May 11-13 - 2018 San Francisco, California

On May 10th, we drove to The Fair Park Camp Grounds in Pleasanton, CA. It was a 140-mile (225 km) drive. We were planning on driving the camper in to San Francisco on Friday (May 11), where we were going to be staying with friends for the weekend. At the campgrounds, we found out, that we could store the camper for $10 a day. We decided (much to my relief), that it made sense to leave the camper behind.

On Friday, we drove in to San Francisco, to Marie and Dan’s house - 40 miles (65 km) from Pleasanton. (Marie is one of the Americans, who stayed with my Danish homestay family – the Offenhäusers. That gives us a special bond. Dan is her husband.) They are very good hosts. We have learned so much about the city and have spent many hours talking about all kinds of things. It is GREAT to have some new people to talk to😊

 

Dan and their tortoise - Albert

Marie is a wonderful tour guide. One of the most interesting things we learned about San Francisco, is that it is divided up into many smaller areas or neighborhoods. We have seen several of them, each with its own “personality”.

For instance (fx) we changed from bus to train in "Castro" (the gay neighborhood). We had coffee in "Little Italy".

Dan and Marie live in a nice house in a nice residential neighborhood. There are many nice houses and STEEP hills (stejle gader) in San Francisco. But that it is almost all over town and that they are THAT steep came as a surprise to us. (Some of the hills give you a feeling of being on a roller coaster (rutsjebane) - coming up to the top of the hill, and not being able to see the road on the other side, until you start going down!)





The law demands (loven kræver) that you turn the wheels towards the curb
(mod kantstenen) when you park on these steep hills



Marie and Dan have this view of the city, in their back yard.

The blue house is Marie and Dan's

Haight Ashbury is the area of town, where the “Summer of Love – 1967” took place, and where the hippies lived afterwards (and some still do today). It was fun to walk around and see stuff from our childhood/teenage years. I especially remembered stuff like tie-dyed shirts, bell bottom pants, peace signs, psychedelic colors….

 

 

Chinatown is well known. We have been in other Chinatowns before, but today we saw some new things, with our guide.



Chinese pharmacy

Fortune cookie factory



This band was playing in a park



We ran into a parade

The Mission is the Spanish area of town. It is one of the oldest parts of town. The most distinguishing feature is the murals painted on many walls throughout the neighborhood.  

 

We saw a lot of signs - in Spanish

 And this piñata (pap maché figur, fyldt med slik, og brugt til børnefødselsdage, som en tønde er brugt til fastelavn), decorated as Donald Trump😊

The area has been a very poor area. In recent years, the "tech" community (people and companies with more money, earned especially in the computer industry), has started taking over the neighborhood. We could really see the difference from one street to the next.

 Written by Mary