America by car, part 9/10 - San Francisco

America by car, part 9/10 - San Francisco – main image

As we approached the city on the highway, we expected a similar glow to the one over Las Vegas. Yes - the glow was - it started with the lights of the Oakland airport (actually the "suburbs" of San Francisco). The weather surprised us - a few miles before SF there was a beautiful starry night, clear sky, the moon two nights before the full moon. Moments later, a gigantic fog (cloud?) Hung over the city, giving us a gentle drizzle. As we pulled off the Bay Bridge, we turned towards (as our girls say) "the very center" of SF, and the scenery was fairy-tale-comic.

Imagine: the night, dim light from behind the clouds, a specific fog suddenly falling on the city, skyscrapers in the downtown, which are not visible to the spiers, but you can feel their presence ... Great, a bit dark atmosphere - such Gotham City in light rain.
We found the hotel (The Union Square Plaza Hotel on Geary Street) in no time, it turned out to be a bit worse than our standard Travelodge motel, but it benefited from one thing: LOCATION. Located right next to the HIGH CENTER, San Franciso has proved to be a great base for exploring the city with the help of its public transport. After a little rest and support, we finally gathered and after midnight we set off into the city. A walk around the nearby Union Square (the text "strict center" begins to be the hallmark of our trip). It turned out that SF goes to sleep at this time (at least in the very center) and we finally sat down in the only working Irish pub in the area.

Yesterday, i.e. Wednesday, 6.05. we gathered decently and already around 11 o'clock we were having breakfast in "Lori, s" - a classic American pub, where you sit in red, leather boxes, there is a chessboard on the floor, and the waitress politely pours coffee from the jug ... After breakfast we went on a classic San Francisco tour. First, a ride on the famous "cable car" - Cable Car - along the bizarre streets of SF - up, down, up and down ... then walk around Chinatown (shopping to Marcin's camera) towards Coit Tower. From under the tower there was a beautiful view of the bay and… the Golden Gate, which was not there.

Well, while it was understandable that we do not see this legendary bridge (I have the impression that I use the word "legendary" every now and then - if so - forgive me) when entering the city, the next day, when we went to Coit Tower in fine weather - we expected to see this miracle of engineering, which (as we were told) was to be visible from this place in all its glory ... What was our surprise when, after climbing the last few dozen steps to the parking lot under the tower (funded years ago by a wealthy citizen of SF) - WE DIDN'T SEE THE BRIDGE ... A magnificent view of the bay, in the foreground the bustling pier of Pier 39 , and the place where the bridge should theoretically be - shrouded in fog ...
"We didn't agree like that," you'd like to say, but well - we had to be patient and wait ...

We took the bus from Coit Tower (earlier, before the tram ride, we bought day tickets for public transport for only $ 11 / person) to the aforementioned Pier 39, which can be described as something like a wooden pier built up with shops and restaurants. The biggest attraction here is undoubtedly the Sea Lions - Sea Lions (for me - just bigger seals), which lie - several hundred in number - on the coastal piers and gracefully pose for excited tourists. It wasn't the first time, therefore, that we felt like classic Japanese tourists, whom we used to make fun of (read slang: tearing the shoals / rags) ... Another time during this trip we shot our cameras - this time - at the sun lounging. " seal ".

In the afternoon, we ate a decent but square pizza in the neighborhood pompously known as Little Italy and headed to another tourist attraction - Lombards Street. The whole thing about this street is that on its very short section (about 200 meters in a straight line) it is quite twisted. Twisting means - no more or less - only a few very sharp bends and a very steep slope of the road at the same time. Lombards Street has one direction of going up and down. In the evening, a two-hour session (not necessarily ofkors) at the Marshall's outlet on one of the main arteries of the city - Market Street. The girls fell into a trance, but this was just a foretaste (on the radio we would say in English - tease) of what was about to happen.

Late in the evening, after a short rest at the hotel, we went for a walk around the area. Unfortunately, the area, despite - let me remind you - STRONG CENTER - abounds in crowds of the so-called they chewed the common ones - not to be confused with the tramps. It made a walk near Union Square exciting, adventure in the air, and… it smelled like power - from sneaking, wandering, sleeping homeless people.

I invite you to read the next part about the way back to Los Angeles

kuba
kuba

I crossed America by car and I am happy to tell you about it!

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America by car, part 8/10 - Sequoia National Park – image 1
Travel reports
America by car, part 8/10 - Sequoia National Park
We found yesterday's accommodation from the so-called shoe - it was the first night for which we did not have an overnight stay booked. Arriving in Fresno, we expected a small town, which turned out to be quite a big city, so we didn't even drive into the center. We were tempted by a fast-food district (in one place, apart from McDonald's, you can find Wenddys, Taco Bells, Carl's Jr, In & Out burger, Denni's, KFC - a real paradise for American fat people) where we also found two motels. Such a roadside town, where truck drivers stop overnight, offers accommodation for only $ 67 for 4 people. And so, after unpacking the car, we went for a walk for delicious fat burgers. Then some duties - that is accommodation in San Francisco. On this occasion, a stormy debate took place - I and Ela insisted on living as close to the center as possible - that is, in the Union Square area, and the boys cheered on accommodation in our already friendly Travellodge chain. For us, however, 1600 meters away is a challenge not on the streets of San Francisco, which we intend to measure along and run along. In the end it was ours - we sleep in the Union Plaza Hotel. After processing the photos, we went for a conciliatory drink at the swimming pool - cheap hotels, as usual, offer a large pool - this one was for 16 people. And so we sat by the pool under the palm trees, drinking a drink at 12 am, trying not to wake up the sleeping drivers with their bursts of laughter, who parked their beautiful, big, colorful trucks in the parking lot next door. In the morning we got up at a decent time, although, as you already know, it is more and more difficult - we have already changed our time and even though the watch was set to 5 p.m. Polish time, it was hard to get up. Kuba, anticipating such a situation, also performed the procedure of hiding the alarm clock - so that no one could turn it off too quickly when it starts ringing. Who let's ago go - we went to Sequoia National Park which welcomed us with lush vegetation and huge trees. We climbed Moro Rock - I got the first two thousand meters high - hi hi - by climbing a prepared path consisting of almost 400 steps. The effort was only ambitious, because at the top it turned out that you could not see anything anyway, because we were in the clouds, which, unfortunately, was not blown by the wind today. Then we had a meeting with the Generals - Sherman and Grant. As for the Americans, they turned out to be quite obese - 12 meters in waist circumference ... of course, we are talking about the largest trees named after the distinguished. Everything around was also American-sized - generally the forest is called Giant Forrest. After all, after the previous attractions, today's ones turned out to be the least spectacular - perhaps because the landscape most closely resembles Polish conditions - such a larger forest, with larger trees. At the moment, we are already on the route to San Francisco, where the streets and attractions of this city await us. Today we are planning a night walk around bluss-jazz venues - we are closer to them by as much as 1,600 meters ... San Francisco is calling - read the next part !!!!.