Got checked back into hostel land and headed out to meet up with an old buddy Id met in Hong Kong and Thailand:
“Its Ricky! It’s Ricky! It’s Ricky Ricky Ricky!”
Good to catch with an old face and reminisce over the weird times like when he got tear gassed in Hong Kong. Oh, how we laughed. Also nice to have a few pointers in the new city.
We were based in a hostel right in downtown in an area called “Tenderloin”. A place where you really don’t want to go. It is full, and I mean full of homeless people. There is a BIG problem here. Every day and everywhere you go around here people are begging for money. It’s not too bad though. Even though you feel a bit intimidated theyre usually rather friendly and say a nice thing to you then ask you for a dollar. I think I must have spent about $20 in all giving money to various tramps. It felt a bit like a tourist tax. Shame the Mayor of San Fran won’t do anything about it (he's now in rehab).
Its here where you can play chess in the street against whoever is around, be it bum, hustler or some other local. Haven beaten Andy at chess countless times in Oz and New Zealand and successfully coming second in two tournaments when I was young (after crying for not coming first both times as well, I might add), I was feeling pretty cocksure. Hanging around the tables waiting for a challenge I hear a “Yo! Red cap!” (I was of course wearing my legendary cap), from a youth beckoning me for a game. With a dollar at stake I was in.
Although I soon realized this wasn’t chess like I’m used to. This guy was trash talking and jeering over each move made with his buddy over my shoulder shouting moves for me to make and giving it all “ooooo nah man!!” when I finally made my move. Hmmm, Im being hustled here. All the distractions did not help my concentration and I made mistake after mistake until all my pieces were pretty much gone. I resigned before the humiliation of checkmate. I paid my dollar, then went away cursing. And had a little cry of course.
Still, a defeat at chess isn’t going to stop my admiration for this beautiful city. Please enjoy now my photos for you. Yes Mesh.
“Metropolitan Hobbit Hole”
“The Severn Bridge”
“A boat”
“A strange monkey creature”
“And, of course, Jesus riding Kermit”
There are many more beautiful things to see here but those are some of my highlights. The trip wasn’t without disaster, in case you were worried I might escape this place without some sort of event.
Driving a car into major cities is a bit of a pain as parking starts to get as expensive as a nights accommodation so upon arrival I cruised around the city looking for free parking. Found a nice little spot and dumped the car there for a few days. Well lordy, lordy, can you imagine my surprise upon returning to the vehicle that I had received no less than 4 parking tickets to the tune of $300 in total. My crime was parking in front of a fire hydrant. Well bugger me. They put up signs saying you cant park on Tuesdays because of street cleaners but nothing about fire hydrants. Drat.
Moved the car to a better spot then got another one the following day for having left my wheels straight when parking on a hill. In case my handbrake and transmission fail I have to turn my wheels. Good god man. So I now have the San Francisco City Council on my ass. Don’t worry though blog fans. Ive sent them a very nice letter explaining in no uncertain terms that I’m not going to pay them and they’ll never catch me. Lets see what happens next time I go through US immigration eh? It was a nice area that I parked in though:
“They call it post card row because the houses are made of cheese. Hmmm...”
Other than riling the city council and losing at chess I did squeeze in a night out at the rather fabulous and swanky Supper club to celebrate the launch of a new mix CD from OM records (for those who care). It was a very elaborately decked out place with big fluffy beds and cushions all the way around the dance floor. Although the DJ was playing some great music the crowd just wasn’t really there for dancing, it was more for standing around and looking good which was rather annoying. However they did have a highlight where some bloke got attached to some rigging and jumped off a balcony swinging across the dance floor then attaching a giant disco ball to the roof. Very flash. You can see it happening here in this great photo:
“Wheeee! Im a disco munchkin!”
A good night although I should have drunk more before going there as drinks were horrociasly expensive.
San Francisco is a great city and one I could easily see myself living in one day. Its always unfortunate that I cant spend more time and ‘live’ a little more in the cities I visit. But that’s the trip I planned. Im previewing at the moment and I like what I’m seeing. Ok, time to head south. Keep it pumping blog fans.
“I know I left it here somewhere…..”
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