she's still in bed after the late night - so I grab a few essentials and set out onto the Haight to find internet access. As it turns out it's right across the road, in the Cafe International, but it costs $7.00 per hour, definitely too much for regular use - also all the applications are locked out so I can't work on the blog if I need to.
What it does allow me to do, while I drink some great cappucino and munch on a classic Haight chicken mayo bagel (it comes with a big pile of sprouts by default), is check my email, and discover that Gadget has left me rather in the lurch. I have an email back from Dennis at the Cozy Castro Cottage, informing me that Gadget has gone to Hawaii. So, no accomodation arrangements then. I'll have to figure out something for myself.
I need to answer a whole bunch of emails and look up a load of information but by the time I've knocked out the first couple of mails I'm out of time, and I'm not paying another $7.00 from my dwindling funds. Asking around I find that the public library has free net access, and I'm given directions. It's about half an hour's walk, and turns out to take me through some beautiful areas of the city, from the little bohemian shops and guesthouses around Haight to the extraordinary marble edifices of the Opera district and the library itself.
The library access is only available in fifteen minute chunks, but there are loads of terminals and not too many people waiting so I never have to wait more than ten minutes to get back on. I hang out for about two hours, slowly getting up to date on my email and digging up the various bits of information I need.
I head back up to the guesthouse, and on the way I go to buy a phonecard but notice that the store are selling prepay mobile phones with ridiculously good rates (10c per minute anywhere in the US and 15c for international calls) for $30.00. It seems like a worthwhile investment so I pick up a Nokia Net10. I'm phoneable again!
Once I get back to the guesthouse, charge and activate the phone and call Deidre, she and Brian are heading toward Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill so I head to synchronise with them. It takes about four buses and a lot of waiting around. Telegraph Hill stands on the northeast corner of San Francisco, with the houses rising around its base - the top of the tower is all beautiful junglish forest, and a breeding colony of parrots live and thrive there. On top is the huge concrete spike of Coit Tower, overlooking the city on two sides and the bay on the others.
I buy my ticket in the tiny shop which is wrapped round the base of the tower, and ride the antique elevator to the small viewing space inside the top of the tower - there are big perspex-covered windows on all sides from which to see the views. I am reunited with Deidre and introduced to Brian, a skinny, slightly nervous-looking guy with long red hair. We see and photograph everything in sight then make our way back down.
Comparing our various maps we decide to head toward Japantown by trolleycar, but after three of the things go by completely overloaded we begin to realise it's not going to be a viable option at this time on a Saturday. Instead we walk down into Chinatown which is much nearer. We're idly talking about dinner options when we pass a Chinese restaurant with an extraordinary rack of carcasses in the window, a huge array of dishes on display and a wonderful smell wafting out, and dinner plans are determined instantly.
I'm particularly drawn by the range of offal on display, and I order a combination meal of steamed rice and vegetables with a selection of samples from the trays - intestines from what I assume is chicken, chicken feet in brown sauce and duck feet in a sweet and sour sauce, with some barbecue pork in case I can't eat anything else. Deidre goes a bit safer with some duck and some pork - Brian's not that hungry but willing to sample what we get. Everything is portioned out with precision by two chefs wielding huge cleavers in an intricate dance around a tiny kitchen.
We sit on a kerb and eat out of the plastic trays. The intestines are very chewy but taste pretty good, and the feet are delicious, although they take a lot of work to eat the small amount of meat off the bones. On the whole the pork wins for convenience and gorgeous flavour and texture. Brian tries the intestines and seems mildly traumatised.
Slightly greasy and replete we walk on down through Chinatown to find the City Lights bookshop, legendary hangout of Kerouac and other literary figures. On the way we are diverted against our will into a beautiful shop full of Tibetan and Nepalese rugs, jewellery, instruments and tapestries, and a huge range of buddhist books. We're engrossed for some time - Deidre finds a couple of beautiful pendants, and I replace my missing fleece with an (actually quite reasonable at $65.00) red and orange fleece-lined woollen jacket with which I completely fall in love.
After a quick cruise around City Lights we head further into town and find some really great little bars which occupy the rest of the evening. We hear some wonderful live music, dance like maniacs to some nineties classics and generally have a pretty good night of it. The evening only falls down when I leave my shoulder bag in a taxi cab. It contains my vaccination record and some other paperwork, recipe book and various other bits and bobs (replaceable), and my journals, address book and my camera with NASA photos still on it and not uploaded (definitely not).
When I wake up things look a lot cheerier. I've slept for over nine hours and I'm feeling a bit more on top of things, if still very tired - it's going to take some time for me to catch up my enormous amount of lost sleep lately. But it's a beautiful fresh morning, and let's face it, I'm waking up in a guesthouse on the Haight, in San Francisco, California!
