Today was a beautiful, sunny day and although it got to 21 C later in the day, the morning was crisp and cool. As this is my last full day in San Francisco I could not put off that walk over the Golden Gate Bridge and back again any longer. I Uberred to the start and the Asian Mr Uber told me twice to keep my phone on so I could look behind me to see if any one is sneaking up on me. After yesterday's scare I was a bit perturbed by this advice and when I got to the start of the Bridge I tagged on to the back of a family so we looked like a big group. I must point out here that the tallest person in this family was 5 ft and they were Japanese so I fit in very well. Once we got going I could see there were several Bobbies on Bicycles patrolling the bridge so I ditched the fam and took off by myself.
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| My new Japanese family lol No English so just a lot of nodding and pointing |
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| Bridge Cops |
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| She's so beautiful |
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| How good would THAT be? |
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| One of my happy places |
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| The fog stayed on the horizon today |
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| Numerous signs asking people not to jump but call for help :( |
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| Just breathtaking |
My powers of description could not do justice to the feel of today. As I said it was sunny and about 12 degrees when I set off - just crisp enough to keep my feet walking and my nose running. It was one of those HAPPY days. The sort of day when you are driving to work and you want to just keep driving....you know what I mean? This Bridge is just a lump of metal but there's something about it that I find exhilarating - can't explain it - no words. I could spend hours looking at it and admiring it's beauty.
The Bridge wasn't as long as I thought....the round trip was 5.3 km. Now that was from land mass to land mass. Or to be more exact........after a week of Vietnamese food.........from toilet to toilet. The actual Bridge is a lot longer as it connects to the roads either side.
The tunnels below have been renamed for Robin Williams and you can see the rainbow design over each tunnel to signify his braces when he was a street performer.
After my walk I celebrated with a snack and headed back to the hostel to repack everything ready for an early start tomorrow to Crescent City.
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| Yum |
I sat on my bed and got attacked by one of those NAPS that keep sneaking up on me lol. 2 hours later I forced myself awake and went to the laundromat to get everything ready to pack. I was almost packed and got my bus/train/bus tickets out for tomorrow and checked them against the printout of the times they gave me and nothing matched. Grrrr. SO!! at 5 pm - peak hour - I Uberred to the Amtrak station to get it sorted and then Uberred back. The traffic was so thick this whole exercise took and hour and a half. GRRRR!! I was not a happy Vegemite. Anyway...it's fixed.
As I said at the beginning of my trip, this journey is to investigate the places I liked best last time and really get a feel for them this time. Monterey was easy - I loved it then and I love it now. However San Francisco as a whole is a bit of an enigma to me and I really don't know how I feel about it.
The sheer quantity of homeless and the drug addled people and the sights I saw will never leave me. I was ashamed and appalled. The sounds of sirens is constantly in the air - at least here in the Tenderloin. I have no answers.
From what I gather the city is in a growth spurt and the technology industry is booming. This is bringing in new people who are skilled in this area and they are taking over the apartment blocks and doing them up. This means turfing out low income earners. They then end up on the street. I know I have oversimplified this but it is basically what is occurring.....and I know it is happening everywhere. This is the first time I have seen it on this scale.
The Church feeds the homeless 3 meals a day if they want it and they also get food stamps and about $400 a month from the government. But this isn't the answer and the sheer numbers of these people are growing every day.
So...as much as I love the Bridge and the vibrancy of San Francisco I leave it a sadder person than when I came.
NO BLOG TOMORROW AS I WILL BE TRAVELLING
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