Another Time, Another Place
Sep. 7th, 2021 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanDay 2 from 2012... adjusting to the USA way of life...
Sept 12. Wednesday - San Francisco
Holy Crap!! Shopping Day!! Awake at 8.30 & a light breakfast of Kellogg’s Frosties – USA style, which means even more extra sugar frosting than the Australian version, or as Julia put it “Diabetes for breakfast”. Then a walk down to Geary St & a bus into town. I must say the Public Transport in this town is impressive in its frequency (coming from a place where there are two local buses an hour & they stop after 10pm, or 7pm if you travel from town), a bus arrived within three minutes & there would have been another ten minutes after that. Another thing I liked was a $2 ticket gets you three hours of travel anywhere in the city. Just as we were boarding, an elderly (& probably Russian, given the district we’re staying in) man pressed his ticket into my hand, saying something in quietly broken English. I didn’t know what it was at first, so didn’t thank him properly – just said something polite as I thought it was some kind of advertising flier, but it saved us the cost of one $2 ticket at least. Paying on the bus was odd... you have to put the exact amount into a chute & the driver gives you the ticket, but can’t give you any change...
Once into the heart of town, we got off just near Macy’s, but closer to a shop called H&M which Julia was excited about, but I’d never heard of (2021 edit: H&M are now all over Australian shopping malls!!). So I walked out of there with three long-sleeved shirts & a t-shirt, while Julia picked up two blouses. Then into Macy’s which is like Myer & David Jones combined only better & friendlier – the staff actually want to help you & sell you things… like Hello Kitty chocolate drops & a Nespresso machine. We'd discussed this before leaving Australia & decided getting one was the easiest way of ensuring we can have decent coffee for the trip. Strangely, we had to go elsewhere for the coffee pods though – to Bloomingdale's, we were told, which was nice of Macy’s to recommend a competitor, so we spent more money in their menswear section on a blue paisley shirt & grey jacket for me. Now I don’t have to wander America in my long black coat looking like Neo from the Matrix… or the Man With No Name if I wear my Stetson with it…
The assistant at Macy’s also recommended a trip to Discount Cameras on Kearney St if we wanted to buy a point’n’shoot camera – which Julia did. Then we decided I needed one too… & a tripod, carry bags, memory cards… $800 dollars later, Allan the friendly Salesman shook my hand & wished us a good trip… if we can still afford one!
Next, to T Mobile to get US SIM cards for our phones & a correct identification of my accent by the Salesman – who said I’ll probably be mistaken for an Englishman a lot more during this trip
Then off to a nearby boulangerie for a couple of nice sandwiches & our 2nd taste of American Coca Cola – I was still unimpressed. Nor had we been impressed by the Starbucks coffees we’d bought on the way to the camera shop, which only further justified our Nespresso purchase. Speaking of which, next stop was Bloomingdale's for the coffee pods. Then to Walgreens for various bodily necessities, a pair of Alcatraz socks, a tramcar magnet, but I wasn’t allowed to buy the 2 gallon jug of, most likely, rotgut red wine I found on a shelf
Our first encounter with a street beggar, who asked us to buy him something to eat as he hadn’t had anything for two days, pulling up his shirt to show us the “40 pounds” he’d lost... We gave him $5 whereupon he said he needed another $10 to get accommodation for the night. We wished him luck in that endeavour & re-entered Macy’s to pick up the coffee machine. By now staggering under the weight of various bags full of various stuff, we found a tram/bus hybrid that could take us back to within a block of our accommodation
Dinner with Chris P again tonight… I think he’s enjoying his dual role of tour & restaurant guide… & so are we
Oh god... when will we learn to avoid large meals followed by desserts? As I write this I’m hoping that I’ve finished expanding from the evening’s effort. The Korean Hot Wing place recommended by Chris P was closed due to ‘Equipment off-line’, so Julia Googled similar cuisine in the area & we found a place in the Haight-Ashbury district that turned out to be better than the original choice, according to our Gastronome & Guide. Wing Wings was more of a Cajun approach to the bird-part in question, but twelve wings in hot sauce & thirteen in some variant on BBQ sauce, chilli cheese fries, a bacon & cheddar biscuit & fried plantains were all enjoyed. Personally I would have stopped there, but majority rule took us to a place about a dozen blocks away that did great pie & milkshakes. And great they were, but I really should have passed on the milkshake, as I think that’s what spilled over the containment area down below & led to the aforementioned expansion
A post-prandial walk was definitely in order, so Chris drove us over the Golden Gate Bridge... well we assume it was the Golden Gate - we saw the red-rust coloured support pillars at either end, but the rest was shrouded in thick & fast-moving fog. The view from two lookouts was non-existent, so we went back to Chris’ apartment where Julia got stuck on/in his electric reclining couch & we picked up a swag of Amazon.com orders for family members back home that should lead to an impressive excess baggage charge on our return flight
Now home & soon a quick call to family to let them know we’re alive & well & extremely well-fed...then some research into guided tours of the city’s sights for tomorrow
Sept 12. Wednesday - San Francisco
Holy Crap!! Shopping Day!! Awake at 8.30 & a light breakfast of Kellogg’s Frosties – USA style, which means even more extra sugar frosting than the Australian version, or as Julia put it “Diabetes for breakfast”. Then a walk down to Geary St & a bus into town. I must say the Public Transport in this town is impressive in its frequency (coming from a place where there are two local buses an hour & they stop after 10pm, or 7pm if you travel from town), a bus arrived within three minutes & there would have been another ten minutes after that. Another thing I liked was a $2 ticket gets you three hours of travel anywhere in the city. Just as we were boarding, an elderly (& probably Russian, given the district we’re staying in) man pressed his ticket into my hand, saying something in quietly broken English. I didn’t know what it was at first, so didn’t thank him properly – just said something polite as I thought it was some kind of advertising flier, but it saved us the cost of one $2 ticket at least. Paying on the bus was odd... you have to put the exact amount into a chute & the driver gives you the ticket, but can’t give you any change...
