The San Fran man

The trip has finally started and the first port of call was San Francisco, yet to get there we faced nearly 30 hours of travelling door to door. Yet I've always loved long haul flights, abusing the free drinks and watching the latest films. However, I was in for a shock since American Airlines don't even provide you with your own televison (first world problems) fortunately my ability to sleep in most conditions made the journey fly by and soon enough I found myself in downtown San Fran.

The first thing to notice was the gradient of the city, I thought Sheffield was hell but I had been introduced to a new form of torture like nothing before. Luckily the hostel was only a few blocks away and we quickly collapsed to adjust our body clocks.

After struggling to sleep due to having a snorlax for a room mate we headed out to begin our journey as tourists, Golden Gate Bridge was first on our list and after a trek through the park we were met by San Fran's most iconic monument. A brief walk round found us exploring Fort Point which was everything that Fort Boyad was, minus the prizes and tigers. Although we had purchased travel passes we found ourselves walking everywhere and it was soon clear that we were getting a bigger workout than we had ever anticipated, the hills were so steep that to stand up right would send you tumbling down the hill.

Like all the other adventures, we look for pub crawls both to get hammered and also to indulge ourselves in the local culture. Yet on our first night out we found ourselves in the beer Olympics representing our glorious nation. After suffering a humiliating defeat in all four rounds, we somehow found ourselves in the semi finals due to special circumstances and adding Tom from York to our team, we powered towards victory to bring home England's greatest piece of silverware for decades.

San Fran has a lot to offer and the second day was no different, pier 39 at fishermans wharf was full of life, offering old amusement arcardes and a great view of Alcatraz since we hadn't booked tickets in advance ( word of warning, look to book at least a month in advance!). Instead we wandered up to Lombard street which is the most crooked street in the world and a few blocks down we stumbled across the set of the next planet of the apes film!!! Franco wasn't knocking about but it was pretty cool to see a post ape apocalyptic street.

The next stop for me was Chinatown since the other two were still recovering from the nights entertainment of duke dumont. I'd never really known the true meaning of Chinatown until I came to San Fran, it literally is a town within the city, nothing like berry street at home. Dim sum was the hangover cure and we wandered over to Coit Tower to see the awesome views right across the city, although it was on top of a 'hill' which resembled something close to Everest.

Our last attraction to visit was a tour of the AT&T park, home to the San Francisco giants and trying to learn a bit about baseball before we go watch a game in San Diego. We've managed to cram everything into our short stay and after pounding the streets were all looking forward to a big old chill in Santa Barbara.

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