USA: San Francisco – City in Bay II
Published: 28.7.2013
Next day morning we set out to explore Lombard Street, a street that is world famous for its zigzag character. And really, houses are built to allow everyone who live there to drive in or out on this steep hill.
It is situated on a hill and you can drive through only from top down. Cars have to drive there very 
slow so traffic jams quickly form on the top and police has to manage traffic. Between steep turns there are growing flowers; our May visit was really amazing considering this. We walked the street in both directions, made photos and continued on the same street up to the top of Telegraph Hill to the Coit Tower. This 64 meters high tower was built in honor to San Francisco’s firemen and the statue of Christopher Columbus “guards” it. You can observe the whole city from its top.
After the tour we went to Chinatown, a district that is in every large American city; we had difficulties to make ourselves understood in English. We explored the entrance gate and local buildings and also bought some souvenirs.
They suggest you should buy souvenirs in Chinatowns for they are much cheaper than in every cities’ information center. On our way back to hotel we passed by Cafe Prague, a Czech restaurant where we spent a pleasant evening with Czech staff and food.
In the evening of the third day, we booked a boat trip to Alcatraz, thus we planned only a short walk in the city center where we saw City Hall. Then we moved by bus to Golden Gate Parku where we intended to visit the Japanese Garden, which was unfortunately closed due to Memorial Day. At least we had a walk in park and get back by bus to the downtown.
In the evening, we sailed in a boat to Alcatraz Island where the well-known prison of the same name is located. There the worst criminals and murderers were deported and really terrible things happened. Today, it is a tourist attraction and people are showing tremendous interest in buying tickets. Inside, there was no guide who would be waiting for us, only headphones with audio record in several languages guiding. In the record there were also actual voices of prisoners and their guards, really nothing for gentle personalities. Overall, I found the exhibition very limited for they didn’t let us else than to the first floor. In fact you say cells built in several levels up. Some are in better some are in worse condition. In some bed there are even artificial heads of sleeping prisoners. You wouldn’t be permitted even to walk around the island itself, everything is closed.
When we returned back to the port we went to Bubba Gump restaurant which drew inspiration from the movie "Forest Gump". Everything there was inspired by this movie and staff had funny clothes. In the course of our visit there we were asked questions on scenes and movie facts. We had lot of fun there, dinner was great and all meals were sea fruits based. After dinner we took a ride in well-known historic Cable Car, to which you have to board while it drives.
On the next day morning we just moved to the airport and fight across Chicago to New York. Again, I was convinced I want to return there at least once again...
Text: Pavlína Rouhová
Photo: Wikimedia commons: David Yu, SPBer, Ed Villanueva, Wattewyl, Hispalois, Abrahami, Jimmy Engelbrecht, Downtowngal
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