Greetings from San francisco

[stui magpie]

Morning Punters. Thought I'd just check in and say G'Day

I've been in the US for nearly a week so far. The first few days in El Paso, texas. Interesting place. It's a city of not quite a million people but it's massively spread out. I stayed Downtown, next to the Arts district and not far from the shopping district. Yes, there are defined districts and the culture of the area changes when you move from one to another. In the Arts district a metric shitpile of money has been spent in building new stuff like a baseball stadium, museums, art galleriers and a convention centre. The old buildings there are beautifully maintained.

Walk 3 blocks and buildings only 100 or so years old look like they're ready to fall down. Walking around the place is a head spin.

Few notable things about El paso.

1. The people there are ultra friendly. Don't start a conversation with a local unless you want to yak for the next 30 minutes at least and probably be invited to join them for lunch or drinks.

2. No bugger walks anywhere. Cars are everywhere but pedestrian traffic is minimal.

3. No where in around where I stayed had footpath dining or drinks. Any bar or restaurant or cantina you had to actually go in the front door to see what it was like, very hard to tell from outside. If you wanted to find a place you could sit down with a drink and have a smoke you are shit outa luck. Almost. I found one place on the last afternoon, a gay bar.


When you talk to anyone, after they ask you where you're from, they ask why you're there. When you say Holidays, they look at you quizzical and say, " Here? What made you come to El paso?" Then thye correct themself and say "There's a lot of history here". And there is. It's an absolute melting pot of cultures including all the Spanish and European influences going back to the 1600's.

Also just a short(ish) walk from Downtown to the border crossing into Mexico where you enter Juarez, until recently the murder capital of the world.

Walked over the border, down the main street and the difference from El Paso was striking. Just as old but everything is run down. Went into The Kentucky Bar, the birthplace of the Margarita, with a bar and mirror imported from France in the early 1900's. (Mirror hasn't been cleaned since at least 1950). Fascinating place, even the beggers are bilingual. They tap you for a smoke in Spanish, when I'd just hold up my hand and say, Sorry no Spanish, they'd switch to fluent English.

If you're heading to the states and have 2-3 days to kill going somewhere off the beaten track, I'd highly recommend El Paso.

So after that I headed to San Francisco. Wow, instant culture shock. I'm staying basically on the corner of mason St and market st, two of the main key streets. Right behind me is basically their version of the slums, the "tenderloin", chock full of homeless, mentally ill, drunk and drug affected. Took me a good half day plus to get my head around where to walk and how to deal with the beggers. Did my head in at first, and very confronting when there's a pack of them together.

After that, I've done a lot of walking. San Francisco reminds me of Melbourne a little, but it's also quite different. Very small really as far as breadth for such a large city but high density population. $4k per month for a 1 bedroom unit I was told. That probably doesn't help with the homelessness.

Once you get your head around the place, getting around is a breeze. Walking is fine except in some parts where you would seriously need spelunking equipment the hills are that steep. Can catch the old fashioned cable car which has no motor, just connects to an underground cable that is in continuous motion powered by a central motor somewhere and you have two blokes managing these big manual levers to alternatively connect to the cable to move forward and disconnect and brake to slow. Amazing things. They also have a collection of trams from all over the world going down market St all the way to Fisherman's Wharf.

Did the Alcatraz tour 2 days ago. Looking at the cells and the conditions people were locked up in was mind blowing.

Anyway, my legs have recovered enough, I'm off again. Been averaging around 15000 steps per day for the last week, best was 22k a couple of days ago. I'm not making a plan of checking in again before I get home, but I may do so happy to take any questions and i'll respond when i do.

Off to Vegas tomorrow.

[think positive]

Interesting, may have to get to El Paso one day! Love San Fran, but like you, the first time I stayed near the tenderloin, and I hated it, too scary. The second time stayed up near the Presido and we had a brilliant time. (Walk that hill, it's got ladder built in!)
We actually extended our stay a day because the blue Angels flight team were on the next day, and it was well worth it.

[Skids]

Awesome stuff!

You're guna love Vegas Stui!! Where and how long you staying there? A trip to the Grand Canyon? Well worth seeing.

[stui magpie]

Now ive got used to it i dont mind the area. I still wont walk down turk st but there's a lot of good stuff close by.

Had a chat this morning with a begger/busker who warned me against buying crack in that area, told him that wasn't a problem.

Skids I'm staying downtown rather than the strip. Golden nugget right on Fremont st which makes the strip look like a Sunday school outing.

On El Paso there's not a lot going on unless you can chill and walk around. Very laid back and quiet but I really enjoyed it

[5150]

Any El Paso snow globes?
Don't just bring me back a taco with dandruff in Carona bottle.

[think positive]

[Bruce Gonsalves]

My youngest daughter is off to the States on Monday for her 21st, has an Alcatraz trip booked, Graceland and Hawaii amongst other things. How's the weather Stui?

[djh]

Enjoy your trip. I love San Francisco, but we always stay in Union Square rather than near the Tenderloin.

Make sure you get to the Grand Canyon while in Vegas. We did a flight with Maverick Airlines back in January. Fantastic day!

[Dave The Man]

Thanks for Telling us your Stories of Your Holiday

[HAL]

Oh don't mention it.

[Jezza]

Sounds like you're having a great trip Stui.

I visited San Francisco last year in January so your experiences certainly bring back memories of my visit there. We stayed in Nob Hill which is about a 15 minute walk from Union Square. I remember driving through Tenderloin on the way to the hotel (arriving) and airport (leaving) but didn't walk those areas as it had a bad reputation for it's high crime rate.

The cable car experience is awesome and now I remember the trams near Fisherman's Wharf after you mentioned it. Alcatraz was decent but I wasn't overly impressed by it to be honest. Walking on the Golden Gate was another major highlight and I enjoyed visiting Muir Woods, Sausalito and Tiburon.

There's plenty of good restaurants around Fisherman's Wharf and I recommend you going to The Cheesecake Factory in Union Square if you still have time to do so.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

[stui magpie]

[HAL]

I'm glad you like it. Tell your friends.

[watt price tully]

Have a great trip & keep posting. Nearly sprayed the monitor at work with a mouthful of coffee at the gay bar adventure

Hoping to go to the US in November next year with Mrs WPT: she & her business partner have been invited to give a talker about hoarding & her set up.

Great stuff Stui.

Better go (on night shift now)

[think positive]