First priority is to shower, breakfast and resume the search for Gadget. The guesthouse turns out to be rather amazing - a very tall, narrow building with all sorts of odd nooks and crannies, corners and siderooms. There's a kitchen on each floor - I'm on the second, and I walk first into the kitchen then straight out onto a balcony with an amazing view across the city roofs toward the distant hills over the city.
I try Deidre from the payphone once I've showered and changed, but there's no answer - presumably she's still in bed after the late night - so I grab a few essentials and set out onto the Haight to find internet access. As it turns out it's right across the road, in the Cafe International, but it costs $7.00 per hour, definitely too much for regular use - also all the applications are locked out so I can't work on the blog if I need to.
What it does allow me to do, while I drink some great cappucino and munch on a classic Haight chicken mayo bagel (it comes with a big pile of sprouts by default), is check my email, and discover that Gadget has left me rather in the lurch. I have an email back from Dennis at the Cozy Castro Cottage, informing me that Gadget has gone to Hawaii. So, no accomodation arrangements then. I'll have to figure out something for myself.
I need to answer a whole bunch of emails and look up a load of information but by the time I've knocked out the first couple of mails I'm out of time, and I'm not paying another $7.00 from my dwindling funds. Asking around I find that the public library has free net access, and I'm given directions. It's about half an hour's walk, and turns out to take me through some beautiful areas of the city, from the little bohemian shops and guesthouses around Haight to the extraordinary marble edifices of the Opera district and the library itself.
The library access is only available in fifteen minute chunks, but there are loads of terminals and not too many people waiting so I never have to wait more than ten minutes to get back on. I hang out for about two hours, slowly getting up to date on my email and digging up the various bits of information I need.
I head back up to the guesthouse, and on the way I go to buy a phonecard but notice that the store are selling prepay mobile phones with ridiculously good rates (10c per minute anywhere in the US and 15c for international calls) for $30.00. It seems like a worthwhile investment so I pick up a Nokia Net10. I'm phoneable again!
Once I get back to the guesthouse, charge and activate the phone and call Deidre, she and Brian are heading toward Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill so I head to synchronise with them. It takes about four buses and a lot of waiting around. Telegraph Hill stands on the northeast corner of San Francisco, with the houses rising around its base - the top of the tower is all beautiful junglish forest, and a breeding colony of parrots live and thrive there. On top is the huge concrete spike of Coit Tower, overlooking the city on two sides and the bay on the others.I buy my ticket in the tiny shop which is wrapped round the base of the tower, and ride the antique elevator to the small viewing space inside the top of the tower - there are big perspex-covered windows on all sides from which to see the views. I am reunited with Deidre and introduced to Brian, a skinny, slightly nervous-looking guy with long red hair. We see and photograph everything in sight then make our way back down.
Comparing our various maps we decide to head toward Japantown by trolleycar, but after three of the things go by completely overloaded we begin to realise it's not going to be a viable option at this time on a Saturday. Instead we walk down into Chinatown which is much nearer. We're idly talking about dinner options when we pass a Chinese restaurant with an extraordinary rack of carcasses in the window, a huge array of dishes on display and a wonderful smell wafting out, and dinner plans are determined instantly.I'm particularly drawn by the range of offal on display, and I order a combination meal of steamed rice and vegetables with a selection of samples from the trays - intestines from what I assume is chicken, chicken feet in brown sauce and duck feet in a sweet and sour sauce, with some barbecue pork in case I can't eat anything else. Deidre goes a bit safer with some duck and some pork - Brian's not that hungry but willing to sample what we get. Everything is portioned out with precision by two chefs wielding huge cleavers in an intricate dance around a tiny kitchen.We sit on a kerb and eat out of the plastic trays. The intestines are very chewy but taste pretty good, and the feet are delicious, although they take a lot of work to eat the small amount of meat off the bones. On the whole the pork wins for convenience and gorgeous flavour and texture. Brian tries the intestines and seems mildly traumatised.
Slightly greasy and replete we walk on down through Chinatown to find the City Lights bookshop, legendary hangout of Kerouac and other literary figures. On the way we are diverted against our will into a beautiful shop full of Tibetan and Nepalese rugs, jewellery, instruments and tapestries, and a huge range of buddhist books. We're engrossed for some time - Deidre finds a couple of beautiful pendants, and I replace my missing fleece with an (actually quite reasonable at $65.00) red and orange fleece-lined woollen jacket with which I completely fall in love.
After a quick cruise around City Lights we head further into town and find some really great little bars which occupy the rest of the evening. We hear some wonderful live music, dance like maniacs to some nineties classics and generally have a pretty good night of it. The evening only falls down when I leave my shoulder bag in a taxi cab. It contains my vaccination record and some other paperwork, recipe book and various other bits and bobs (replaceable), and my journals, address book and my camera with NASA photos still on it and not uploaded (definitely not).Labels: California, Chinese cuisine, city lights, Coit Tower, intestines, Metro Areas, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area
posted by Mark at
20:00
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home