San Francisco

Last week was Spring Break and I went to a city I thought I would never visit again. The first time I went to San Francisco I thought it was too dirty, too cold, too boring and too weird. But part of the negativity was due to the fact that I went with people that I didn't really like...to be honest, I thought they were totally lame. But a road trip sounded fun so I went for it. Fortunately for me they turned out to be so lame that they ended up saving my life because if they had taken me to walk over the Golden Gate Bridge like I had hoped I would have probably just jumped off right there and then.

So no Golden Gate Bridge, no Lombard St., no Castro district, no ride on a cable car, no Chinatown...just an ugly old house with no heater and an occasional restaurant that didn't live up to the reputation the city has for its food.

So I took a plane ride back up there to visit a friend that promised to let me do all of the touristy things...and guess what...I actually had a great time up there. The weather was chilly but I loved it...the city was still dirty every now and then and some of the accessories people wear up there, like capes and huge chains and scary makeup, still made me question how being liberal is not always the greatest thing...but San Francisco truly does have a character of its own...the architecture is by far very unique to the city. One example of how much attention is paid to the buildings there is that many of the structures with circular corners actually have windows with curved glass.

This time I did get to see Lombard St., and Chinatown, and the Castro district, and most importantly, I got to walk over the Golden Gate Bridge. The weather there was chilly all week but there was no typical SF fog. That was a good thing for the panoramic views across the city... but I've always pictured myself walking across the bridge under a thick and damp fog. I was still excited to walk over that bridge...but it started getting late so my friend asked if we could do that the following day. That was kind of disappointing but the next day the city was covered in fog and I got to take an hour and a half walk across and back on that bridge just like I had always imagined it: wet, windy, cold, and blindingly foggy. I seriously felt accomplished walking over that bridge...it was like a coming of age thing that I had always felt I had to do and almost didn't because of how displeasing my first trip up there was.