San Francisco: Haight, Union, & Booze

I took a bus from Los Angeles to San Francisco and arrived at the epic hour of 3am. Crashed on the couch and resurfaced seven hours later to meet Ela for a meal, who was spending her last day at home packing for her med studies in New York. It was good to see her one more (final) time:

We tried out a new place, Taqueria Guadalajara, for their Super Burritos. They were so delicious.

Here’s Ela doctoring a CoCo card for Lilli.

Pretty legit!

Ela drove us to her favourite place to view San Francisco, right near Twin Peaks:

There were three old people there too, so we got one of them to take a picture of us.

^{Photo taken by Ela.}

I love the vibrant art in this city.

I got dropped off at Haight, a popular tourist spot, and had the time of my life feeding my eyes so many interesting display windows and colourful murals. There were also a disconcertingly large number of homeless young adults, though I could have been mistaking new-age hippies for homeless… I passed by a young man crouched in front of a car that looked like it was being lived out of, and his dog was just prone on its side on the sidewalk, motionless. It didn’t seem to be breathing, and it made me feel so sad taking in the scene as I walked past.

Electric lines supplying power for the trolley buses that run throughout SF.

Police and fire emergency call boxes can be found on the corners of streets too.

My favourite window display.

Walked past this pudgy ball of white disgruntlement!

I managed to find myself at a small farmer’s market on the end of the Haight stretch where they had, among various produce, some of the sweetest strawberries I had tasted in a while. I guess it was harvest time.

I caught a bus down to Market Street by Powell Station to meet Jazy. The buses here charge a flat rate of $2 and you get unlimited rides within a certain amount of time (I think for four hours). It was pretty cool to note the differences in buses between SF and LA. The SF buses also have a lower bell tone for when you press a button to stop it, and have a few more language options- SF ones rattle off cautions in English, Spanish, and Cantonese (whereas LA hasEnglish and Spanish only).

I was an hour or so early, so I decided to explore the downtown area to kill some time:

Walked aimlessly past brand-name stores and somehow found myself at Union Square.

She smiled at me when she saw me taking her picture.

Market by Powell also happened to be the site of one of the turnabouts for San Francisco’s famous cable cars:

I didn’t know what all the fuss was about, until I realised that everyone surrounding the turnabout had tickets in their hands, waiting to board the cars.

Dapper-looking guy hanging on the side of a cable car running up by Union Square.

I got another pair of tourists to take a picture of me unashamedly hanging by the side of a stationary car that was queueing up at the terminal.

Finally met up with Jazy at the Westfield theatre to catch a free screening of Elysium. We were unfortunately about ten people behind when the theatre reached full capacity. Drats!

I felt like a drink was due, so he walked me (and his bike) to Emperor Norton’s Boozeland, a bar that his friend had recently opened not a week ago:

Pucks for Shuffleboard and our first round of beer.

The Shuffleboard table. I’d never heard of this game until Jazy introduced it to me, but I did score a couple of awesome 4’s until he sabotaged them on his turn. Grrr! He was good at the game, and promptly trounced me 22 to 14. It was fun.

We also played a game of pool on the purple-lined new and shiny pool table. I’m really bad at this despite numerous trips Mum took Ti and I when we were younger. Jazy even had to teach me how to position my hand for the cue stick once he saw how badly I fumbled my turns. I think I suck at being cool.