Today was last day in fair old San Francisco, tomorrow morning I’ll be waking at the ungodly hour of 5am to catch a lovely five and half hour plane ride to New York. The east coast is three hours ahead of here so I basically lose an entire day in transit but you know, lets all cry over spilt milk and get on with our lives.

The plan, as has been pretty much every day I’ve spent here, was to head down to Fisherman’s Wharf. I really have no idea what’s supposed to be so special about this place other than everyone I know that’s been to San Francisco pushing it on me as place to visit in the same way a crack dealer hands out free pipes to new clients. (Well I’m presuming that metaphor but hey, be a good sales pitch I reckon). I actually woke up a little before 10am today which was kind of weird because I really didn’t know what to do for the extra two hours before when I have been heading out each day. Capitalising on the extra time I watched TV, always on the proactive I am!

Got the bus “downtown” as the yanks put it and made my way to the trolley car stop to find a line that went three blocks and past the last sign that actually told me how long I was going to have to wait. Goodbye Fisherman’s Wharf, I’ll catch you next time round me thinks. OK so with that tourist attraction neatly crossed off the list what else could I do? Go back to the hotel and sleep was sounding pretty damn good at this point but there was something I’m sure I was supposed to do while I was here, something I was meant to see…. what is important in San Francisco… Oh crap… I hadn’t been to the Golden Gate Bridge!

The bridge was really no where near downtown, it’s in the complete opposite direction from where I’d just come but all I really had to was walk ten metres to Market St and jump on the number five to get down to Golden Gate Park and the 29 North to the bridge. Feels like I know the “MUNI” public transport system better than I do Melbourne’s and I’ve only been here five days!

So I got to the bridge. Um; how do I put this. It’s big, it’s brow-ange, it’s made of metal. You spend thirty minutes catching and changing buses to get to this thing, you see it, turn around come home. Oh actually I did have blueberry muffin and some Häagen-Dazs ice-cream at the extremely overpriced “Bridge Cafe” whilst there. The food pit-stop probably quadrupled the amount of time I spent there, lucky my sugar was low hey! No, it really wasn’t that boring, this thing is damn massive! Dwarfs that can opener Sydney calls a bridge and looks like a painting the way the mist and fog haze the towers and opposite footings. There was also a pretty little garden up there surrounding the statue of the engineer behind the bridge’s construction. Sorry didn’t look at the plaque, can’t tell you his name… who do I look like Jules Lund? Ewww, please say no!

Not particularly exciting stuff for you all I’m afraid but being there and seeing it was pretty amazing I must admit. Something much more amazing and probably unbelievable to the most of you is that the day I prior I spent the entire day in a park. Yes pick up your jaws from the floor, Rajeev Deut was getting in touch with nature by spending the day in Golden Gate Park (no where near the Bridge I might add). I didn’t want to write a full entry devoted to it just in case a few of you out there with weak hearts hadn’t taken you medication but I will say that I had a most enjoyable day exploring only at the most a tenth of this enormous parkland, one kilometre wide by five kilometres long!

The main part that I spent most of my time in was the Botanical Gardens (yes Mum I went to the Botanical Gardens without being dragged by a girl) and they were very beautiful. I took a tonne of photos, tried to get as many as I could of the little squirrels running around but they’re pretty fast little buggers! The whole time I was walking around in the Botanical Gardens (they’re a tiny, tiny portion of the actual park) you could hear these looming bass beats coming from the south towards the coastal end of the park. Whatever it was it sounded interesting so I decided to take a wander down that way only to find an hour and three kilometres later I still hadn’t arrived at their source!! I’d all but given up, my hips were at the point where they felt like they were scraping bone on bone with my legs and if I had to walk for another ten minutes I’d be getting one of those cool little scooters I’d seen people hiring for disabled folk back at the entrance to the parkland.

Fear not engrossed reader, I did not give in to the excruciating pain that boiled within me, I pressed on, punishing my torso in search of the echoing booms! And then, just when all hope was lost I turned to corner and out of nowhere came at least 30,000 people all crammed together bouncing and grooving at San Francisco’s 9th Annual “Power to the Peaceful” festival! Penny drop… this explains why I’d been smelling dope for the last twenty minutes!

The festival was pretty awesome, full of tree huggin’ hippies, but cool none the less, and quite the find! It cost a donation of US$3-5 to get in and then the rest was party time. I hung out there for a while, had a few drinks, listened to Michael Franti play his set, which was pretty cool, and then made way back to the hotel for the day!

There you have it, my last two days in San Francisco and the entire trip without one stop anywhere near tourist central Fisherman’s Wharf! Frankly I think it’s my lack of touristy indulgence that has led to me spending only US$250 for my entire trip so far, and that includes cab’s, buses and food. Damn I’m a tight arse!

Awww, look at cute Mr Squirrel on a log! Check out more pics from San Fran’s Golden Gate Park here.