San Francisco

Our per-booked shuttle bus (since we arrived too late for the BART or public buses) dropped us at our pre-booked hostel (Elements Hostel), so after checking-in and dropping our bags in the dorm we popped down to the bar for a couple of New Years drinks. The bar was really pumping out the music, so there wasn't much point in trying to sleep anyway.

The drinks however were mad expensive, so after the first one Sarah popped across the road to buy a couple of beers in the convenience store and smuggle them back into the bar. At 2am though, one of the bar staff simply swiped my drink from the counter right in front of me and poured it down the drain. When I complained she simply told me that there were no drinks after 2am, and so it was my own fault! There had been no warning or anything, so Sarah got really mad and complained to the manager (who had a drink in his hand himself!), and somehow managed to get him to fork over the $8 price of a beer, which was funny 'cos we'd just paid $2 for it in the store across the road!

So the next day we strolled about the town, spending the whole afternoon getting completely stuffed in Chinatown by popping into numerous restaurants trying all the dim-sum. That evening we explored the waterfront and Pier 39 - neither of which were very impressive in my opinion, just collections of touristy shops and restaurants.

It turned out we couldn't book tickets to Alcatraz either, as it was fully booked for the next 3 days. We've done Robben Island in Cape Town though, so I wasn't too bothered - and it leaves something to do next time I'm in San Francisco.

Another night we just happened to be passing a comedy venue and I decided on the spur of the moment to get tickets (I had no idea who the headline comedian was). The show turned out to be great, with the compere and first act both being fantastic. The headliner was actually the weakest of the comedians in my opinion (he plays a character in the American Office), but it was still a great night's entertainment.

It turned out that Sarah's friend Shane was visiting his brother in San Francsico while we were there, so we meet up with him for a day too. Shane had been in town for a while, so I thought he'd have the low-down on where to go in the city, but it turns out his brother lives miles outside the city, and so he didn't have any top-tips at all really.

We did manage to explore the crookedest street in the world though (nothing special), and had a lovely dinner in the Italian quarter of the city before Shane had to catch the last train back out to his brother's house in the suburbs.

I had wanted to hire bicycles so that we could cycle out to the Golden Gate bridge, and cycle across it, but we were both just too lazy in the end really, which was a pity.

I hadn't wanted to stay too long in San Francisco due to the high costs, which is a pity because I was really getting to like the town. We didn't even have time to check out Berkeley or Oakland, so another trip back to San Francisco is definitely on the cards.

So after just 5 days it was time to head back to the airport (just hopping on the really handy BART straight there), and we were off to my favorite city in all the world, Hong Kong.