3 days in San Francisco (15th-17th of May 2025)

So after finally landing in San Francisco and getting through American customs and getting my bag I made my way on the train to my hostel. Upon arrival to my hostel I found my travel buddy Carys had managed to miss me coming through the airport gates as they wanted to surprise me at the airport.

So I got checked in and showered before meeting them at some restaurant for some beef brisket and veggie dinner. A very fun reunion after 88 days from them leaving me in Melbourne Australia.

After that we headed to The Golden Gate Bridge for sunset. We took some photos and managed to walk just over half the bridge before the policeman on his bike asked us to exit the bridge before 9pm closing. Thank goodness we weren't locked on the bridge for the night.

We then had a bit of trouble getting the bus back to the hostel but we managed and got to bed by 11pm.

A long day starting at 7am in Melbourne time and finishing at 11pm San Francisco time. All on the 15th of May!

16th of May started with a 4:30am wake up to watchthe sunrise over San Francisco. I know I'm crazy! A long travel day to 5.5hours sleep but the sacrifices you must make on trips!!

To get to the Twin Peaks we took the coolest uber ever!! It didn't have a driver... Ghost uber! How does it work? Well the car has cameras all over the car to monitor the surroundings, other cars and road rules. It was pretty cool and Carys and I made the most of being able to sing loudly in a car without a driver. The steering wheel and indicator stick even moved. But not the pedals.

The view of San Francisco at sunrise was beautiful and definitely a site to remember.

By 6:30am we had watched the sunrise and were ready to go back to some warmth, so we returned via the very cool ghost uber!

After that I had to have a nap to manage the rest of the day!

So by 9:30am we were ready to start the day again and head out to do some shopping. The Backpacking tour Carys and I are joining on Saturdah requires us to have Sleeping bags as we will be camping at national parks. We finally found 1 Sleeping bag and 1 thick travel blanket before returning to the hostel to sort esims and documents for camp.

Then it was out again to see the famous Lombard street (the mini tight cornered street in lots of San Francisco films). Then out for some Mexican dinner before heading to Pier 39 to see some Sea Lions and get on the ferry to Alcatraz prison.

What an experience the prison was. The ferry begins with giving you information about the prison, that it was once a military base, then prison and now it is a national park and bird sanctuary.

When we arrived we did a walk around ans then got our audio tour. This was super interesting and even had background noises of prisoners, gates opening and closing and riots to make you really feel like what it was like. The most interesting story was of three men, two were brothers who escaped by creating fake bodies and putting them in their beds whilst they dug tunnels using spoons and other utensils. They never found their bodies so they're still researching today what happened once they left their tunnel?

The prison had the forst light house kn the west coast and San Francisco had a tower that was in gun distance to watch any escaping prisoners.

17th May-

We got up this morning and began packing and moving over to the hostel we were staying in tonight for our tour to begin. We went to Ferry Plaza Market which didn't really have anything that appealed to us but it was nice to walk around. We then saw the sea Lions at Pier 39 as well as looked in the shops at the Pier.

We then went back to the hostel where we met our first friend from our tour, KK she isfrom Germany so I hope to meet up with her when I get to Germany in September.

We then had our tour meeting in the evening where I found there were 7 out of the 13 in the group, Australians!!! WOW! 5 including me are from Melbourne... actually nice to have some local friends.

We decided to all get dinner together as a group which included taking a Waymo- self-driving car, to a restaurant our tour leader Ash had suggested. Unfortunately 12 people trying to get a table with no booking was a bit of a hassle and we ended up having to wait over an hour at a local park. But it was lovely getting to meet everyone. We then had a nice dinner before getting the bus back to our hostel.