kickthehorse.com- We’re kicking it hard!

Well everything has happened and been and done in San Fran. What a great place. It is so cool, both figuratively and metaphorically. (Like the big words?) Well anyhow it is a really nice place, lots of hills like you would expect, but still great fun. I did lots of walking, my legs were sore after each day. But let me start from the beginning, our flight. Before that, let me tell you this is going to be a long one, so get ready cause here it comes…..

I got the exit row on this flight, which meant unlimited leg room, it was sweet. The only down side was I was near the bathroom, so had visitors almost all night. I didn’t sleep much though, to busy watching movies, or documentaries. The whole trip went along really nicely. It was only a 12 hr plane flight so felt as though we hadn’t missed much even though things in date had changed. We caught the BART from the airport to the hostel. The BART is the train, it is really fast, clean and not to bad for price, $5.15 all the way into town. We then got off the BART to be confronted by a gazillion peoples, it was the Thanksgiving weekend. So many people, I think there must have been people every square cm. It was ridiculous. We manage to struggle thru the crowds waiting for the trolley and find our hostel. It was nice and clean and not far from things like Union Square and good shopping and everything neat in SF.

Had an afternoon nap and then went to China town for dinner, I think. I don’t remember much of it. I remember walking lots and eating food. That might have been on Sunday. Anyhoo it was lots of fun. We went to China town a few time for meals, I always look in the windows of places before I go in if I can. Why? Well it is a symbol of how good the food is. If you have lots of Westerns in a place in China town, it is going to be a shit restaurant. If you have Chinese in a Chinese restaurant, it is good. Cause it is more authentic than the other. That is my logic anyhow. It paid off though, cause it was a really nice restaurant. I think we went to that one on Monday night.

We went with some British Peoples, Dan and Grace. They rock. The only arrived on that day, so we showed them around, Union Square and the small sights on the way to China town. They loved the tacky gifts from China town as well as we did. I was thinking of buying some to take home, but thought that it would cost more to post them than they cost. I also had a thing for oriental slippers, I don’t know why. They looked cool, plus there was so many styles.

 So what sight seeing did we do? More than my legs could take! We walked from the centre of town down to the Fisherman’s wharf, up and down the hills. Window shopping, jumping down the steep driveways. It was raining on this day, so we had to stomp thru the water. It did clear up for a short while. So I was able to take photos. I have to yet upload them for you to see. I need to go thru them all first.

 So down at Fisherman’s Wharf we looked at the old game Museum. Lots of signs to read for those interested. We didn’t read that many, just played some games. Jess played one where you had to put your hand on the meter and it told you what you love life was like. She got cold fish, I laughed so hard. Then she bribed me to do it, I got cold fish as well. I swear it was rigged! We had a good laugh about it.  We then went to Hard Rock Café, it was really nice. Lucky Jess had been there before, so knew what not to get. We didn’t want to get meals, at we already had lunch somewhere else. I think from a vendor of the cocktail sausages or hotdogs. So we got an Appetiser. Bloody hell, that is no appetiser. It was so huge, it fed us both, with leftovers. Meals are freaking huge in America! Think of an average meal anywhere else in the world, and then double to triple it. That is the size of meal we were eating everyday. You could have lunch late and that would do for the rest of the day. We were lucky though cause we got a free shot glass, that was sweet.

We caught the trolley home, that was really cool fun. Cold but good. It is interesting how they get pulled up the hills, and then have a brake person for down hill. We were going to have a look at a snow shop, but the address was totally confusing. They decided to name a new street the same as one in the city. So it is confusing for everyone who tries to read the address. We gave up on that place. We managed to find a place that was closing down and picked up some cheap but good gear there. Without it we would have frozen our asses off! Literally, it was -10C when we arrived in Canada.

 The next day, Tuesday we biked around the city, we caught the bus down to the wharf again and hired the bikes. It was cool fun, we saw the Golden Gate Bridge. It is awesomely cool. We then rode up this ridiculously steep hill on the other side of the  bridge, Battery point I think it was called. Great view, should do it in a car, not on a bike. I made it up riding, but Jess had to stop and walk up. She doesn’t like hills. We had to keep going on up for a little bit more till our turn off, we then went downhill at around the speed of light, amazing feeling. When I could feel it. My face went numb from the cool air, rushing over delicate cheek bones. (ahahah, joke!) We then when thru a tunnel, which was cool, it was long and damn. Somehow we found our way down to Sausalito, had lunch and hoped on the ferry. It was a great day. But it wasn’t over yet! We returned the bikes and then hoped on the same bus back into town, it was meant to take us back to where we got on, after a short detour. We ended up near the airport before we hoped off the bus to get one back the other direction. It was eventful.

