Goodbye to all that
So, where were we?Ah yes, my last day in San Francisco. I hit the streets once again and, after going to an internet cafe to do the last blog entry (and look a right tit asking for a pain au chocolat), just started walking.
This time, I ventured towards Buena Vista park.
Now, obviously that sounds like a nice place to get a view of the city right? But being a bit of an idiot, I didn't really think that through to it's logical conclusion.
Which is that Buena Vista park is at the top of a fairly long, extremely steep hill. And it was hot. Very hot. And I was wearing a jacket, like some kind of British Imperialist refusing to go native.
Which is why the picture of me in the park, overlooking a quite majestic view of hte city, also features rivers of sweat gushing down my fact (pics to be posted shortly).
It was, however, worth it, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
After the descent, I met up with Alan, who'd been kindly hosting me on his sofa for the entire time so far and, after a breakfast beer (well, I'm on holiday right) at a rather decent place on upper Haight, we headed to Golden Gate park.
To get there, though, we had to walk all along upper Haight St, which I have to say, was a lot more hippy than the lower half. Problem was, it was kind of self-consciously tourist hippy, almost becoming a parody of itself, like one of those old music-hall entertainers who's act has become popular again with the kids, but in an ironic way.
Which was sort of sad.
The park, on the other had, was an absolute joy. It had loads of different sections, including a cool prehistoric looking bit.
More importantly, it had Lindy in the Park, a free open air Lindy Hopping session (of course) AND in a nearby section it had a group of elderly men and women, roller disco-ing to hip hop booming out of a huge speaker on a baby stroller.
We watched the oldies roller hip hopping for a while (who wouldn't? That is not something you get to see every day) and then wandered over to the Japanese Tea Garden (40% peaceful garden, 20% noisy tea shop, 30% ugly gift shop) before finally heading back as I had to get my flight back to Palm Springs.
posted by Peter The Great @ 11:19 AM
2 Comments:
"40% peaceful garden, 20% noisy tea shop, 30% ugly gift shop"
...and 10% pure mystery?
Good to hear from you yesterday.
I look forward to the photographs and the inevitable call from the Police station after you ask Boots to turn the electronic images into glossy prints.
I’ve been reading back to "And the beat goes on" and noted, in particular, the phrase, “A lot of people visited the bookstore, pausing only to glance at the place and take a photo”.
Do you remember when we were in Cuba (ten years ago now!) and you, me and Pat piling out of a taxi to take photographs of some bullet holes in a prison in the south? A horrified Asian lady asked if that was all we were going to do – and it was – because it was about ten in the morning and we were all gasping for a refreshing pint of ice-cold Mayabe Black. Happy days.
Ogden gave me, and the rest of Cyberspace, her e-mail address. The difference between me and all of them is that she loves me… and I’ve got a human head in my freezer.
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