tour of sfo
Saturday. off from work. no commitments. decided to explore sfo downtown. no prior itinerary. armed with a bus time table, dollars and quarters, jacket and enthu, set off on a self guided tour of sfo. turned out to be a wonderful experience. can now claim have a feel for the city. chennai minneapolis and chicago. cities i would right fully claim to have a feel for. SFO. Welcome to the club :).
With a heavy breakfast in my tummy and a heavier back pack filled with goodies, water and camera, i set off from my house to the nearest bus stop. yes all the way up and down using just the public transportation system. Golden Gate Transit. MUNI. Tram. Yes its possible. SFO's transportation system rocks. Now lesser inclined to get a car. On reaching downtown, called up a few people who knew/have been to sfo downtown and one of them offered me the suggestion of going to Fisherman's Wharf. The other suggested loitering in the downtown and do some shopping. Did both. Got myself a new sleeveless jacket for peanuts. i had a chance to walk down market road. could not help comparing this road with chicago's magnificent mile. Does not come anywhere close in terms of crowd or variety to that mile in chicago. But felt this road in this Golden Gate city was more practical, more reachable to ordinary purses, and did not come with a 'see it but dont touch it' tag. The place was filled with ordinary folks in ordinary dress walking and doing normal things. I always felt that in Chicago's magnificent mile, there were two very distinct set of people present - the ultra sophisticated afford all type and the ones who come to gape at the first kind and their shops. The market road was entirely different in that sense. May be I am comparing apples and oranges.
Took the famous trolley to Fisherman's Wharf. Man the streets of SFO. I pity the horses that were used in earlier times here in SFO. The roads seem to be inclined at 45 degrees. I have seen these angles only in the entrances to some parking garages. Imagine whole streches of roads exending to couple of blocks inclined at such angles and worse.
Fisherman's Wharf reminded me so much of Navy Pier in chicago. Again, whatever I felt about the downtown was re-enforced here. Less crowded. Less showcase like. Chicago's navy pier sometime feels like it is an outdoor movie set and all the people over there are extras playing their roles. Fisherman's warf seemed more natural, authentic seafood restaurants showing off what would be cooked, right in front and allowing the customer to see all the dirty process that goes on before it becomes a delicacy in our plate. The shore there had a nice view of the alcatrz island and the bay. Took tons of snaps. I was alone. Yet I wanted to take some snaps with me in the foreground. So I asked a couple of people and they all obliged whenever I asked them. Another guy, from India, was there alone and he asked me to take a snap of him. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I asked him to take one of mine there. Since we both were alone, and may be I thought I could use some company and he, some guidance given that he had been in the us for only 3 weeks and was leaving back to India the next day, we decided to walk together. It also helped that neither of us had any thing planned in particular. Every now and then, both of us exchanged our cameras and took snaps of each other. So much so, he told me all about where he is from, where he works, what he does,what he thinks of US etc etc. We then went to the golden gate bridge together by bus and continued our snap exchange. Took some really cool snaps of the bridge. Atlast when it was time to head home, we exchanged contact info hoping to keep in touch. Strange how strangers become acquiantance.
Golden Gate Bridge. An engineering marvel. Would be a marvel even if constructed today with the help of all the technology at our disposal. It was constructed 60 years back and has withstood earthquakes better than other modern bridges. Whoever said we improve as time progresses. Me describing it wont do justice. Neither to the bridge not you. It needs to be seen. Stand still and take it in. Dont just drive by. I did that for a whole week. Really din't appreciate its beauty. Only today when I had a chance to walk under it and savour it true magnificence did it strike me what character and charm it possess. Its not like one of your usual run of the mill huge structure. Its hugeness adds a majestic stature to it. Its not gigantic. It stands tall.
Look at these snaps.
Compare the height of the vehicles to the first portion of the tower and then see from the second tower, how many sections are present.
