Fake Tales Of San Fransisco

So, the second half of the week has been spent in the city of San Fransisco itself.....

I love it here!!

The sun has shined all week, the people are so relaxed, and there are hills..!!! It was only on arriving here that I realised how flat the East Coast actually is... Spending three years at Uni in Bristol I thought I was prepared for a city built on hills - but this is quite something! After 5 days of walking around I have thighs of steel!

The city itself feels so different to all the other US cities I've visited so far, and definately very un-American. Which is great. There are huge numbers of harmless crazy and homeless people, I'm told they all moved out here when they cleaned up Times Square and New York about 15 years ago. There's a real eclectic mix of people, and it makes for a really exciting city, with a number of different neighbourhoods. Anne joined me for the weekend here, and we've done a lot of just walking about, soaking up the city.

Yesterday we biked a 16 mile round trip around the bay, across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito for lunch and ice cream, and back to the city. It was a gorgeous day - and helped tone those thighs even more! I almost made it up all the hills, only getting off to walk once or twice!

San Fransisco has a reputation for being quite the party town, although I kept being told it's nothing compared to the hippy heyday of the 60's.....I think it would have been an incredibly exciting place to be back then. I think the city has certainly lived up to it's reputation, and I've had a few of the most fun, insane and wild nights out I can remember having in a long time....(how many Halloween drag queens dressed as Sarah Palin is it possible to see in one night!?)

Tonight, I finally move on down the coast to Santa Brabara to sit on a beach and do nothing for a few days. After all the hills and nights out, I am looking forward to relaxing and doing absolutly nothing....!