san francisco loooove

Jason has a new love. I'd be jealous, but it's not a person, it's a city: San Francisco. I share this love. It's the perfect blend of city-busy and peaceful calm, and lots of fun quirky little places to visit.
Jay wants to move here and open an Australian-style pub. We went looking for a bar last night to have a quiet drink to relax after the long bus trip, but all the bar in the down-town area are pretty awful. Either too upmarket for us, or loud and playing doof-doof music. One seemed to be a gang bar. We fled from that one pretty quickly, and ended up buying some beer from a corner store (they sell booze EVERYWHERE here, it's so weird) and sitting in the games room in the basement of the hostel.
Oh, and sort of off-topic, also kind of related because it's what Jay and I talked about while drinking said beer: there is a John Steinbeck museum! Except it's several hours south so we can't exactly get there, but I'm impressed none-the-less.

Today was our first full day here (we arrived at about 8pm last night so it doesn't really count) and we made the most of it. We searched fruitlessly for a flea market we'd seen mentioned online and ended up in Castro, the spanish quarter, where we went op-shopping. I bought a messenger bag to carry instead of my backpack, as we look too much like tourists in our backpacks that are obviously the little day packs that zip off the big backpacking bags.

We spent a few hours of the afternoon in an Irish pub by the ocean. We also went swimming, and despite the crazy, brain-frying heat, the water was so cold my feet ached until they went numb. Wandering home along the water, we ran into a lady selling her handmade jewellery at the markets, and she told us about a free music festival that's happening in the golden Gate Park on Sunday that sounds fantastic. There are details about it here, incase anyone cares: http://www.radioalice.com/pages/427796.php

We made our way back to the hostel through Chinatown, and it was only not having enough cash on me that prevented me from buying up on gifts and trinkets. I have to remind myself that anything I buy now I'll have to lug about with me for weeks, so I should wait and see if Chinatown in NY has similar items.

In the meantime, I'm off to have a cup of tea. I finally bought some milk, no more of that disgusting powered creamer that has taken over the continent!