Minuscule in front of a towering personality :)
Postcard snap. - Atleast I hope you would say so ;)
And this is where I wish I cud send you for reading and not commenting - Alcatrz island prison - as seen from Fisherman's Wharf.
With a heavy breakfast in my tummy and a heavier back pack filled with goodies, water and camera, i set off from my house to the nearest bus stop. yes all the way up and down using just the public transportation system. Golden Gate Transit. MUNI. Tram. Yes its possible. SFO's transportation system rocks. Now lesser inclined to get a car. On reaching downtown, called up a few people who knew/have been to sfo downtown and one of them offered me the suggestion of going to Fisherman's Wharf. The other suggested loitering in the downtown and do some shopping. Did both. Got myself a new sleeveless jacket for peanuts. i had a chance to walk down market road. could not help comparing this road with chicago's magnificent mile. Does not come anywhere close in terms of crowd or variety to that mile in chicago. But felt this road in this Golden Gate city was more practical, more reachable to ordinary purses, and did not come with a 'see it but dont touch it' tag. The place was filled with ordinary folks in ordinary dress walking and doing normal things. I always felt that in Chicago's magnificent mile, there were two very distinct set of people present - the ultra sophisticated afford all type and the ones who come to gape at the first kind and their shops. The market road was entirely different in that sense. May be I am comparing apples and oranges.
Took the famous trolley to Fisherman's Wharf. Man the streets of SFO. I pity the horses that were used in earlier times here in SFO. The roads seem to be inclined at 45 degrees. I have seen these angles only in the entrances to some parking garages. Imagine whole streches of roads exending to couple of blocks inclined at such angles and worse.
Fisherman's Wharf reminded me so much of Navy Pier in chicago. Again, whatever I felt about the downtown was re-enforced here. Less crowded. Less showcase like. Chicago's navy pier sometime feels like it is an outdoor movie set and all the people over there are extras playing their roles. Fisherman's warf seemed more natural, authentic seafood restaurants showing off what would be cooked, right in front and allowing the customer to see all the dirty process that goes on before it becomes a delicacy in our plate. The shore there had a nice view of the alcatrz island and the bay. Took tons of snaps. I was alone. Yet I wanted to take some snaps with me in the foreground. So I asked a couple of people and they all obliged whenever I asked them. Another guy, from India, was there alone and he asked me to take a snap of him. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I asked him to take one of mine there. Since we both were alone, and may be I thought I could use some company and he, some guidance given that he had been in the us for only 3 weeks and was leaving back to India the next day, we decided to walk together. It also helped that neither of us had any thing planned in particular. Every now and then, both of us exchanged our cameras and took snaps of each other. So much so, he told me all about where he is from, where he works, what he does,what he thinks of US etc etc. We then went to the golden gate bridge together by bus and continued our snap exchange. Took some really cool snaps of the bridge. Atlast when it was time to head home, we exchanged contact info hoping to keep in touch. Strange how strangers become acquiantance.
Golden Gate Bridge. An engineering marvel. Would be a marvel even if constructed today with the help of all the technology at our disposal. It was constructed 60 years back and has withstood earthquakes better than other modern bridges. Whoever said we improve as time progresses. Me describing it wont do justice. Neither to the bridge not you. It needs to be seen. Stand still and take it in. Dont just drive by. I did that for a whole week. Really din't appreciate its beauty. Only today when I had a chance to walk under it and savour it true magnificence did it strike me what character and charm it possess. Its not like one of your usual run of the mill huge structure. Its hugeness adds a majestic stature to it. Its not gigantic. It stands tall.
Look at these snaps.
Compare the height of the vehicles to the first portion of the tower and then see from the second tower, how many sections are present.
Minuscule in front of a towering personality :)
Postcard snap. - Atleast I hope you would say so ;)
And this is where I wish I cud send you for reading and not commenting - Alcatrz island prison - as seen from Fisherman's Wharf.
posted by d'na | 11:19 PM
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