Day 42. Once again I was supposed to be having a quiet night, things never seem to work out quite that way though.
It was ‘wine and cheese night’ at the hostel (which is massive and has a free pool and fussball table, coolio) and as we have acquired a ‘Ralphs’ (the best supermarket chain on the planet, Liddels inclusive) card, we managed to get 2 bottles of a 2008 Californian brand for $10, it would have been $9 for one without the card.
We then got talking to some of the staff and they invited us to a reggae night in the Mission District that they were going to. So me, Simon, an Irish girl, a lad from the Basque region of Spain and a mad little Japanese girl headed off yonder. Now I’m not making this shit up but the Japanese girl is a unicyclist and is saving up to go to circus school, how cool is that!
The club (Skylark, ace name) was a proper rasta joint and had a good vibe. The actual night wasn’t quite as good musically as I’d hoped for. It was advertised as strictly vinyl dancehall, dub and reggae and while there was some quality tuneage, there was too much remixing and hip-hop fusion for my liking. Still good though and especially after I missed out on the reggae club I wanted to go to in Austin.
Simon got some evil pictures, there will be a lot of Facebook untagging going on I ensure you. We were talking to the lady who was selling proper rasta stuff and she thought it would be funny to have pictures taken of us with beanie hats on, which it was, it was also however highly embarassing for a reserved young Englishman such as myself. The photographic evidence is haunting.
Also, I saw the first Lambertta I’ve seen since I’ve been in The States so I knew I was in a smart area.
I’m on the tube now to go and pick up my camera from the airport, I hope it goes smoothly, the thought of losing all my pics is not a nice one. These BART tubes are a bit bloody pricey, certainly when compared to similar systems in other US cities. 11 bucks for a return to the airport, I think that’s not far off 8 quid in proper money.
Camera pickup successful, mighty relieved. I had a quick flick through the pics and there are some crackers, a particular favourite of mine being 2 tigers staring right at me in San Diego Zoo.
When I got back we went for a bit of clothes shopping as I’m sick of the very limited wardrobe on display in all my photos. So I got a t-shirt at $30 but the real find was the Fred Perry ‘scooter mac’ (that’s honestly what it’s called) I got for $60 down from $278! Okay I don’t need another parka, I have no room in my bag for it, I can’t afford it and I’m probably not going to be able to wear it for 2 years but it’s a deal, it’s a steal, it’s the sale of the flippin’ century. Urban Outfitters is my new favourite shop.
Next up we took the world famous San Fran cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was very nice but aren’t cable cars supposed to be in the air?
I liked Fisherman’s Wharf, there’s lots of cool and interesting characters knocking about. A few examples are: a bloke disguised as a bush jumping out and scaring people, a terrible dancing Papa Lazarou impersonator and a rubbish trickster (so bad he mixed up the words of the cons and made ‘em even easier to see through).
We stumbled up upon a really cool penny arcade with a hundred or so old skool machines of all descriptions. Most of them were only a quarter too so we killed a lot of time there. The highlight was giving Simon a severe tonking at table ice hockey.
I finally got to appreciate the charms of In-n-out Burger, very charming too. Though the accent thing is still proving difficult:
Fast food lady “Do you want onions on your burger?”
Me “No thanks”
Fast food lady “Do you want onions on your burger?”
Me “No thanks”
Fast food lady “Onions on your burger?”
Me “No thanks”
Fast food lady “Okay”
My inner mind “Ohhh come on, ya killin’ me over here”
There’s 4 girls of about 15 years old next to us in the tram queue, one is waffling: “So like Christine was over at my house with Jasmine and then Dante turned up”. Unbelievable. This country.
We just stayed in the hostel tonight and had a few cans and played pool (Boach, tell Terrence that I was cutting stuff other people couldn’t even see) and table football. Simon made a beaut lasange too, kudos for that.
My apologies for the extremely inflated issue but there is just so much to report on from this wonderful city. It’s the best American metropolis I’ve been to so far, even including New York. I love it.
More apologies again for the fact that a 3rd of this article and any other editorial taking place is doing so at nearly 5 in the morning, the quality is probably bobbins.
Oh yes also, I saw a hobo dude before asleep on the street with his animal friends also kipping; a dog with a cat on top of it, with a large white rat on top of that. Seriously, Frisco is mental I tell ya.
Okay, I need to go now as my eyelids no longer feel like they are still in my possession. It’s a good thing I have earplugs or otherwise me and JB from Montreal across the way might just fall out, lungs of a b@stard. Not really though, he is a nice chap. Over, but not quite out readers.
PS I’m posting this a day late as I fell asleep while finishing it off last night. It’s quite hard to be punctual in this game.
