San Francisco

As we couldn´t check into our hostel until 2pm we wondered around San Francisco with Lauren and Kara until the afternoon. In this time we managed to find Halloween outfits. Tony got the scream outfit and Emily brought a witches hat and nose. How imaginative!!! To get into the Halloween spirit when we finally checked into the hostel, we watched The Ring in the hostel theatre! After being knackered for ages Emily found that now she couldn´t sleep!!!!


The first day in San Fran was just a day of exploring and going around the town in a cable car but night time was something else - it was halloween. All the children piled into shops were shop keepers gave out free sweets. Emily was quite disappointed when they wouldn´t give her any!!!

The hostel organised a pub crawl and we bumped into Sis who we met in Seattle! Unfortunately Lauren and Kara couldn´t come out with us as they are only 19 which means they are underage by US standards. They went to crash some house party!! Instead we took our new room mates with us. Mez and Laura who were also English. The whole hostel headed out for drinks but it seemed like we were walking for ages and hadn´t gone into any pubs!!! Then they took us to the tube station. Therefore we decided with Mez and Laura that we would go elsewhere. We also managed to persuade Sis to come with us! We ended up in a Irish pub and it was amazing. People were dressed up as everything and anything. We had mermaids, tooth fairies, little red riding hood, Marilyn Monroe etc. We meet some guys on a stag do from Dublin and some America guys on a business course - random!! In all it was a brillaint night with our entertainment being two men on a piano who would play and sing whichever song you requested for a dollar. If anyone decided they didn´t like the song you could end it for two dollars.

The weather was awful the next day and we got soaked. We decided to go to Alcatraz but as we queued they had sold out!!! So we brought tickets for the next day. As Tony wanted to keep Emily happy he agreed to go to the Wax muesum. It was brilliant. Emily loved the wax of Eminem and the horror section. However the best one that both of us loved was the Steve Erwin Wax pissing off a crocodile while Sylvester Stallone was getting ready to fight it in the background.

Alcatraz was brillant. It was a sunny day so the boat ride across was great. We had a audio tour of the whole building and learn´t about the great escape and stood inside the cells where the guards had been kept as hostages. We also learnt about the escape of two brothers. They escaped by the Shawshank method - amazing. They have never been seen since.

We wondered around the Island and saw where the guards and their familes used to live as well as the prison warden.

Our last day in San Fran consisted of getting soaked again!! We checked out at 11am and our flight wasn´t until half past midnight!! All day - to get soaked without shelter! We took a bus with Kara and Lauren to Golden Gate Park and from there we made our way to the bridge.

We walked along the bridge looking across at the sights and back at the city. We were so glad we got to do it. It was on the way back that the rain started!! We ended up getting a bus back to the town and spending all day in the pub!! Much to Tony´s delight!!!

Peru here we come!!!!