We arrived in San Francisco in the morning, after a 16-hour journey from Buenos Aires via Dallas. The security check at the Buenos Aires airport was pretty light, and our bags were searched again before getting on the plane by American Airlines, who evidently had as much faith in Argentine security as we did. The first flight felt pretty long, especially since we unfortunately did not have personal tv screens on this aged plane. We managed to doze throughout the flight (except during turbulence) but arrived in Dallas without having had much sleep and not feeling very well rested. We had to go through immigration and security again in order to catch our flight to San Francisco, but thankfully our tight connection helped us skip the long queue. We had written on the form required by US customs that we had been to Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Peru in addition to Argentina. This apparently raised the suspicions of the border official, who asked me quite a lot of questions (particularly about coca leaves) before finally stamping my passport. Our bags were then screened by US customs, presumably thanks to the over-zealous border official. Thankfully, this whole security process did not take too long and we just about made it on time for the second flight. It was however tough early in the morning after a sleepless night.
The second flight was only about 3 hours and the plane was quite new, which was more pleasant. They showed a rom-com that kept me (less so John, I suspect) entertained for most of the flight: "crazy, stupid, love". Before we arrived in SF, we had a beautiful view over the Yosemite National Park.
From the airport we took the metro to Union Square, where our hostel was located. When checking in, the receptionist told us that free beer was available from 9pm onwards in the bar downstairs. This self-proclaimed "party hostel" wasn't exactly what we were looking for after our short night. The room was bare, there was one bed in the middle and one small wardrobe, next to our small bathroom. Nevertheless, it was clean enough. We slept for a few hours before heading into town, by which point we were pretty hungry and settled for a Thai restaurant nearby.
Feeling slightly better, and in need of a digestive walk, we headed towards Chinatown, where the main street was full of gift shops and bustling with people. We then headed towards the bay and arrived around Pier 39, famous for the colony of sea lions who settled there a couple of decades ago (video below). We gazed at the view over the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz and walked back to the hostel. On our way, we picked up a few apples and muffins (for breakfast the next day) from Trader Joe's, a supermarket with (relatively) healthy food, and had dinner in a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away from the hostel. The food was pretty tasty and the Nappa Valley wine dealt with the remains of our energy.
Chinatown
Alcatraz
Golden Gate Bridge
4th December
We woke up quite early due to the jet lag and the noise in the street. Thankfully, apart from some youngsters (how old are we?) shouting in the corridor early in the morning, the "party hostel" was not too noisy. We enjoyed the blueberry muffins and set off for a walk around the Golden Gate park. It turned out to be quite a stroll to reach the entrance of the park, but it was worth it. The park was quite pretty and full of strollers on this Sunday morning. At about midday, we took the bus back to Union Square and made it back in time for the start of the NFL game. I left John in a sports bar and took that opportunity to go shopping. After the game and a bagel for lunch, we walked towards the historic centre of the city, where we saw a large group of people sitting on the main square in protest against bankers. It was a pretty impressive crowd, they must have been about a hundred. Most of them had tents, which showed their determination given that the weather was not particularly warm.
In the main building right in front of the square we found shops selling organic and healthy food that looked very tasty. Obviously it was reserved to a rather more privileged crowd than the one on the square. I was very excited to see that they even had cheese (and we tried a rather nice Gruyere). We then walked back to the hostel and, after a brief repose, headed for dinner at Lori's, an old-school diner few blocks away. Up the stairway was a big square room decorated with neon signs and features from the 1950s, such as oil pumps, car and aeroplane parts, and jukeboxes. It was pretty tacky but also the perfect place to have a large and unhealthy American burger. We couldn't resist the temptation to play a song on the jukebox.
Union Square in Christmas mode
5th December
On our last day in San Francisco (and in the Americas), we came back to Lori's diner for breakfast. I could not have left the US without having some pancakes! We were not disappointed; the waitress arrived with plates filled with two huge pancakes each, dripping with syrup. We then had a fun ride in an old cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. It was a good way to climb the hills of San Francisco, much more relaxing than walking.
Before...
...and after
The cable car
Hanging out the side of the cable car
At Fisherman's Wharf we hired bikes and set off along the shore to Golden Gate bridge. It was a lovely day and a very enjoyable (and flat) ride. We stopped on the way at the old fort at the bottom of the bridge to take some pictures from below and then cycled up to the entrance of the bridge. It was as impressive as I had imagined. From the bridge, we took in a magnificent view of Alcatraz and the bay. We cycled to the other side, from which we also had a great view. After a few photos we cycled back and dropped off the bikes.
Start of the ride
View from below
No cycling too fast
This little exercise had awakened our appetite and we decided to satisfy it with some of the healthy food we had seen close to the main square in the historic centre. This proved to be quite a long walk and we thus settled quite quickly for some tasty sandwiches with cheese and saucisson. As we were not sure when we would next have the opportunity to eat cheese, we completed our meal with a piece of old cheddar and a baguette. It was then time to walk back to the hostel and get ready to go to the airport for our flight to Hong Kong.
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