16/05/10

(on the 17th)

We stumbled upon San Francisco at the right time. We happened to arrive perfectly for the Bay to Breakers run. It apparently is a run for charity where people are sponsored to run from the east of the city to the west. This still happens in the morning, but now young and old from the area come out in fancy dress, or nothing at all in some cases, to walk the route, get drunk and have a good time. The guys that we were staying with and friends were dressed up as dinosaurs, but others were dressed as watermelons, the Jamaican bobsleigh team, the Mario cast, anything and everything. We started off at an apartment along the route to have a few drinks, watch the parade go past and shoot water pistols at them :), then we headed into the heart of it. There were floats with decks playing music being tugged along by the crowds and people dancing alongside, a huge rubber duck blowing bubbles, bands playing on the sidewalk... The whole atmosphere was relaxed and jubilant, if that many people were that drunk in the UK I would have expected many more fights and much more aggression.

A few of us: G0N, Bryony, Charlotte, Jessica and I broke off to find some lunch then check out some of the city. We started off by going to the beach at the very west of the city for a wander and then headed towards Lombard Street; the ridiculous winding road that goes down one of the hills in the city. It claims to be the most curved road in the world, and probably is. The views from the top of the hill are great, you could see the golden gate bridge to the north and the city sprawling out below. Near the bottom of Lombard Street we popped into this amazing bar, it must have had over 20 different local beers on tap. We had a taster of 8 of their beers recommended by a beer fan at the bar, they came in little glasses mounted in what appeared to be rounders bats, see the pic when I get a chance to upload them. This is definitely the final nail in the coffin for my previous ideas about American beer, let it be known that American beer is great and they have the same amount of variation and passion for good beer as we do at home.

From the city centre we got on a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) train to Berkeley, where we had dinner in another restaurant/bar that served great beer and had a live country band. We met a couple of Jessica's other friends for the dinner. Interestingly Ivan, (spelled wrongly and pronounced with sounds that we don't have in our language) went to Lancaster to do a Masters at their business school a few years back. Those of you who don't know, my brother also did a masters there, it is very nice. Following dinner we went to a tapioca bar to have tapioca drinks and play board games, a nice relaxing idea.

By the end of the day we had taken 10 public transport links and travelled quite a way round the bay area. A successful day, despite not starting with lucky charms.

Cube out