And I'm going to San Francisco

Before I can tell you about San Francisco let me quickly update you my last hours in Dallas.

Everything went smoothly until I was at the gas station... With rentals I am used to have a sticker telling me what to put in the tank... So I actually had to ask the guy at the gas station... He just looked at me funny saying diesel is only for trucks... Then when I went back to fuel, my credit card wasn't accepted to I had to get back in again... I felt the need to apologize, so I said: it's my first time at an American gas station. The cashiers dry response was: I figured. Nothing more... ;)

I just saw the weather forecast for SFO and you gotta be kidding me. It is almost 10C colder and it is set to have showers throughout the day. So basically the moment I get a convertible to drive down the coast the weather takes a turn for the worse? I hope the forecast is wrong...

The flight is 3.5h but I arrive at 9.40am so another 2h I am getting behind DE time.

We will see how much I will pay this time for the car... I hope it is not much more than estimated...I want to have a bit of money to at least buy one thing as a souvenir from the US and I would like this to be converse. We will see.

I can't believe that I have already spend half of my time in the US... Time just flies like I arrived only this week and not over a week ago.

When I arrive at the car rental station the weather is indeed less sunny but no rain at that stage. This, however, will change later. In the meantime I got my car. The smallest convertible they have: a Ford Mustang. That is not a small car. But again it easy enough to navigate through the streets of SFO. Omg those streets are mad. While the highway from Oakland into SFO was similar to the ones in Dallas, the streets in town are ridiculously steep. My old cars probably would not have had the horse power to get up. It is like a roller coaster.

When I arrived at my newest Airbnb it finally started to rain. It was a sort of constant misty rain that led to some heavier showers until in the evening it was simply pouring. I looked it up online in October on average it is set to rain 4 days in SFO. Looks like the 4days are now.

Anyways, my new host is amazing. She greeted me outside and gave me a tour through the house that I can use as I please. I have my own (pink) bathroom and even the kitchen is only for me to use. She was stocked the fridge and collected vouchers from local restaurants and I have lemons from her own backyard. This woman has thought of everything... She even made a little name tag for my bag! She is just the cutest person you have ever met!

Having settled in I went for my first bit of sightseeing in the rain... And the first thing I noticed... Marijuana is legal. I hate the smell of it as it makes me nauseous and you can smell it in all parts of the city.

My first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. Which I learned is nor red but international orange und got its name because the channel beneath the bridge was considered to be the golden gate for commerce with the world.

Because I had some time left before my trip to Alcatraz I wanted to go to the cable car museum. Unfortunately I got of the wrong bus stop and walked the wrong direction to I never made it where. Instead I walked for 30min arriving at the piers way too early for the 4pm boarding to Alcatraz. As is was raining I went inside of a fish'n'chips shop and had chips.

Now, on Alcatraz I did the "behind the scenes" tour. It was really interesting and I had some real enthusiasts on the tour who had to ask something on every part of the tour. We were shown various locations that are not open to the public including the led-painted, pitch black catacombs, in the early years it was prohibited to talk for example, so talkers would have been put down into those holes. All in all it is a pretty daunting place when you think about the violence that has happened on that island. The stories the rangers had to report about some inmates (that are not famous like scarface or birdman) are quite dark. But then again, you usually did not end up on the rock if you were a nice fellow.

Back on the mainland I got my first uber ride. 8$ only and I had a free ride up to22$, oh well.

I don't know why but my feet are killing me. Maybe they finally had enough of all the walking. I will see how I get on today.

First I wanted to go to ashbury/haight as my momma said I should go there. ( so mama, the pictures is for you). From there I took a bus into town. The bus dropped me off at the start of the embankment, which made me walk all the way along the piers until the Exploratorium. This is a museum I really wanted to go to. However, when I got in it was too crowded with children. I could hardly do anything. So it was not really enjoyable. But I did find one thing I liked there a lot:the graveyard. They had set up a graveyard for things like Pluto, as he died as a planet. Or the theory that there the is a place on your tongue for each specific taste.

When leaving I used one of those cute streetcars running through SFO (not cable cars) to get on the big bus hop on hop off tour.

After some problems and a wait of 30minutes we finally starting but without a live commentator. Though the weather did not really allow it I did decide to stay on the top deck of the bus to see the most. And it was wet and cold. Worst bit though was the trip over the golden gate... I made a short video and posted that on Twitter (https://mobile.twitter.com/Kate_Eleven/status/792193713405513728). Afterwards I decided not to do the night tour after all. While I am sure that this one would have been awesome I need to think of my health. Had I gone on the trip I would have my cough back in less than a week.

It was still a few hours till the evening and I got off the bus to go to the cable car museum (actually the sun showed its face around that time). I went off at Masons. Unfortunately the wrong end of Masons and I had to walk. Well climb is more accurate. There is a picture of me on top of that bloody hill. The museum was then on the bottom of the hill.

On my way I met a Dutch woman who is here for a week. I gave her my bus ticket as I had no further use for it and she might want to go on the night tour instead. Funny coincidence: when I met her I had my playlist running and "slow down" (Dutch ESC entry 2016) was playing

The cable car museum was small but interesting. This is the location from where all cables are powered. And I learned a lot about how cable cars work and the difference between cable cars (mechanical) and street cars (electrical).

I then wanted to get back to the pier once more and the best way to to that was to get on a cable car. So I did. It is a weird feeling when they go downhill. Typically me though I had gone the wrong way. This is when I decided to go back to haight where I had seen a vegan restaurant and then to go home.

On the bus to haight I witnessed something interesting too: a cyclist wanted to get on the bus. So he fixed his car to the outside front of the bus and got on the bus :)

At the Vegan Burg I had a Mustang relish burger and seaweed fried with homemade lemonade. Really delicious. So to all my vegan friends who read this: vegan burg on haight is really recommended should you ever be in SFO. (On that note, I have confirmation that the organizer of my birthday party has sourced vegan food from his neighbors and he will serve that separated for you guys)

Finally for the day I have done some vintage shopping and ended up in a store called loved after death -sooo creepy. I think the worst I saw was the cadaver of a real lamb in a glass. Bah. I ended up only buying 3 postcards (initially I wanted to send postcards from every city but as y'all know that did not happen) to send home... We will see who arrives first....

I need to consider souvenirs now. I don't have that much space but I sooo want to bring a few souvenirs... I don't know how yet... Maybe I figure something out.

Now wish me luck that I will have good weather tomorrow when I start my road trip to L.A. I might post something tomorrow evening or only in 3days one I am in L.A. depending on the wifi connections I get.
Peace, out ;)