San Francisco

(side note- scroll to the bottom of the page to check out my favorite photo taken yet)

San Francisco has been a blast. I feel like I could write about it for hours but I know that will be too much for my followers so Im going to try to attempt some bullet points too keep it short. I've done a lot of things here so there are going to be a lot of pictures but sadly, my internet connection is very weak from my new apartment, so until I get a stronger signal, ill have to post only a few.

this is lombard street- the windy part at the top is famous

1. San Francisco feels like a miniature european city. There are shops, boutiques, butchers, bakers, bars, and general small businesses all over this city. There is a noticeable lack of chains and franchises, which I like. Good coffee is on every corner and good food on every block, and everyone is outside all the time.
2. San Francisco is a little big town. You see the same people often- At the park, on the sidewalk, in the bar. And chances are they know at least 2-3 of your friends. My experience of coincidental connections has blown my mind- Ill explain that more below.
3. The painted ladies, which are the houses from the opening scene of Full House, are worth over 5 millions dollars a piece (real estate here is super expensive- a nice one bedroom apartment goes for 600-700k)
4. San Francisco is made up of several smaller cities within the bigger city. The ones I have explored at great length have everything you would ever need within them so as to prevent you from having to bounce around too much, thereby eliminating the need for a car unless you commute very far to and from work.  This set up also makes it hard to describe san francisco as a whole other than to say it is a unique mixture of several interesting places making up one bigger city.
   
   
   In this picture (above) we are looking at the north beach part of San Fran- Charlie's neighborhood and the place Ive spent most of my time for the past week.  Charlie's apartment is located to the right of Coit tower (big tower at the top of the photos) and just a block up the hill from the church on the same street I am taking the picture from.  Going down this hill on my bike was intense... it is so steep they have steps going up instead of sidewalks!
5. San Francisco does not seem to have bad traffic, when compared to DC, NY, Philly, Chicago, Boston... tons of people walk, ride a bike, or use mass transit.
6.  in San Francisco, if you do not compost, you get fined. Seriously.
7.  in San Francisco, Sundays are not for relaxing. Sunday=funday. People are back at the bar by 10 to enjoy every last minute of party time before the work week starts back up and people take shots of this crazy drink claiming it is a San Fran tradition... ever heard of it?
8. in San Francisco there are festivals just about every weekend that get attended by many- on cinco de mayo a local bar discounted their drinks for anyone with a mustache- we made it work.
9. Having not been to China, it is hard for me to say this with certainty, but I have been told that China town here is similar to being in China.  I went to check it out- and wow- it is like another world.  Yeah, there are quite a lot of Chinese residents here in San Fran- and most of them are extremely poor so you get used to seeing them all picking through the trash and walking around with big baskets of cans to turn them in for the 5cent deposits.  They will sometimes follow you if they see your bottle or can is near empty to grab it from you when you are done.
10. while living in San Francisco, you can snowboard, bike, and surf all in the same day and they actually do this- start the day in Tahoe (approx 2.5 hours away) for some spring skiing (many of the younger people here buy into winter shares of houses up there so it is not uncommon for a 25 year old to have a winter ski house with 10 friends) then on the way back you can mountain bike in some of the most beautiful forest imaginable, and once you get back to the coast throw your board in the water and go surfing... not bad.
11. And the Golden Gate Bridge is just as amazing as you think it is- never thought I would think a bridge was beautiful, but this one is.

Alcatraz 

 -Coincidental connections, Continued:  Charlie, my roomate from DC, moved to san fran at the beginning of the year. He went to University of New Hampshire and a few of his friends from school live here, one of their names is Kasey. He went to go meet them at a party his first weekend in town and randomly found out that Kasey's boyfriend was the roomate of Luke Webber- a good friend of mine from highschool, who also went to highschool with charlie. While at the same party, Charlie met Sharon, who went to Philadelphia University with me and is the best friend of Kasey from back east. Then, while out to dinner with two other UNH friends of Charlie, and while discussing my new apartment for the week which is the apartment of Jess Celentano and her boyfriend who are currently out of town, we established that one of them had Professor Curran-Celentano as a professor at UNH, Jess's mom, and she was her favorite professor! This city generates the oddest connections.

Anyway, there is more to say- I have to talk about alcatraz, cinco de mayo celebrations, Bay to Breakers, which is an event so great that Luke convinced me to stay here another week so I dont miss it (it is next sunday) wine country (which I am visiting tomorrow) the mission neighborhood that Im staying in now, driving a little yellow three wheeled car around the city... so many things.  But for now ill leave it at this and post more in the next few days.

Favorite Photo.  "one man band"

stay tuned for more in the upcoming days.