San Francisco looks like a very dreamy fairy-tale place. Its streets are very neat and all roads are up and downhill... also its buildings are very colourful and makes the whole place look different from any other part of USA. In addition, the city is very slow-paced and everything seems so relaxed.
On our 2nd day, we took a cable car! It's USD5 per one way ticket, and it was worth the money. The cable car negotiates steep slopes with little difficulty and along the way we could see the beautiful buildings and landscape of San Francisco. We were one of those who held on to the sides of the car... and the oncoming cable cars actually whizz past by less than a metre away!
Us, having very enjoyed the ride. Reached Fisherman's Wharf (in the midground) In the background is where we're headed to, Alcatraz Island! Fisherman's Wharf was a very touristy place, with lots of souvenir shops, bicycle rentals, cafeterias. We had our lunch of fish and chips and clam chowder while the sea breeze blew and seagulls picked up food from the roads.. We then hurried off to Pier 33 where we would be taking the ferry to the island!
Remember Pirates of the Carribean where Johnny Depp and 2 other guys sword fight on a gigantic wheel? We were on it! LOL!
That's Alcatraz as the ferry bobbled towards the mysterious island... lots of seagulls were loitering around the coast...
Alcatraz was one of the world's most secure prisons, and the most dangerous criminals were sent there because it was believed that nobody in history has ever escaped from there alive. It has been closed for many years now, and is now a top tourists' attraction... tickets are sold out as fast as 2 weeks earlier!
And here's a look at the inside... everyone was guided along by an audio tour... simply to say, we all listened to our personal tape players and a narrator would lead us into the history of the mysterious historic stories... what you see here are 3 stories of cells. The area was quite silent but one could almost imagine the cells occupied with prisoners... So mysterious the place felt...
This is how the inside of a cell looks like... See the hole at the bottom of the wall? Alcatraz's most famous story was when 3 people dug a tunnel into the wall using only spoons and made mannequins of themselves lying on their bed to distract the guards... in the end they were washed away by the strong sea currents and never seen again.
Spooky...I kept picturing lines of prisoners dragging their feet past the walkway...
After a few hours at Alcatraz, we then took the ferry back inland... it was certainly an experience!!!
How could we even miss Chinatown? Haha. We had several of our meals there... Majority of the restaurants are HongKong based and the prices were super cheap! And we tasted the best Boba milk tea from one of the shops too.
** On the second night, we asked around and found out that there were nude shows around at cheap prices! We ventured into one of the shops... there were many small cubicles. If you went in and put in a dollar, the curtain will raise .. and you'll get to see nude girls dancing for a minute. HAHA! It was so funny! I don't know why it's funny, probably because the girls were smiling and dancing like nobody's business. (I LOL-ed and nearly vomitted when one of them danced danced, then raised up her arms... and dangs, she didn't shave her armpit hair... One big bush of it.)
On our 3rd and last day at San Francisco, we headed for Lombard Street, also known as the world's crookiest street. The place was crowded with tourists and picture-takers. People even drive down and take pictures and videos from inside their car!
Here's a picture of the beautiful land of San Francisco, from the top of Lombard Street.
In the afternoon we headed for the Golden Gate bridge... on foot! But alas, our plans were foiled because we didn't realise it was too far away to reach.. Along the way we played soccer with 2 kids! Playing on a vast green field with the sea breeze on a relaxing afternoon, was simply wholesome fun... The parents even gave us drinks after that.
San Francisco would be one of the most beautiful places in USA I believe... although we only spent 3 days there, it was totally quality time. I told my parents to visit this place. =)
Enjoy the rest of the pics. =)
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