Traveling is coffee for the soul.
There are many astonishing and wonderful things in the world, and I like to travel and see them. I am a middle-ageish man and I live in Northeastern Europe. My wife often travels with me, voluntarily. All pictures are taken by me, unless otherwise indicated.
San Francisco is known as the focal point of the hippie movement, and I'm told one should wear flowers in the hair there. We didn't, and few residents seem to do so either. The hippies seem to have disappeared. They are not to be found even the symbolic center of the "Summer of Love" in 1967, Haight-Ashbury district, which was not our favourite place in the city. Fortunately, the City by the Bay is full of other interesting places. I've already blogged about some of them.
Golden Gate bridge
The 1300 meter (4200 ft) bridge, completed in 1937, spanning the Golden Gate Strait is probably the best known symbol of San Francisco. It is visible from many places around town - unless there is fog, which may be the second best known symbol of San Francisco. We recommend crossing the bridge by foot, the views of town, Alcatraz and other places are great. Biking the bridge seems to be popular too, but we didn't try that. There are numerous bicycle rental shops in the city, and they also provide maps and route suggestions.
The name Golden Gate refers not only to the bridge but also to the strait the bridge spans. When the bridge was built, the U.S. Navy demanded it should be painted in yellow and black instead of red, for better visibility.
There are telephones on the bridge, with direct access to crisis counseling. There is no doubt this is a good thing, but it is a shivering thought nevertheless.
Mission
Mission is one of the most interesting districts of San Francisco. The name refers to a mission the Spanish founded in 1776, Mission San Francisco de Asís, after which the whole city was named. Today many residents of the district are of Latin American descent. Spanish seems to be at least as widely spoken as English.
Mission is known for its murals.
Thia mural pays tribute to Salvadoran bishop Óscar Romero, who spoke out against poverty and injustice and was murdered while offering mass in 1980.
Mission San Francisco de Asís is also known as Mission Dolores. Its church is the oldest building standing in the city.
Mission is an excellent neighborhood for a meal. Like many others, we recommend the El Farolito on the corner of Mission and 24th, right next to a metro station. We ate there twice, the food was excellent and service speedy and friendly ("what kind of meat for you, bro?") even though the place was unbelievably crowded (which seems to be a permanent state of affairs).
Ferries
The fastest and most practical connection between San Francisco and Oakland, on the Eastern shore of San Francisco bay, is the BART suburban train. However, in good weather we recommend taking the ferry instead. Also Sausalito and Tiburon, to the North of the Golden Gate, are accessible by ferry from San Francisco.
The historical Ferry Building still serves as the ferry terminal ofFrancisco.
We recommend buying lunch and/or ice cream from one of the Ferry Building's many takeout joints and eating on one of the nearby piers (pay attention to seagulls, though).
Bisons were hiding from the heat in shade and I didn't get any proper photos of them.
Street climbing
San Francisco is famous from steep hillside streets.
Yes, steep.
Twin Peaks is not only a TV series, it is also a viewpoint in San Francisco.
Dark Side
San Francisco is no paradise. Every big city, and many small ones, have their problems. On the streets of San Francisco live an alarming number of homeless people, many of them clearly with severe substance abuse problems. The homeless are more numerous, or at least more visible, than in New York, London or Berlin, for example. One of the first San Franciscans we met was smoking pot in a park at 8 AM, having a lively conversation with someone visible only to him.
The slums of the underprivileged and the city's most prestigious properties are sometimes right next to each other. An example of this is the beautiful park in front of the City Hall, with pathways clean enough to serve a meal on. The grim, depressing district of Tenderloin literally begins one block away from the park. There the overfilled, unemptied trashcans spill their contents on the streets, the homeless are sleeping under bus top benches and a repulsive smell of urine hovers over everything. I have not witnessed such a steep contrast in wealth anywhere in the so-called Western World. The closest comparison that I can think of is Tbilisi.
