An escapist tale (San Francisco, Day I) or Short-Sleeved Shirt, Shorts, and Sock-less Sandals

For anyone who didn't notice, there is a six letter alliteration in the title of this post. ssssss ...

checking  out of my SRO

 I check out at 11, pick up some French characters, namely M & C (originally from Epernay, France) across the street, and figure out which direction I should walk towards Fisherman's Wharf.  NO, I don't want to visit THAT tourist trap, but I know that the location of Blazing Saddles that has e-bikes is located close to the wharf.

 I had forgotten how BEAUTIFUL SF is.  None of the tear down the old and replace it by concrete mania has taken a hold here yet.  All those beautiful old buildings and trees gives the place a charming flair. Au contraire, Vancouver can be called many things ( Don't get me started, LOL), but charming is NOT one of them.

still life with insulators and moon

 The way up Russian Hill looks steep, so at some point I ask people waiting at a Cable Car stop how and how much one pays for the Cable Car. When I hear the answer of 'about $7 cash', I just shake my head and keep walking.  That means I still have NEVER EVER taken a San Francisco cable car.  I leave that to the tourists ;-)  And good thing I didn't take it. There are MANY places that I wouldn't have seen and where I wouldn't have stopped to take a picture.

The view from Russian Hill (yes, the crooked street is close to here ;-)

the Sausalito ferry heading into the fog

NOT cycling the bridge today

Just 2 blocks after taking this picture of Golden Gate (in the fog, as is not uncommon), I run RIGHT into the Blazing Saddles location I was looking for.  But after being told that the Stromer e-bike rents for a 'flat rate' of US$ 88 for 24 hours, I just laugh (nice try of highway robbery) and tell them I'll have lunch first.  The attendee tries to still reel me in with a last minute 'deal' of US$ 71 for the same bike, but even that seems VERY steep for a 4 or 5 hour rental.  




There is a Sushi place right next door and I order a Mackerel fillet. Not with the standard and boring Teriyaki sauce, but with something salt.  

The last time I had mackerel was in Saigon with Wilhelm and Ute and it was AMAZING. In September in Korbach, Ute told me with just a tiny touch of jovial Schadenfreude just the two of them went back to the same place the day I had left and had the same dish again.  My present meal might not beat their sneaky mackerel-munching in my absence, but I'm sure that I am scoring quite high in the Eat-fabulous-Mackerel-in-an-amazing-location Competition, if there is one.

All this musing takes place while I munch on the mackerel, and eating usually is conducive to the best thinking. I won't give them the pleasure of renting an e-bike for an outrageous amount, but will simply rent a regular bike (NO motor) to find head to Crissy Field.  Good pictures should be the result !  If these two glasses of wine don't affect my ability to hold the camera steady tooooo much, LOL.

The sticker right next to Indochina reads "You will change the world"

When I get to Crissy Field, I am disappointed.  There are no Herons on the field, unlike two years ago, when the slow-stepping birds were on the hunt for moles and I caught one on film (digital chip) just after it had pulled one from the ground.  The field today is filled with dogs and their owners. Could that be the reason why there are no more herons?????

At a lake next to Crissy Field,I finally discover two herons, but that's a measly number compared to two years ago.

I return the rented bike only a bit more than 2 hours later instead of the rented and paid for 4 hours. The distance is much shorter than I remember (or maybe I'm pedaling too fast) and my age is showing as well.

After another glass of wine at Applebees (another first) in Fisherman's Wharf, I take an old-fashioned tram to the next Bart station.

Bart takes me from Embarcadero to Lafayette, and after a 25 minute walk I am at the house of my hosts.

I don't think Clinton in this election display is meant to look like a Halloween Witch ;-)

The evening concludes with a fabulous meal at a French restaurant and in retrospect toooo much wine ;-)

Now these are scallops

Trade craft of an escape artist (or YVR to SFO)

After dealing with bilateral mediocrity at the security check and immigration control, I head straight for the Adult Section of the Duty Free Store. I still remember the strange feeling of EVERYONE looking at me when I entered the nudie magazine section of stores in my younger years (Remember, there was NO internet then) when I'm heading into the shielded-off and over-21-years-sign-protected section where they keep the tobacco products.   How times have changed ! Tobacco is the new Porn !

Anyhoo, they have something new there. Most things haven't changed. A carton of Canadian cigarettes costs almost CAD$ 90.  A carton of American cigarettes is much cheaper at CAD$ 63, so that is usually what I buy. Strange, American cigarettes contain  fewer additives and consequently taste better than Canadian products, so who in his right mind would pay more for an inferior product?  You guessed it: Canadians. (LOL)
So what is new?  Vancouver Duty Free now sells Chinese cigarettes.   For CAD$ 45 per carton. How could I refuse, especially with the charming name of the brand ;-)

No smoking lounge, but a Dog Shit-House?  Oh, P_LEASE, YVR, get real 

I get in the plane only to find out that I have the seat that I always envied other people for.  The small Airbus planes on this route have two emergency exits over the wings and at the exit doors, one window seat is just missing.  I'm sitting right behind that giant void, i.e. I have unlimited leg room.

I sleep through about 1.5 hours of the 2-hour flight.   But I wake up early enough to see San Francisco Bay approaching through the window.  Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, downtown San Francisco, everything is visible in breathtaking detail. Unfortunately my camera is in my backpack

Not my pic. And this doesn't even come close to the amazing view I had

Downtown San Francisco looks like an Aluminum sculpture of amazing detail. My seat neighbours ( a couple in their early 20s) are wielding a cell phone but the hope of getting a shot from a seat that far from the window is ZERO, so I offer to take a picture for them.  Let's just say that cell phone camera controls should be more standardized and that after 3 failed attempts, my neighbours treat me like a regrettable old man who never had a camera in his hand.  No point in disputing that assessment ;-)

At SFO airport I march straight to the front of the terminal (a Looooong walk) and light a cigarette.  As soon as I step out of the door, I  am surprised by the strength and HEAT the 5 pm afternoon sun hits my paling skin. Looking at the normally coloured (i.e. not pale) laughing people in the smoking area, I feel like something that has lived in a dark cold cave for 20 years and now has crept to the outside for the first time.

5 pm shadows

I take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit from the airport to Civic Center Station (Somewhere in a box in Vancouver is a BART ticket with $10 left, but since I simply have too many boxes I ended up buying another one).  

By the time I reach Civic Center, it is almost 6 and the sun is low.

This is also the first time I take a bus in San Francisco. I acquired a Clipper Card at a vending machine in the Bart station and after a bit of a wait get to board an overcrowded bus for the rather steep fare of US$ 2.25.  But I'm too tired to walk !

The hotel is CHEAP for San Francisco, but then it also definitely is no Trump hotel (thank God!) , Muslims, Latinos, People who pay their rent here by providing favours to other guests (We'll leave it at that since there might be minor readers ;-), as well as guests who simply refuse to pay more than $300 per night to stay in a fancy hotel.. NO visitors are allowed between 9 pm and 9 am and most rooms don't have their own bathroom. Reminds me of the places on Hastings Street in Vancouver.  I'm staying In an SRO hotel !!!

But I sleep for an amazing 13 hours and the only reason I finally walk across the street to find some coffee is that the check-out hour is approaching rapidly.  That Sauvignon Blanc I bought at the CVS across the street before checking in might have something to do with that ;-)

You might have noticed a certain trend here. Instead of Davidoff Cigars, taxi cabs, and the San Francisco Nikko Hotel you see  cheap Chinese cigarettes, cheap public transport, and an SRO hotel.  

The moral of the story?  Whatever you don't spend on this trip can finance the next trip !