Saturday 7 June – Snapshots of San Francisco

We pack up and check out of the Hi-San Francisco Downtown Hostel, leaving our luggage there until this evening, when we will check in at the Hi-San Francisco City Center Hostel (this is because the Downtown Hostel doesn't have accommodation for our last 2 nights in this popular city).

We treat ourselves to a full English breakfast at Lori's Diner, just around the corner from our hostel – it's expensive, but delicious. This will set us up for the day and we probably won't need anything to eat until this evening.

We buy a day pass for the buses and Metro (subway), but actually this turns out to be a costly way of buying our tickets; it was a big saving in Los Angeles, to do it this way, but not here. We make for 16^th street, as we are interested in seeing Mission Dolores, the 6^th in a series of 21 missions set up along by coast of California by Spanish Catholic priests, between 1769 and 1833. The aim was to colonise California, to convert to Christianity, and to “civilize” the Ohlone Indians, who had lived in this area, surviving and thriving off the land, for many generations. Unfortunately, due to various events in the history of California – the later “secularisation” of the Californian Missions, the Gold Rush and other settlers laying claim to the land, a measles epidemic, and the Mexican War of Independence in 1810, amongst other factors, the Ohlone Indians were virtually wiped out from their homeland.

The building of Mission Delores survived the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco, making it one of the oldest surviving Californian buildings. It is beautiful inside and retains many of its original features, including the original redwood logs which support the roof; these are lashed together with rawhide. The ceilings have been repainted, but retain the original Ohlone Indian designs, done with vegetable dyes. There's a little cemetery garden, where some of the Catholic pioneers and Ohlone Indians are buried.

Not far from Mission Dolores is an alleyway covered in murals, painted by local people. The murals all have a political or social message, which inevitably means that other local people will not agree with the messages portrayed. We are able to speak to one mural-painter who is trying to clean off a huge orange coloured poster which has been plastered on to his mural. While we are there a local resident approaches the mural-painter to complain about the content of the mural. It all makes for a very interesting morning, and we could have spent a lot longer discussing the various mural topics, if we didn't have so much more we want to see in San Francisco, and so little time to do it in!

We stop for a coffee (a latté for me and a green tea for Reg) in a “funky” little eco-friendly café with graffitti-covered “restroom” (toilet) walls. We reflect that there is ample evidence to support San Francisco's reputation (since the flower-power era of the 1960's) of being a a diverse and liberal city.

We take a bus to Union Street, from where we will walk to the “Crookedest Street”, one of San Francisco's tourist attractions. However, while on the bus we get talking to a local lady who tells us there's a once-a-year street fair taking place in Union Street; we've just struck lucky! We enjoy the atmosphere of stalls, selling various crafts and a wide variety of hot foods, plus there are games to take part in. Reg manages to “basket” the ball in the hoop!

The shops lining Union Street are open – they are not getting a lot of custom, although the bars and cafés are packed. Reg and I spot a hairdressers; it's advertising $18 for a haircut. Reg and I both end up having a trim. His hairdresser is Chinese, and mine from Vietnam – so we talk about our travels 2 years ago and discuss what brought these people to San Francisco (the promise of a better life). The Vietnamese lady, who is probably in her 50's, says she will never go back to Vietnam – but she has to “work, work, work, all the time,” in order to make a living in America.

What we didn't realise before coming to San Francisco was how hilly it is. The hills are extremely steep in places, which doesn't make it an ideal city for cycling. After our street party, we walk up an almost vertical hill to get to the Crookedest Street. We expect this to be very old; if it is, it's been modernised, and the road is completely covered in brickwork. There's a procession of vehicles making their winding way down the street, while tourists, who walk down steps at the side, take lots of photos.

We wanted to visit Telegraph Hill, where if you're lucky you get to see wild parrots; but we've run out of energy. We climb on an extremely crowded bus, which becomes more crowded at each stop (there seems to be no passenger limit). Reg offers his seat to an elderly Chinese lady; she smiles and says no, so he jokes that she can sit on his lap; fortunately she finds this very funny! The bus takes us through bustling Chinatown (another place we would visit if we had the time).

We collect our luggage from our hostel; the hostel receptionist calls us a taxi, but unfortunately, after a wait of 20 minutes it still hasn't arrived. Reg decides we will walk to our next hostel, as it's only half a mile. We trundle our suitcases, and are amazed at how an area can change so quickly; within 2 streets we've left the bustling, clean, “downtown” area of San Francisco, and are in a sad, neglected area, where the only people about are homeless people snuggled in blankets on the pavement, with just their faces showing, or wandering about.

Our hostel is situated in this area; but as we enter the vestibule, we like it immediately. There are lots of people about, and there's a real buzz about the place. The receptionist is friendly, and there's even a bar! Our room is beautifully light and has it's own charm. After a short rest we enjoy a Vietnamese meal in a café around the corner.

We find San Francisco to be a city which, despite swiftly-rising property prices and rents which are squeezing some people out of certain areas of the city, still embraces diversity in a unique and colourful way.