Chapter 29

Chapter 29

 

 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

 

San Francisco - days of rest!

 

What a great city! It’s appropriate that a city such as this should have a great entrance hall that is the Golden Gate Bridge. There is so much life here. The layout of the city with the steep up and down streets ensures that you see the skyline of the city, no matter where you are in it. It’s not too busy traffic-wise today, Monday. Maybe the weekends are particularly busy and that would make sense. Everyone goes out at the weekends. Public transport is very good once you get the hang of where everything goes, and, unlike some places, town maps abound. 

Spent a great morning down along the piers. Great buzz, great seafood, great views out to Alcatraz and some great busking. I could spend a lot of time here.

I got the bus to Haight Street to visit the birthplace of the Flower Power movement in the Sixty's. I was there a number of years ago when it was still alive and well. And then, there was a great sense of the Bohemian and it was good to be there. 

Today, I can say that the Flower Power movement is no more! There are still the shops there selling dope smoking pipes and weird stuff, the strange clothes shops where you could buy anything with chains and beads on. Where you could find yourself talking to some 'way out' shop assistants who wanted only to love you. Now the hippies are all gone and there are only a few down and outs and homeless and some aging old hippies trying to hold to the remnants of what used to be. Now, there are a lot of Obama T shirts and stuff and there is definitely a change of emphasis from the old days. 

It was a shame and I leave here feeling that a period of my history and a lot of people’s history has disappeared, even if you were never a part of it. 

Back into another part of town where some of the steep streets are a sight to see. I head up to see the bendy street (Lombard). A street that is so steep they had to make it, so the cars can’t come straight down, they have to chicane down like switchbacks. The streets up to Lombard are too, I swear 45 degrees. It’s like trekking up a mountain. Good exercise.... 

Back to the hotel and the others have decided to all go out for dinner and invite me along for a great night’s craic and some beers……. more tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

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