Published August 28th, 2006
in Travel and San Francisco.
So remember how I said I was surprised that I didn’t smell the scent of Patchouli anywhere, and that I hadn’t found the more free-loving among us? Well that’s appearently because I hadn’t been to Haight (SL “Hate”) Ashbury yet. This famous intersection is the heart of the Haight section of town, known as the slightly sketchy hippie freelove epicenter of San Francisco.
After spending the morning walking the Mission, the birthplace of the city, I then headed north to be immersed by the retro influences of the 60’s. Besides anarchist bookstores (”We’re all volunteers so don’t steal”) and stores selling trinkets from Kathmandu, was the wafting odor of burning incenses and the not at all uncommon scent of a freshly rolled doobie.
It was certainly among the more interesting experiences I’ve had while here. If I had ever wondered where all the leather-booted, hemp-wearing, bead-adorning citizens of San Francisco lived, I will now look no further than the Haight. After the 70’s this area largely took a turn for the worst, as the hippie movement died down and mostly burnouts remained. Now, with renovations happening all around, the area is being gentrified while surprisingly holding a lot of that flower-power attitude.
At the end of Haight St. lay the vast Golden Gate Park. Although I was lacking the energy to walk it all the way to the Pacific, I did find a spot to sit and listen to the Rasta freestyling on cans and watch one San Franciscan woman go into a 3-Hoolahoop dirvish. However, the rougher elements of the drug scene did reveal itself as one drug dealer laid out another about 20 feet away from me, because of appearently unkind words at a party the previous night (”Who needs to be schooled, now? Say ‘I need to be schooled’!”).
I’ve walked a lot for the last two days, so I was glad to head back early and watch a little Veronica Mars and researching the CW, but I’ll be looking forward to spending more time exploring the Bay in the coming weeks, and maybe finally see the Golden Gate.
Published August 27th, 2006
in Travel and San Francisco.
After finally making it downtown (and by the way, don’t bother taking a car into the city. If you’re hotel is any good, they’ll have a shuttle to the airport where you can pickup the BART.) and I did a LOT of walking. I basically walked the entire downtown area, and was pretty impressed with what I saw:
- Civic Center: City hall has a dome that rises higher than the Capital Rotunda in D.C. Watch out for the drug dealers and crazy hobos on the street though.
- Market Street: This is the main artery of the city. Felt like any major street in NYC, with all the craziness that I would expect. The original Gap is also here!
- Chinatown: Had great dim sum here for $7, and went to this seemingly tiny store that expanded to 3 floors of pan-Chinese goods, including these amazing $6000 wood carved statues of dragons, boats, and godesses.
- Embarcadero: Conceived as some sort of corporate Lincoln Center, this series of towers, featuring the Transamerican Pyramid, has a multilevel shopping mall and one of the best independent film theaters in the Bay Area.
- Coit Tower: Made famous by SimCity 4 (?), this tower rises above the east city atop Prospect Park. I saw my most amazing views here. In this part of the city the roads are so steep that whole sections of road turn into pedestrian steps. I was also very jealous of those who had houses with these amazing views.
- Lombard Street: The world’s most curvaceous street actually is more interesting than you might think. Although it’s a quick tourist spot, it’s definitely worth stopping by for a visit.
I have to admit, San Francisco, or at least the part I saw yesterday, was much more than I expected. I honestly kind of had this vision of huddled masses eating Tofu bars and wearing Doc Martens, with the distinct odor of Patchouli in the air (although I haven’t been to Haight or Berkeley yet). Instead, what I found was a manageable sized city (somewhere between D.C. and Philly), with a vibrant beating heart, and a California Flavor.
I met a lady on the ride back last night who asked what California Flavor meant to me. I told her that I felt like downtown San Francisco was a miniature Manhattan with happier (gayer?) people, and more vibrant colors. New Yorkers look just a bit more scowled, and even in the summer stick to their greyscale and earthtones — but that’s why I love ‘em.
I’ll have to spend some more time travelling around, but I have to say, I could almost imagine myself living here. I looked at rents in the Bay Area and I was pretty surprised at the number of apartments on the Peninsula between $1000 and $1250/mn. But just like NYC, you either live downtown or you don’t. And if you don’t, it’s a pain to get downtown - same reason I don’t get into Manhattan as often as I would like.
Anyways, I’ve decided to see the rest of the city today instead of driving El Camino, so I’m going to get to it.
Published August 26th, 2006
in Travel and San Francisco.
Okay, so it’s 11:30am in San Francisco. I flew out here for my first week of training at my new job at Mark Logic, a Bay Area XML database company. I’ll be back in 2 weeks for a second round, but I wanted to be assured that I’d have a few days to hang around and see what the deal is. So maybe I should leave the hotel soon…
I’ve been here for a little over 15 hours, and already it’s not exactly what I was expecting. Firstly, it’s freaking Cold!!! I was shivering last night and it’s late August. Los Angeles was much warmer. This is not a terrible thing though, because jeans can be worn comfortably all year round! I love jeans. Could that be part of the impetus for the founding of Gap in downtown S.F.?
Appearently, San Franciscans are quite the gastronomes. I was driving down El Camino Real, and came upon this whole-in-the-wall rib joint called the Rib Shack. For $18 I stuffed myself on delicious beef short ribs and some of the best potato salad and chili beans I’ve had in a while. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, when I’m taking El Camino from Millbrae to San Jose. From what I’ve gathered, it’s basically the main strip on the penninsula, so maybe I’ll get some of that juicy Bay Area flavor.
Today I’m going to hit downtown, and do some of the touristy stuff. I’ll report back later.
Published August 26th, 2006
in General.
As some of you may have noticed, the site is now running off of WordPress. I had been trying to develop the site using WordPress for some time, so I was holding off on posting. I’ve now said “F* it” and just decided to migrate slowly over time, so I can post in the meantime. I’ve also saved my old site at archive.chriswelch.com.
