I love San Francisco

I love the city of San Francisco for many different reasons.

San Francisco is a city that you can “walk.” It means you can experience the city by simply walking around. San Francisco is not as big as Los Angeles. Freeways are only around the city and local roads connected the entire city. In the middle of most local roads, it’s the track for Muni. People living in San Francisco rely so much on public transportation as packing is expensive and spaces are limited. During this trip, I just relied on Muni to travel around the city as I did not have a car. Sometime, I walked alone. It seems so free as you can go wherever you want without waiting for your companions. However, it is always better if you can travel with one or two friends who you are very familiar with, you feel comfortable with, you feel happy with and share similar interest with you - like taking pictures.

On 12/10, I flied to SFO by Virgin America. The ticket was just 60 bucks. The experience was just awesome. Here was a conversation between the flight attendant and once I was on the plane:

FA : How’s going? First time to travel on this plane?
I : Yes, the plane looks good and comfortable.
FA : Well, so you are a virgin…welcome on board…
I : Well, thanks…lol..

I was a virgin on a virgin flight ! Actually the VX 929 was not a typically A320 but a A320 with AVOD system. You could set your music playlist, play games, watch movies, order food, view the navigation with this system in a US domestic flight. It’s unbelievable. But as the duration of the flight was just 55 minutes, I spent most of the time on enjoying the view outside and taking pictures. Virgin America used the international terminal in SFO. So three months later, again, I was back to there.

I accommodated at my friend’s apartment which was located in sunset district. So without driving, how could I go to downtown to meet another friend? That was the biggest concern before. But the convenient public transportation system in San Francisco solved the problem. Traveling from sunset to downtown, I could chose either No. 71 and N Muni. Both choices took about 40 minutes to downtown and they were still available after midnight. It’s so convenient for me to return home from downtown after midnight. Sunset is really a nice place for living. I can’t say that the architectural style of buildings in sunset is beautiful, but they are very special. Sorry I didn’t take any pictures of the street view in sunset district. Another benefit is that there are many choices of food in sunset. For sure, there are Hong Kong style food as sunset district is another Chinese neighborhood aside from Chinatown. If I could stay in US after I graduated, I would rent a apartment in sunset district. I just love that area.

One of the most enjoyable things is walking around the downtown holding my cameras. During those 4 days, I spent most of the time on walking around the city and window-shopping. Finally I could experience the cable car [ding ding car] ! I long for taking it to Fisherman’s Wharf for a long time. The cable car is really the symbol of San Francisco. First we took cable car to Chinatown for lunch. Then we went to Fisherman’s Wharf by cable car. On the way, it went up and down hill. If you are sitting inside the car, then you won’t feel scary. But you know, we were just holding the handrail and at the same time taking pictures. It’s so exciting especially when the car was going down hill. If you want to experience San Francisco, definitely you must try taking the cable car. The Fisherman’s Wharf did not surprise me as I had been there for several times. It was freezing there so we got a hot chocolate without cream. There was a merry go round, and we really wanted to play. What? 5 bucks each ? So we decided to spend money on tasting the french-style crepe. We chose the chocolate and banana flavor and it was just so yummy =) On the way back to downtown, we chose to sit inside the cable car as it was even freezing in the evening.

Although I just stayed there for 4 days, I was really happy and took a lot pictures. Thank you my friend kidman for providing accommodation for me and being my guide showing me good places for dining. There are many discrepancies between the city of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Los Angeles is not bad if there is no traffic ! Well, but Los Angeles will no longer be Los Angeles if there is no traffic!

Therefore, still, I love San Francisco so much.