Secondment – The one where i'm a tourist in San Fran (chronicle 2.0)

Hello peeps!

How are we all doing? Unboleviablely well I hope!

For today's post I will tell you all about my time in the beautiful city of San Francisco. Well, what I remember anyway. C’mon it was two years ago, my memory isn’t that great. But let me tell you something – I actually kept a diary of my time in San Fran, knowing myself and how shocking my memory can be, I figured I’d write down all my adventures in these little books. I had two, both were gifts from my friends J Why two I hear you ask, well, see, I used one to document the main activities, the other one, documented all my food adventures. YUP! I kept a diary of all the food I ate! 

One for food, one for everything else - great way to remember your adventures

Working in San Francisco

I spent 5 months working in our San Francisco office and it was fantastic! I wouldn’t have changed my experience for anything. 

I worked long hours when needed and was able to keep my weekends free. But I also had my fair share challenges. For instance, I had to lead an audit where the client was off-site and when I say off-site I mean in Brazil and the accountant was in the Caribbean. Worldly right! There was another time when I had one job that went into crisis mode while I was leading another one. Long story short, after long nights and discussions with the CFO, the job was eventually done and client was satisfied! Woo! Crisis averted!

I survived. I learnt a lot. I met new people, I made new friends. International networking at its best! J

Adventures around San Francisco

San Francisco… San Fran… SF, for short. Also known as the Bay Area. With 5 months in this beautiful city there was so much to do and so much to see. First I thought I'd write about the things I did as a typical tourist. With this being my first time in SF, I was obviously going to be a typical tourist and see all the key sites.

• Bus tour of around San Fran – this was brilliant, with San Fran being a small city these bus tours give you an idea of where everything is. Also hearing the history behind a city is always interesting. I recommend doing this when you first arrive, it helps you with giving you your bearings. There are heaps of these available from Pier 39. Have a look at their maps and what they offer, most are hop on/ hop off and offer a 24 hr or 48 hr ticket.

SF's Town Hall taken from the top of the bus. 

• Visited the Golden Gate Bridge – I had to see this iconic thing. It’s like coming to Sydney and needing to see our Harbour Bridge. Unlike the Harbour bridge, there was no option to climb it. However, you can enjoy a stroll across the bridge, ride a bike, drive across or even go on a boat and travel under the bridge. Be warned though, when the fog comes, you can hardly see the bridge itself. I was lucky, on this particular day, it was clear. The next day, the fog came and you couldn't see anything!

The one and only Golden Gate Bridge - you can drive across, walk, ride a bike, go under with a boat. 

• Toured the rock called Alcatraz – This was pretty neat. I mean this was a place that held Al Capone, George “Machine-Gun” Kelly, Alvin Karpis (the first “Public Enemy no. 1) and so many more. The history, the stories, even ghost stories. Definitely worth a visit if you’re a history buff, if you’re not and just want to check it out. It’s basically a rock with a prison on top. So yeah… depends on how you look at it I guess. The rock also has an amazing view of San Fran, which you can admire and enjoy and also do what I did and ask yourself. "Can I actually swim back to San Fran from here?" You know like in that one Simpsons episode where Lisa said 'Head for San Francisco' and Homer said he wasn't made of money so they went to Oakland... yeah... FYI - I wouldn't be able to make it back.

Like Elvis said "Jail house rock".

SF skyline from the rock.

• Explored Golden Gate Park – this park is huge and amazing and big and awesome and massive. Haha. I think you get the point. There’s a lake, there’s a conservatory, there’s a science museum, there are dutch windmills, there’s just so much here. You can rent a bike and bike around. You can take a Muni and head from one end to the other. If you're in San Fran, it's worth it to Google and see if any activities are on. There's always something going on.

View of Golden Gate  Park from California Academy of Science

• Visited the Painted ladies near Alamo Square – so I’m a massive fan of Full House (the US-sitcom, not the k-drama series). “Everywhere you look, everywhere you go… da-da-dum, da-da-dum, doo-doo-doot-doo-doo". Ah the memories… oh wait… I had something else to say. Oh yeah! While the park was populated with a lot of college students chillaxing, the view of San Fran was breath-taking. This is a great place to just sit and chill and read a book. Also – being a fan of Full House, I googled where the actual house was. You know the one from the intro. I found out it was like a 20min walk from where I was… and yup you guessed it. I was on the search.

Anyone else reminded to Full House?? :) 

I found the house! I was confused at first because it was painted purple. But I met two Canadians who were also looking for the house and we concluded that this was it. This had to be it. Both our phones were pointing to the same house. So we all took some photos, chatted about how much we loved Full House and then we were on our separate ways.

The Full House house! Yup it's purple. The owners painted it purple. Just use your imagination and pretend it's still white.

• Listed to them sea lions at Pier 39 – yup I came here too. Of course I did! Here I had the famous clam chowder bread bowls and listened to them sea lions sing all day. Haha. Oh and also enjoyed the beautiful backdrop of what makes San Fran, well San Fran. From here you can see the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, Angel Island as well as the oh so famous City skyline.

They are livin' the life! The seas lions of Pier 39.

• Walked up that crooked street – Yes, yes. I also came here. I had to see this famous street, you know, that one that twists and turns all over the place, Lombard street. I came here just before the flowers started blooming. Without the lines of cars waiting to drive down, the street itself is beautiful and the houses are gorgeous! The view from the top isn't too bad either. You can see Colt tower just sticking out.

View on top of Lombard Street

Yeah, so that’s a few of the main touristy things which I did. I did a lot more, but I don’t want to bore you guys too much. I hope it gave you an insight on what you can do in SF as a tourist.

Tune in for the next post where I will blog my food adventure.

See ya next post peeps!