United States - San Francisco

The Golden Gate Bridge
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We flew into San Francisco excited to visit a place which felt distinctly familiar but that yet neither of us had ever actually visited before. This is due to San Franciso and its landmarks forming the backdrop to so many well known movies we had re-visited many times; Alcatraz (Escape from Alcatraz/The Rock), Golden Gate Bridge (A View to a Kill), downtown (Dirty Harry) and meandering, steep street (Bullit). It was also where our friends Anna and Matt lived so whilst it was only a fleeting visit we were determined to make the most of it.

A mural in the North Beach district home of the Beat Generation poets
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Once again we flew in on the red eye (yet another over night flight) and in a heightened state of tension due to the continued "Homeland Security code orange" alert opted for a couple of hours kip in arrivals so that we were at least a little refreshed for our friends. Our chosen bed was actually next to an area designated ´free speech booth´(no colour assigned to this one) where people happily engaged with one another on a number of topics whilst in the process of exercising their right to free speech from the confines of a purpose built booth! Weird.

Sittin on the dock of the bay

The ubiquitous cable cars
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As the sun came up over SF we took the metro straight into the Mission district where Anna and Matt live. The Mission district is the lively Latin district that is sandwiched between the Italian quarter and Castro, the heartland of SF´s gay scene. With lively chatter on every street corner, the sizzling smells of tacos and burritos from the numerous Taquerias beckoning us in and the colourful and detailed murals adorning many of the walls we were at once submerged in a city that we could and would grow to love.

Mission Dolores
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With a harbour view that is unparrelled, with perhaps the exception of Sydney, it is hard not to love SF. The Golden Gate bridge, a national monument seemingly adorns every viewpoint, perhaps reflecting one aspect of the American psyche of standing tall in the face of adversity (1989 earthquake). 70 years on it is architecturally still ahead of its time. To the right of the bridge is Alcatraz which was the only prison to have hot showers in order to prevent the inmates from acclimatising to the icy conditions of the water surrounding their “home”. Finally, beyond the bridge what completes the vista is the sprawling shrubland that forms the national park. It is here that you can enjoy the bracing cold winds of the Pacific as you are buffeted along the beach.

chink-chink. Enjoy your cocktail
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To complement the city´s natural setting SF has long embraced music, art and literature with the Beat Generation of poets in the 50´s and Bob Dylan counted amongst its residents. It is a city not afraid to laud its past or embrace a bohemian future with many talented street artists plying their trade on the pavements as cable cars from the 30´s wind and whine their way up the steep streets. In the three days we had we soaked up the atmosphere in Chinatown, The Mission, North Beach and the Italian Quarter, with a cocktail never far from our lips.

Of course every great city has a grittier edge and the hard travails of modern life are for all to see with homeless people pushing all their worldly belongings in shopping trolleys from block to block, searching out bins for a scrap of food or taking the opportunity to crash out on a discarded sofa for a more comfortable sleep. For the homeless there is no exclusion on racial, religious or gender grounds. It is mutually inclusive and a timely reminder of the lack of a safety net for many in the land of opportunity.