Our day started very early today. We made our way to the airport with time to spare then got to relax as our flight was 2 hours late.
Arriving at San Francisco was really cool- literally! First thing we did after getting our bags off was pull our jackets out. It's much cleaner than LA though and the public transport is awesome. It runs efficiently and often and seems to go everywhere. We took a train to the 'BART station' and took another train thing into the city. Out of nowhere came this fog- it looked real spooky! The houses are so cute.
Even the homeless people here are friendlier. It's quite a shock- there are homeless people everywhere. Why do they end up like that? How do they continue to live like that? How can everyone just walk by? It's hard. Do you given them money or not? Of course we did, for the first guy. He was so friendly and gave us directions and seemed so polite and nice. He said he was hungry (for something that comes in a paper bag out a bottle).
But then the next guy came up and he was very nice too, and helpful. And 'hungry'. We had already given all our change to the first guy.
By the time the third one came along, it was getting ridiculous.
What are you supposed to do? $1 or $2 isn't much but when there's 100 of these poor guys...and shit they know how to pick people, who to approach, and pick out the tourists.
We caught on that reading a map in the street was like a a magnet to homeless people hoping to make a few bucks sending you in the right direction.
Is it really that different from tipping? Tipping is important here because the minimum wage is so small that most people can't live on it. So we tip to make their lives bearable, to make up for what their employer (and kind of the goverment) won't do. Same (sort of) thing with the homeless people; they don't have the benefit like people in NZ do. You can complain all you want about people on the benefit in NZ, but this is what it stops; streets with a homeless person or two on each and every corner.
We felt quite uncomfortable and vulnerable walking the streets with our suitcases. Made us stand out like a sore thumb. We were totally glad to reach our hotel even when it turned out I booked a bit of a dud (ah well, 2 outta 3 ain't bad!)
It's really close to Chinatown and 20 mins walk from the transport. However it's noisy, old, stinks real bad, and is next door to this place:
Chinatown was alright. Shop after shop of the same tourist stuff but we found some gems in there. Some of the carvings and art were amazing! And a whole shop for different types of tea. We found a really great restaurant and tried Dim Sum for the first time- these small plates of Chinese dishes like entree stuff for $3/$4 each, and you buy a variety and share.
We were back home early, 8ish, and are enjoying a much quieter day. It's been so good to take it a bit easier today! Giving us back some much needed energy. Tomorrows another busy day and then eek it's on to Vegas!!!
China town Grant St entrance
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