"I'm so proud of you, finally seeing more of the world!"
"San Francisco? That's far! Awesome!"
"I'm so jealous! WIsh I could come too..."
Some of the things I heard a lot of people say after I told them that I was gonna go to San Francisco in 2 months!
Everything was planned in no time and I was really glad that 2 gals I know were gonna come with me!
Early flight from Dusseldorf to Paris on monday morning April 4th! My mother dropped Patti, Nancy and myself off at Dusseldorf airport and off we went!
Pumped as we were, we couldn't wait to get this trip started! The flight to Paris went perfect. Short and sweet ;) Before we knew it, we were landing!
In Paris we had time for a visit to the bathroom and Nancy had time for a cigarette and then it was time for the long flight straight to San Francisco!
We were pretty jammed, I thought we'd have more space. But it went pretty good. We were able to get up and walk around a little. We got more food then we'd normally eat in a day! And enjoyed some views no and then when we spotted a free window!
11 hours of flying is a very long time! I can tell you that much. There were moments where I thought time stood still! We had a few chats on the plane, got some tips from a lady who lives in SF and that helped kill time a little.
But finally we were gonna land! I think we were all willing to kiss the ground after landing :p
The weather upon arrival was gorgeous!!! We met up with Carol at the airport, shared a cab and met Karen and Lisa-Marie standing outside our hotel. Hotel TOMO! In Japantown!
Good hotel, good location, friendly staff and the rooms were perfect too! We only had to get used to the poorly flushing toilet... Let's just say that was interesting :p
We put up some banners, picked beds and we felt home!
A quick fresening up, picked up Carol, Karen and Lisa-Marie from their room and went into town!
Enjoyed some views and ended up havening ANOTHER meal at the Cheesecake Factory!
We dropped by at the Hilton San Francisco too! Tomo was a bit more modest, but Nancy and I can now say, we DID sleep at a Hilton hotel people!!! :p
We were exhausted, from all the flying and the eating so we went back after dinner, took a shower and as soon as my face felt the pillow I fell fast asleep! I slept like a baby!
The next day we went for a beautiful and long walk through San Fran! What a beautiful city! Gorgeous buildingsa dn amazing scenery!
We stopped for a little drink in the sun near the beach. The temperature was great and the skies were gorgeous blue. It was just a little windy ;)
We continued our walk along the beach and let's be honest... You can't leave San Francisco without posing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge!
That's as close as I got personally. Patti took a bike ride up and down the bridge later. Brave woman! :-D
After our long walk (we walked toward the Walt Disney museum too, but it turned out to be closed in tuesdays...) we hopped on a bus and went to Ashbury Haight! A fun, hippy-like street with great shops and great food!
Some of you might already know and the rest will hear it now: I love Ben & Jerry's!!! Adore them! Hate them too, but love them above all :p
So we stopped for 2 delicious scoops of Ice cream at this cute little Ben & Jerry's shop! We, later that day, heard that that could've just been the very first Ben & Jerry's shop ever! YUM!
After hearing from quite a few people that the Castro was worth a visit too, we decided to hop on a bus and head towards this place everybody was talking about!
We had no idea what it was, but we knew we just had to stop there for a quick visit!
We had a great time!!! Did some shopping at a non-profit store that donated towards many charities. Great aditude! We had a drink at Starbucks, watched a guy offering free massages! With restaurants called "the Sausage factory" a store called "Does your mother know?" (can you imagine the kind of store that was? ;) ) and a bar called "Moby Dick" we had the time of our lives! Ended up having a few drinks at Moby Dick and we walked into a guy who did a lot of the traveling we had done too! He even had the same burrito just a few hours before us in Ashbury Haith! Was a great guy!
It was a fun and breath taking day! So, satisfied we went back to our hotel and again, I slept perfectly!
The next day we had planned a trip to Alcatraz! It was another sunny day and we hopped on the boat towards the Rock!
It was very interesting and impressive! That's not a place you wanna be locked up in! Especially with a view of the city!
Again, there was a lot of wind, but that's to be expected on the water ;)
Patti rented a bike, and Nancy and myself walked back towards Union Square through China Town. Had something to eat at a Dim Sum place. Tasted really good... For a while :s haha!
Nancy and I went shopping at Macy's and bought matching shirts ;)
After that we met up with Patti and called it a day!
The next morning Nancy and I decided to get up early, grab coffee at Starbucks and stroll around a little.
We had to, like so many things you just HAVE to do, take a Cable ride towards our next location!
We went to Fisherman's Warf, since we hadn't checked that out properly yet!
Did some more shopping. Stepped into the most amazing and interesting restaurant I had ever seen! Big fish tanks, Gorrila's, elephants, frogs... It truely was a rainforrest! Although we didn't eat there, we did enjoy spending some time there!
We walked on towards Pier 39, had some recommended mini donuts from Trish's Dishes and went to visit the sea lions!
Hopped on the bus, to go back to the Castro and we made our own damn burger at Harvey's! It was delicious! Had another quick drink at Moby Dick and then went back to the hotel! We had a concert to look forward to now and Patti was gonna drive us all to San Jose!
We rented a car and did some sight seeing!
I told ya it was a beautiful place! The views from the car were amazing, but we stopped to watch this view in person ;) Wondeful!
If you wanna know how the show in San Jose and the Meet and Greet with 30 Seconds to Mars was, just read my previous blog ;)
After this show, we said goodbye to Karen and Lisa-Marie, cuz they were flying back home the next day! We never hung out as much as we should have, but the time we did spend together was fun ;)
After the show it was a short sleep and shower before heading towards the airport and fly to LA! In LA we also rented a car and drove through Santa Monica, passed the Hollywood sign and ended up at Universal Studio's for another MARS gig! Again, more about that in my previous blog!
Here we had some more fun with Carol, before we said goodbye to her too. She was gonna fly back home from LA the next day!
It was exhausting. We drove back towards LAX, tried to sleep a little on the ground (no succes) and flew back to San Francisco at 6 am! Took a shower and packed our bags. Patti tried to sleep a little and Nancy and I went for a bagel at Safeway before we checked out and got to the airport AGAIN, this time to fly back home!
Tired and sad to leave a great place like this, we checked-in, boarded and flew back towards Paris. We had more space than the flight from Paris, but we were SO tired that apart from eating our meals, we slept the entire flight! That's the way to do it though!!! Time flies when you're asleep!!! ;)
This was a trip of a lifetime!!!
Thank you to Patti and Nancy for coming with me! It made it even more fun!!!
*winks at Nancy* you know we're coming back next year! Can't forget this amazing country and I can't wait to visit it again soon!
I've learned to live my life and follow my dreams and I sure hope that everybody learnes to do that too if they're not already! And go visit SF if you get the chance! It's so worth it. Great climate, gorgeous scenerees and very friendly people!