There was 2 black guys, African Americans, what ever you want to call them. They were having words and almost starting to fight, they were talking funny. Jess was a bit scared, I thought it was funny. All they kept on repeating was “I’ll drop you to the ground nigger” “Don’t make me drop you nigger” I think every second word was Nigger, quite tense for a bit. They eventually calmed down and we arrived at somewhere we knew. We jumped off and had some dinner at some where. I think it might have been Jack in a Box. They have the best fast food burger I have ever tasted, Sourdough Jack. Awesome burger. Light but filling. Jess and I laughed at the sizing of cups. I got the small, she got the Medium. The small was what Australians would call a Medium, the Medium is something even we don’t have. It was like a keg! I would say it was at least double and a bit more bigger than the Small.

I went to Alcatraz on the Wednesday, WOW, what a great place. It truly is awesome to look at the conditions, the audio tour is great as well. Truthfully informative, it is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I ended up walking all around, trying to get some good shots of the island, ended up taking nearly 100 for the day. 70 of them on Alcatraz, not bad for ½ day on the island. I would like to put accommodation on the island, and bring it back to its grandeur of the hey day. Somehow I don’t see that happening. I also walked to Lombard St, the Second crookedest but most famous street in San Francisco.  It is really quite windy, but the view is amazing from the top. You can see the Bay bridge from the bottom. The tree lined streets all the way down the hill. Something that I won’t forget any time soon.  I then walked home, via the Grace Cathedral ( I think it was called that). It is make out of Concrete peoples! Concrete, it has all the ornate cathedral stuff, but it is concrete. Totally blew my mind. Anyhow it was really nice, I then walked down a ridiculously steep hill, that I could probably sit down on and slide down. Oh one thing I forgot, was outside the cathedral was a park, it had a slippery hand rail. Did I slide down it? Hell yeh, it was awesome fun. It even had some kinks in it, so was more like a slippery dip. I couldn’t help but laugh at how fun it was, I bet I got some weird looks, but my god it was awesome fun. So then I got lost after going down the big hill. Found my way again, and when home to the hostel. Big day all up.

The next day we had to get up early and get a plane. The plane was stupid, ok maybe not the plane, but the Airport was. We thought we were on Air Canada, but we were on United. So we were walking everywhere with out bags, heavy things they were. On average they grew by 5kg. At least mine did. So we eventually got checked in, via a computer, but they still needed to sight our documents anyhow, so I don’t know the reason behind that. Anyhow, we got put in a special line to go thru Security. This is the stupid bit. We got our shoes taken off, belts, bags searched, bags scanned for bombs, bags tested for bombs. We had the works. All to get out of the country. To go to Canada! We did not have to check anything thru x-ray to get into the country. We even went thru customs the hard way, and had no problems. We even have Cow shit on our shoes and got thru, they don’t seem to care if you come thru. That is the bit I found weird. If you’re a terrorist, you can get into the country, but to get out is almost impossible. So we waited for a bit, and then got on our tiny plane, to Calgary. Where this post will end. Hopefully I haven’t numbed your brains to much. I’ll update again soon.

Well a few days after going for my Interview, i got my Passport back with a lovely sticker in it. My US B1/B2 Visa. It is good to finally have it, although the border guard can decide if he wants me in there or not, and for how long. Which kind of defeats the whole reason for having the visa in the first place. It is good to have it anyhow, hopefully there won’t be any problems! Only 2 months till we leave now. It is fast approaching… :S

Well the ball is well and truly rolling now. I went for my Interview with the US Consulate today. You may wonder why i need a Visa, being an Australian. I generally don’t need one, but seeing as i am working in Canada, I need a visa for the US. Make sense of that! It has to be the first experience i have had get inside a consulate in Australia. I had to pass thru 2 scanning machines, 1 xray machine, 2 bullet/ explosive proof doors. and then talk to a lady behind a bullet proof window. It looked over the top, but you could see why it was so. There seems to be a fair bit of hate toward America today. I thought that it would be a bit unnerving going in on the 5th anniversary of the Trade Centre bombings. It felt like a normal day after it all. I got my finger prints taken, no ink either. Bit bummed about that!I would have liked the ink stain, but it was a laser thingo. I find out later on this week if  i get the visa. Hopefully i do, i don’t see any problems. I did have to fill out another form that my sis didn’t have to do. It was only for guys aged between 19-26. Weird i know, but it only asked me to list my entire history, where i schooled, where i  used to work, where i  used to do anything. I didn’t enjoy that form, it was just to much information. I’m not even working in the US for god’s sake! Grr!! Anyhow that is over now hopefully you will hear more good news soon on it!