Once into the heart of town, we got off just near Macy’s, but closer to a shop called H&M which Julia was excited about, but I’d never heard of (2021 edit: H&M are now all over Australian shopping malls!!). So I walked out of there with three long-sleeved shirts & a t-shirt, while Julia picked up two blouses. Then into Macy’s which is like Myer & David Jones combined only better & friendlier – the staff actually want to help you & sell you things… like Hello Kitty chocolate drops & a Nespresso machine. We'd discussed this before leaving Australia & decided getting one was the easiest way of ensuring we can have decent coffee for the trip. Strangely, we had to go elsewhere for the coffee pods though – to Bloomingdale's, we were told, which was nice of Macy’s to recommend a competitor, so we spent more money in their menswear section on a blue paisley shirt & grey jacket for me. Now I don’t have to wander America in my long black coat looking like Neo from the Matrix… or the Man With No Name if I wear my Stetson with it…
The assistant at Macy’s also recommended a trip to Discount Cameras on Kearney St if we wanted to buy a point’n’shoot camera – which Julia did. Then we decided I needed one too… & a tripod, carry bags, memory cards… $800 dollars later, Allan the friendly Salesman shook my hand & wished us a good trip… if we can still afford one!
Next, to T Mobile to get US SIM cards for our phones & a correct identification of my accent by the Salesman – who said I’ll probably be mistaken for an Englishman a lot more during this trip
Then off to a nearby boulangerie for a couple of nice sandwiches & our 2nd taste of American Coca Cola – I was still unimpressed. Nor had we been impressed by the Starbucks coffees we’d bought on the way to the camera shop, which only further justified our Nespresso purchase. Speaking of which, next stop was Bloomingdale's for the coffee pods. Then to Walgreens for various bodily necessities, a pair of Alcatraz socks, a tramcar magnet, but I wasn’t allowed to buy the 2 gallon jug of, most likely, rotgut red wine I found on a shelf
Our first encounter with a street beggar, who asked us to buy him something to eat as he hadn’t had anything for two days, pulling up his shirt to show us the “40 pounds” he’d lost... We gave him $5 whereupon he said he needed another $10 to get accommodation for the night. We wished him luck in that endeavour & re-entered Macy’s to pick up the coffee machine. By now staggering under the weight of various bags full of various stuff, we found a tram/bus hybrid that could take us back to within a block of our accommodation
Dinner with Chris P again tonight… I think he’s enjoying his dual role of tour & restaurant guide… & so are we
Oh god... when will we learn to avoid large meals followed by desserts? As I write this I’m hoping that I’ve finished expanding from the evening’s effort. The Korean Hot Wing place recommended by Chris P was closed due to ‘Equipment off-line’, so Julia Googled similar cuisine in the area & we found a place in the Haight-Ashbury district that turned out to be better than the original choice, according to our Gastronome & Guide. Wing Wings was more of a Cajun approach to the bird-part in question, but twelve wings in hot sauce & thirteen in some variant on BBQ sauce, chilli cheese fries, a bacon & cheddar biscuit & fried plantains were all enjoyed. Personally I would have stopped there, but majority rule took us to a place about a dozen blocks away that did great pie & milkshakes. And great they were, but I really should have passed on the milkshake, as I think that’s what spilled over the containment area down below & led to the aforementioned expansion
A post-prandial walk was definitely in order, so Chris drove us over the Golden Gate Bridge... well we assume it was the Golden Gate - we saw the red-rust coloured support pillars at either end, but the rest was shrouded in thick & fast-moving fog. The view from two lookouts was non-existent, so we went back to Chris’ apartment where Julia got stuck on/in his electric reclining couch & we picked up a swag of Amazon.com orders for family members back home that should lead to an impressive excess baggage charge on our return flight
Now home & soon a quick call to family to let them know we’re alive & well & extremely well-fed...then some research into guided tours of the city’s sights for tomorrow
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-07 03:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-07 05:03 am (UTC)Skid Row in LA was worse, when we passed through it in 2016. The gulf between have & have not is getting bigger... & so much worse
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-07 01:41 pm (UTC)