The US Travel Wrap Up 2 (San Francisco)

2. San Francisco @ 14/02/09 - 16/02/09

Is Valentine Day!!!! And I had my second trip on second long weekend, President's day f on Feb 16. Actually I will have my first mid-term after that weekend, but as an exchange student, I really should not waste my time on study. So, San Francisco won, I signed up the tour and left my mid-terms behind.

This was my first time joining a guided tour in the US. It will be easier to get around and if you want to visit more places in shortest time, tour would be the only alternative that you will have. Having free and easy required time on planning the trip, figuring out the public transport and finding the hotel. It will be more convenient by joining a tour, but it comes with price. There are a lot of hidden fees after we get on the coach. I paid additional USD55 for the cruise ride. And according to the tour agency, we need to pay our own meal, which I thought I can opt not to eat if I want to. But it turned out that the tour guide will bring us to one isolated restaurant that is located in the middle of nowhere. By no choice, we were forced to eat at the restaurant the tour guide 'recommends'. The restaurant must be a Chinese restaurant, with all-you-can-eat buffet. Sounds not bad? 1. Chinese food in the US basically just sucks; 2. Food in the US is always salty, no matter it is a Chinese food or American food; 3. It cost me at least USD10 to have a meal, I would rather have some fast food.

Looks like I keep complaining about the tour agency. Haha, sorry, I should really talk about my trip now. It takes around 6 hours from Los Angeles to San Francisco. We had a few stops along the way. First, after around 2 hours bus ride, we stopped at a small town named Solvang. Solvang is a Danish town, located in Santa Barbara County (still in California). In Solvang, you can find bakeries, restaurants and merchants that offer Denmark taste. Even the architecture of buildings also follow traditional Danish style. I suddenly felt like I am in Europe.

After Solvang, we had another stop at Monterey Bay, located south of San Francisco. Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, i think there is a different between Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea that I familiar with. Before that, I thought ocean and sea would be indifferent but now I know ocean is bluer and has higher wave. There is nothing much to do at Monterey Bay, the weather still cold in San Francisco, we just took a few photos and left.

There are four MUST-GO places in San Francisco: Lombard Street, Golden Gate Bride, Twin Peaks and Fisherman's Wharf.

Lombard Street is nothing but just a street. It is famous of having a steep and 9 tight hairpin turns. The twists would be nicer in spring when the flowers blossom. But I went during winter, what i saw was flower bed with no flower....

Well, I do not need to talk much about Golden Gate Bridge. Golden Gate Bridge is the landmark that defines San Francisco. However, besides taking photos with the bridge, there is no other activities that we can do. But if you are on free and easy, I would suggest you to rent a bicycle and bike across this famous bridge.

Twin Peaks, oh I love Twin Peaks so much. I enjoyed the 360 degree bird's-eye view of San Francisco from Twin Peaks. San Francisco is famous for its hills, so when I view the city from top, I could see all the slopes, steep roads and how the houses are built on the hills. Unfortunately, that was a little bit foggy on that day. But I still managed to take good pictures. :)

There are quite a lot of things you can do in Fisherman's Wharf. We took a cruise, the weather was so cold at that time, and I barely felt my cheek and hands when I was on the ship. Besides the cruise, the Sourdough Bread Bowl of soup from Boudin is also a MUST-TRY. The bread bowl has a crispy crust but the bread is soft. And after the bread bowl absorbs the soup, it tastes really delicious. The bread bowl I ordered was English Clam Chowder, the soup tastes so nice, I think Boudin has a better Clam Chowder than the one I tried in Boston.

Last day of our tour, we went to Hearst Castle on our way back to Los Angeles. I don't think Hearst Castle is a must-go place, so I would not waste my time talk about it. Haha.

Trip to San Francisco, THE END.