San Francisco

After the 25-hour train ride and a further bus from Emeryville, we reached San Francisco around 10:30am and booked into our hostel. We had decided to spend three nights here, so our first afternoon was pretty relaxed. We decided to go and have a look around the downtown and financial area, as it wasn't too far from the hostel. We walked back through Chinatown, which was disappointing compared to the more vibrant districts in New York and Toronto. We were back at the hostel by early evening and we were pretty exhausted, but even through tired eyes we could see that San Francisco was a city we were going to enjoy.

After a long lie in (sleeping on a train is not ideal), we thought we would make the most of the glorious sunshine and walk through Golden Gate Park. The park was really nice, with a lovely botanical garden and many scenic trails. As we neared the coast we began to understand the phenomenon of the San Francisco coastal mist. We went from clear blue skies to a dense cold fog within minutes. It was too cold to relax on the beach so we watched the surfers for a while and then headed for some lunch at a cosy diner. Tired from all of the walking we headed back to the hostel for a relaxing evening with a few beers and another brilliant free dinner!

On our final day in San Francisco we decided to hire bikes and do the typical tourist route over the Golden Gate Bridge. Jen was feeling very trusting, so we went for a tandem! Once we had got into the rhythm of our machine we headed along the coastal path from Fisherman's Wharf, across the bridge and into the trendy Sausilito. Both journeys across the bridge afforded us some great views, especially on the return leg when the fog had cleared. In the afternoon we cycled to Baker Beach where we rested our weary legs. After dropping the bike off and visiting the sea lions on Pier 39, we were absolutely shattered and decided to get an early night as we had to be up at 4am for the bus to Santa Barbara!