Chilling in San Francisco

It has only been two days since my parents left San Francisco to head to Los Angeles, leaving me to stay in this city on my own, yet already I am having some really great times and know that this is by far one of my favourite cities in the world so far.

My first hostel I was to be staying at was pretty awesome, within my first hour I hit it off immediately with Brendan (Australia), quickly deciding to grab dinner at the pub, then getting a game of poker going with a bunch of guys once back at the hostel. While playing we had a great diversity of cultures in that one room alone, guests from Australia, Spain, Canada, Sweden and many more. While we were playing our very close game of poker we could over hear another group of people chatting away, talking what I believed to be Spanish. We could hear him easily as he was talking loud, and while obviously we couldn't understand what he was saying (as most people in the room didn't speak Spanish), every now and again however you pick up a word that you do understand:

Spanish guy to a group of people: "Holla blah blah por favor blah blah blah signorita blah blah spanish spanish blah Victoria's Secret" 

The words cut through the air like a knife, immediately drawing a huge round of laughter from the entire room haha!

"Now that's some Spanish I do understand" shouts Brendan over the roar.

Great times indeed!

It was there I also met some simply awe inspiring people, one guy called Clifford (Canada) loves riding his bike and rode from Vancouver, Canada to San Francisco, America! By bike! On his own! He was telling us stories of times where he slept on the side of the road or in a park in below zero temperature! That's amazing. Then there was this Swedish couple who had ridden their bikes from Florida to California... that's nearly the length of America! Brilliant.

I only stayed at that hostel for one night however and was forced to move on to a new one the following day, which turned out even better than the last! It was a smaller one, but had a great warm and homely feel to it. In my first day I became great friends with Andy (Korean) who surprisingly spoke practically flawless English (from experience Koreans aren't usually the best at English). We somehow got talking about Baseball and them bam! before you know it we've bought tickets and the next day we're at a game!

Not before checking out the city on the way to the stadium.

Andy posing for the camera in downtown San Francisco

Bay Bridge, very cool indeed

Watching the Oakland Athletics and... Los Angeles Angels (I think?)

Yeah... baseball is pretty boring. Ha! But it was still fun to just hangout at the stadium soaking up the sun and the atmosphere of the crowd so that was cool. So that was a pretty sweet day.

Although that was to be Andy's last day in San Francisco and he was to be leaving the following morning to head back home, so once again I was to be alone on my travels. Or so I thought, but more on that soon.

Right near my hostel is Golden Gate Park (the park that I talked about in depth in my last post!) so as I was alone for the day with Andy gone and no new friends as yet I decided to explore it on my own, exactly what I was looking forward to doing.

It was absolutely beautiful, my favourite places were the lakes.

Come on, how cool are ducks!

Despite the park being absolutely huge most of it is completely over-run by people, which was the absolute opposite of what I was after as I had some work to do and simply wanted to find a nice quiet place to be able to sit down and listen to my music in peace. It could not be found. Well, by normal means that is! When no one was looking I went off the footpaths and clambered my way through the thick trees and shrubs, eventually coming out of the foliage into this awesome little grass clearing with not a person in sight, win!

Travel Buddy was pleased with the find I think. Although he didn't make great conversation.

Thought this made for a pretty cool picture, the blend of my tattoo and travel bracelets

The sun was shining, the freshness of the grass and trees around putting me completely at peace, and with some music, my notepad and paper, and the knowledge that I can literally spend the entire day here with no deadlines to meet or places to be was pretty cool to say the least!

Three hours later it was time to go home, another great day complete. I got terribly lost on the way back out, but it was fun.

The best places to see are always off the main tracks

So I mentioned before that with Andy leaving I was to be alone again, although I am pretty used to people coming and going these days as is the curse of travel. This state of loneliness however somehow never seems to last long and without fail I manage to meet a new person with ease and when I least expect it.

This was no exception.

Over the last few weeks I'd been emailing this guy named Vincent I met on a traveler and backpackers website, and he informed me that he was to be in San Francisco around the same time I was and that we should meet up when we do. I'd never met anyone in real life whom I have talked to on the internet before but cool, if it happens I'll roll with it. We hadn't spoken for a few days however so I didn't know where he was at the time to, nor was I really that fussed if we didn't meet up to be honest, which had nothing against him of course, I was just happy to do my own thing for a bit and couldn't be bothered having to change plans because of another person.

Things took a surprise upon my return from Golden Gate park and step into my hostel as I am told by the manager that Vincent has checked into the hostel and was looking for me! Woah, what? He's here? That's random. Now I feel obliged to say hello... he knows I am here so I can't exactly hide. Ha!

Let's go see what happens shall we?