Posted on March 19, 2014

Jase writes about his his first day in San Francisco which includes: Applebee’s, hills, Lombard Street, San Francisco International Airport and Alcatraz.

4.30am. So the journey begins. 2 months of planning starts with a 2 hour journey to the airport and a short transfer to the airport from the car park. It's always best to be early for these things, 3 hours should do the trick.



After an overpriced breakfast at the departure lounge bar, we took off as planned and began the long 11 hour flight over Scotland, Greenland, Canada and dropping into northern California.

Audiobooks, movies, podcasts, magazines, blogging, e-learning courses. I had them all there waiting on my iPad ready to go. But when it comes down to it, the 11 hours were basically spent in a very odd state of semi-consciousness, filling in the gaps in between meals with trips to the galley to stretch legs, and trying to unsuccessfully fall asleep in an upright position.

The girl in front of me was considerate enough not to recline her seat, so I payed that forward.

11 hours later and we were circling San Francisco International Airport.

We were met in Arrivals by a Chinese man holding a picture of a dragon. Not the kind of dragon you would normally expect, but a Welsh Government branded dragon. A source of comedy value not missed by Dan.

The 40 minute transfer from SFO, through downtown San Francisco, was eye opening. The clouds quickly spilling over the mountains to the west was jaw dropping. Quickly driving up the east coast of the city, we were able to catch glimpses of some of the famous sites such as Alcatraz, the Transamerica Pyramid Center and Pier 39. It suddenly occurred to us how much walking was going to be involved in this trip!

By then, it was early morning UK time but just early afternoon local time. We arrived at the hotel ready to collapse in our rooms and submit to the tiredness but we knew that would only make things worse in the long run. A quick shower, unpack the suits and it was back out on the streets of San Francisco to acclimatise and explore the local area.

It was only minutes before Dan started to take on the accent of the locals.

One of the most famous landmarks in San Francisco is Lombard Street. The bendiest road in the world. A street were cars descend the steep incline by driving back and forth left to right all the way down to the bottom. It's an odd sight. A sight that was shared by many Japanese and Chinese tourists at the same time as us!


Source: Alyss Ariedel

We knew San Francisco was considered hilly, but come on, I'm from the Valleys! No fear! But you don't realise exactly how hilly this place is. You can turn into a street and be faced with more than a 45 degree incline across several blocks... it really is very, very hilly.


Source: David Giral

A few picture opportunities later and we found ourselves at the bay front and searching for our first meal in the US.

Do we go local?
Seafood doesn't go down well with Dan.

Do we find somewhere typically American?
You can't go wrong with a big ass burger.

Do we treat ourselves to a curry?
Deli belly isn't really welcome when trips to the British consulate is on the cards over the next few days.

We finally decided on going full on American and settled on an American institution, Applebee's.
Burger, chips and a couple of pints of Americans finest Budweiser please. Tick.


Source: Brand Eating

A short walk back to the hotel, a quick chat to arrange a time and place to meet in the morning, and it's off to our rooms. A flick through the provided tv channels on the giant in room LCD that seems to like to default to the Weather Channel, and it was time to enjoy that kingsize bed at last.

But not for long.

Our full photoset of the trip can be found at our Flickr pages.