Yo yo yo! We’ve made some good progress in the last few days, and have officially hit Oregon! We’re right down the bottom at a little town called “Klamath Falls”, and I will tell you all about it in due time.

For now, we shall be re-visiting San Francisco.

The city of cable cars, a beautiful red bridge, clam chowder and a lot of junkies, as it happens. When Andrew and Harley came to San Fran a few years back, they stayed in an area called South of Market or SOMA, and they loved it! It’s downtown, right in the middle of everything and a quick walk to the cable car which shoots down to Fisherman’s Wharf.

Naturally, we booked a hotel there for this trip too. Little did we know, that this area has a changed a little and is now the home of many a drug dealer, junkie and homeless person. Please don’t stay here if you visit.

As much as I tried not to let this bother me, arriving at 6pm and struggling through the traffic, only to be welcomed by the charming neighbourhood wasn’t a great start. Not to mention the four hour sleep I managed due to noise and friendly mice playing under our bed.

Regardless, we pushed on and headed out for some tourist attractions. This particular cable car runs up from Fisherman’s Wharf to market street, where the workers jump off and literally push the car around to travel back the other way.

Fisherman’s Wharf is pretty much what you’d expect. Plenty of tourist traps, a seafood cafe every two metres and the sea lions at Pier 39. We grabbed the obligatory meal (I stole some and it was deeelish!) and started our search for bikes to hire.

The wind was howling like a mofo that day, and it was bloody cold down by the water. So we made the choice not to ride over the bridge and possibly get blown off said bridge. We did take the bikes the 5km round to the start of it and get a gooooood look.

She is a thing of beauty, even on a cloudy day. Despite the weather and my weariness, I’m glad Andrew pushed me to ride out there and have a good look.

We finished the afternoon with a walk up to Lombard Street; seriously those hills are a killer. I better have buns of steel after this walking, not to mention the fact that every hotel we stay in has stairs. Every bit of exercise counts right?

The following morning, we swung by the painted ladies for a quick peek, before hitting the road again and getting out of this big city.

The overcast day doesn’t do the colours justice, but these houses are so freaking pretty. The yellow was my winner!

I’m still unsure how I feel about this city. I like the elements it has, I’m just not sure that they mould well or work exactly right. It’s hard to describe, and I’m sure the area we were staying didn’t help, but I just didn’t get the city. I still had a great time though, and I didn’t want to leave it with a sour taste in my mouth. Which is why San Francisco will always be known as the place I bought my first American Peanut Butter 🙂

Much pb love,
Hanbel.
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