Day 1 - Norway --> San Francisco
Our trip started June 11th in Norway. The plane for Amsterdam left at 06:50 am, meaning we had to get up around 3:30 am. Personally I think it’s actually advantageous to fly early in the morning on long flights, so sleeping is easier. Long story short, we left Amsterdam at 11ish am local time and arrived in San Francisco 2 hours later…local time.
We had decided to stay 3 days in San Francisco, including the day we arrived. This should be sufficient to adjust for the worst jet lag (go melatonin) and experience the city.
Being fairly stupid, we rented a car from day 1. As anyone who’s ever been in San Francisco can tell you, this is a Bad Idea[tm]. Both because SF is sort of problematic to maneuver in, and because the downtown hotels will totally gouge you on parking. We paid $50 a night. Sweet.
Our first car was huge...
Our plans for SF included: walking around (as always), shopping, arts, eating good food, a concert (with a Norwegian band, lol), Alcatraz, celebrating my birthday on June 13th, going to the Great America amusement park and some boozing.
We started out by dumping our baggage in the hotel and getting a much-needed shower. We all felt pretty good, so a walk through the city was in order. We’d heard about Fisherman’s Wharf, got a map from the hotel (right by Union Square) and set out walking. I was a bit disappointed at first with how un-hilly SF was, but that quickly changed…After a while we hit the steeper streets, and suddenly we noticed there were basically no other pedestrians. But whatever, it was nice to stretch our legs and get some leg work in.
Close by our hotel
My friends in the typical SF steep hill
Fisherman’s Wharf was pretty meh, wouldn’t really recommend it. Very touristy, reminded me of overcrowded places in Mediterranean countries (like Cyprus, ughh). We got to see Alcatraz, which unfortunately turned out to be as close as we got – it was fully booked on the day we had planned to go there. Rest of the day was spent eating some and having a few beers then crashing pretty early.
Day 2 - Great America and a concert
The first part of day after was spent in Great America. We completely forgot to take pics until the very end, here’s one of the rides:
We were probably the oldest people there without kids
Didn’t bother us, and we had a blast. Nice park, recommended.
Went to a concert with the Norwegian band Datarock in the evening at
The Independent. We also discovered that booking at popular restaurants is a must – we spent way too long walking around and nearly starved to death. Found a sushi joint with surprisingly good food based on appearances.
The concert was a blast. The Independent was a pretty cool locale, just a stage and an open floor and a bar in the back. Datarock has a decent following in SF, and with the band’s extremely energetic music and performance the crowd went wild. Not surprisingly the locale and band appealed to the more liberal part of SF, gays of both sexes abounded. Alright, one of our stereotypes were upheld!
Day 3 - SF MOMA and sushi from heaven
My 34th birthday, woho.
Day started again with the excellent breakfast buffet at the hotel. One of my friends probably gained a pound for each day in SF – the pancakes were psychotically good, as was the syrup…
Our next goal was the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I’m not really an arts guy, but both my friends are…and compromises need to be made on this sort of trip. I’m glad I joined though – I found most of it very interesting. I was particularly taken by the photography exhibit Robert Frank,
The Americans. I’ve never been much into photography really, but this exhibit blew my mind. If you ever have the chance to see it, I really recommend it. My friends surprised me by buying the hardcover edition of the pictures from the exhibit for my birthday, a very nice gift.
Evil black poodles ritually sacrificing a baby
On the way home, we found a street sign that was just irresistible:
We also witnessed some sort of hippie "Save the Earth from Giant Evil Corporations" (or something) protest (NSFW/sanity):
In the evening, we were lucky enough to get reservations for Kiss Seafood, a sushi restaurant. It’s rated #1 on yelp.com among the finer sushi places, so we were really excited – a first time for all of us. Unfortunately we didn’t bring the camera, but if you are at all interested in sushi and find yourself in SF – go there. The food was out of this world, the place itself very charming (3 tables and a counter, and very charming hosts in their own way). It was also the first time we had cold premium sake, which is so much better than the warm, more pedestrian stuff that it’s not funny.
The meal came to around $150 each including tips, lots of sake and beer. Worth every penny. Watching the sushi chef prepare the food up-close was a treat, that ish is art. We stumbled out in a blissful state. We had originally intended to go to a club, but after that meal it just felt wrong…being in a state of quiet euphoria, we ended up in a more quiet bar instead.. We couldn’t really go overboard with the alcohol anyway, since we were going into wine country next.
Overall, I liked San Francisco a lot. Decent weather (remember, we’re from Norway), nice people, nice vibe to the city, good cultural offerings, very good food. Definitely a place I could live in.
Next up: Sonoma - wine country.