San Francisco- the last destination (for now)

After a week partying in Vegas we were all looking forward to the sightseeing days that we were sure to find in San Francisco. And I must say I don’t think any of us were quite prepared on what we found in this city. Yes the harbour is lovely, and the views and experience of riding one of the many open air trams in this hill ridden city is a must. But none of us realised how neglected and poverty stricken many of the outskirt city areas were. The amount of homeless people was astonishing in such a western country, and many of them seemed to be mentally unwell, which was quite scary.

As you can imagine being 4 girls and all, none of us felt that safe, especially at night so we made sure we were in our hotels by about 9pm. Growing up in London we are used to seeing homeless people, and are aware that poverty like this still effects major western cities, however the untold amount of homeless people in San Fran is more than you can imagine, and very sad indeed.

However, putting this unfortunate aspect of San Fran aside, we did have a good time Union square is a central place. As we were there in December the huge Christmas tree and ice skating ring set up in the square was lovely, we of course had a few laps of the ice rink which was fun.

Macey’s is also in Union square, and the cheesecake factory is on the top floor which we of course dined in, the food was delicious and the slices of cheesecake are huge. There are also many more shops around this area and you can also catch one of the many sightseeing double decker busses from here.

 On one of our 4 days we also had a day out on Alcatraz Island and visited Alcatraz prison, such an insightful and great trip, I think I might have enjoyed it bit more than some of the girls but I do love learning about history- bit of a geek at times. Seriously though, this trip made our visit to San Fran worth it.

To be honest now that I have visited Alcatraz prison I doubt I will ever go back to this part of America again. Toni and I actually left San Francisco a day early and flew straight back home to England, we were at a point where we had hardly any money left and after a year we were so homesick and couldn’t wait to get home. Renu and Nat understood and after we left they had 1 more day in San Francisco then flew back to LA for 3 days before jetting home where we see them at our welcome home party.