Oakland, across the Bay and a 10-minute train ride away from San Francisco, is statistically the violent crime capital of California and one of the most dangerous cities in United States. However, there's statistically no reason to get hysterical. We stayed in the infamous West Oakland for a week, and not once did we feel threatened in any way.
Balclutha, a full-rigged ship built in Scotland, 1887.
Once upon a time San Francisco wass the most important port on the United States West Coast. No surprise then that there are several interesting museum ships there. If you're as interested in them as I am, you can easily spend a whole week day exploring them.
The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, another gem ran by the National Park Service, is situated on the touristy Fisherman's Wharf. It includes several museum vessels, many of which are accessible to visitors. Full-rigger Balclutha sailed in commercial freight traffic from 1887 to 1930, and has an interesting and eventful history. For example, she was the last ship ever to fly the flag of the independent kingdom of Hawaii. There's a well-designed exhibition in the cargo hold about different cargoes transported by the Balclutha. All of the ship is accessible, but climbing the rigging is prohibited. In the captains's salon, in the galley and in the forecastle the visitors can imagine what it felt like to sail an ocean-going sailing vessel, when trips lasted several months.
Captain's salon.
Crew quarters in the forecastle. I don't think the anchor windlass in the middle of the room did much for comfort. The picture is taken with a fish-eye lens and is therefore distorted.
Balclutha's figurehead.
The paddle-wheel ferry Eureka is also very interesting, in a completely different way than Balclutha. She was built only three years later, in 1890, and she's almost as big as the ocean-going fullrigger. She originally transported trainso over the Golden Gate from San Francisco to Sausalito. After the First World War she was converted to a passenger and car ferry. After the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge were completed in th 1930s, most of the numerous ferries of the San Francisco Bay were decommissioned. Eureka, however, remained in traffic until 1957.
Entrance to the Eureka.
The car deck.
The passenger deck. It only took about half an hour to get from Sausalito to San Francisco, but there was a restaurant serving full meals on the Eureka.
Technologically Eureka was quite old-fashioned already when built. Paddle-wheels had largely been replaced by propellers, and the one-cylinder steam engine was based on 18th-century technology. The machinery was simple, and reliable on a vessel designed for continuous short trips. It was important to keep maintenance costs low and time required for repairs short.
Eureka's engine, picture taken with a fish-eye lens..
The engine explained.
The Historical Park's collections include other vessels as well, like thid paddle-wheel tug.
The museum, also included in the Historical Park, was under renovation, but we could see some nice scale models in the lobby. This one depicts San Francisco harbor around the 1849 gold rush. The sailing vessel Niantic had arrived from the U.S. East Coast, sailing around Cape Horn. The owners decided to convert it to a shop and tavern - at the time, the potential profit was greater than in shipping industry.
Another model featured the crew in masts.
A few blocks away there's a Liberty-class freight steamer Jeremiah O'Brien, built during the Second World War. She's not a part of the Historical Park but ran by an association. She is seaworthy and in navigable condition, and does sail every now and then. In her hold visitors can see an exhibition on the Liberty ships, which were built for war material transports. Between 1941 and 1945, 2710 were built.
Liberty-class freighter Jeremiah O'Brien.
The telegrapher's cabin.
Fist mate's cabin. The radio equipment is not original but for the modern use of the ship.
The Jeremiah O'Brienin operational main engine.
The rescue ladder of the engine room. Would you want to climb this to escape a burning engine room after the ship has been hit by a torpedo?
There's another WWII vessel next to the Jeremiah O'Brien, the submarine USS Pampanito.
Fisherman's Wharf is probably the most touristy area of San Francisco and it is not my favorite place in the city. The museum ships are great, but in addition to them there are mostly plastic, overpriced theme restaurants and souvenir shops. However, there is one more reason to visit the Fisherman's Wharf: The sea lion colony on Pier 39. Jolly creatures. Smelly, though.
Every now and then one should show off for the tourists...
