San Francisco

I got into town around 4pm on Tuesday May 24th. I didn't really know what to do with myself because that was the earliest I'd arrived in a place. There was some confusion parking my motorbike; all the patrolled garages are super expensive! And the alley outside my hostel is a no parking zone. Fortunately after 6 it's free to park on the street, and the motorbike spot I found is 0.75$/hr instead of 3+$/hr,  so I opted for this route.

I was told on check in that there was a free meal that night but in fact the guy had his days mixed up. I would have wandered for longer had I known; all I got was some trial facial scrub & a hydrating face mask from Sephora (great for travelling! and totally necessary given the exposure my skin had been suffering from). I ended up at Chipotle for dinner (great Mexican place not in Canada - cept one in Van which isn't really as good). Then headed on the historic bar crawl which included some fun facts about San Francisco and ended at a drag show! I was essentially the only person on the tour, a relief from last week apparently when there were 20! Dani, my tour guide, was awesome - she preforms in drag shoes herself, which I think is pretty cool. I've been to drag shows before, but this was different. The crowd was really into it, and it was far more "grassroots" than the organized shows I'd been to in the past. More like Broken City's Comedy Monday night - an open forum for people of all kinds to come and try on their drag personas. 

This hostel, like the Venice Beach one, had free breakfast - a small fruit bowl, a bagel, peanut butter and coffee. decent enough to get by for the morning. I walked down to SFMOMA, grabbing a coffee on the way, and spent the morning wandering around the recently reopened museum. I loved their photography exhibits (surprise!) and the architecture of the building.

I then walked to check out the shopping on Filmore street. I ended up settling on a new pair of black jeans from Rag & Bone to replace the red ones I'd brought with me. The zipper on them had been broken since I left Canada (totally unbeknownst to me, oops).  I finished my day wandering over the hill towards this beauty:

I Ubered back to my hostel to get ready to head out and meet Sara and her friends for a drink. I'm pretty happy with my sense of direction as I got to and from the bar with minimal map-checking.  This is one thing about myself that I'm really proud of; my ability to explore and learn new urban spaces. I love the feeling of generating a map in my head and the freedom I feel when I can navigate an area without aide.