Jet lagged
We had big plans for today. Unfortunately we didn’t wake up till 3pm though. Damn jet-lag!
So after getting over the shock of somehow sleeping for 17 hours, we went out for a bit of exploring around the shopping district.
The small part of the city that we explored is so crammed with shops and restaurants its unbelievable. And it just goes on and on forever. It’s like 100 Perth cities put together – and we haven’t even gone into the “main” part of San Fran yet.
We went through the Virgin Megastore, Borders and NikeTown – everything marginally cheaper that Oz – but not amazingly so. We also wanted to go into the Apple store but there was a huge queue spanning a whole city block just to get into the store. iPhone-mania I guess.
We went through Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Nostrada – all are a bit like David Jones – with designer clothes and all that. So as you can imagine, we didn’t stay long in there.
We also went into a place called RiteAid which is a big pharmacy-like store. The store also sells 1.75L of vodka for $8. Crazy stuff.
Oh and by the way, when they say a Starbucks is on every street corner – they reallllyyy do mean it. It’s amazing. I am not a coffee drinker but Rob reckons it’s good stuff.
So to end the short-day we went for some dinner at a place called Piraat Pizza which is just up the road from us. The pizza was great and the appetizer (2 slices of pizza and a salad) was enough to fill us up. I also got a huge glass of coke which I just couldn’t finish. This was our first experience with tipping so we left a bit of extra cash on the bill which the waitress then came and took. Two minutes later she put the change back on our table. We were a bit confused so we left the tip on the table – and hoped they would come and take it once we walked out. Is that how it normally works???
Tomorrow we plan to go into Fisherman’s Wharf which is a good 3.5km’s walk from here. It is the main touristy place here and I think the ferry to Alcatraz leaves from there too. But first, we have to make sure we get up at a reasonable time.
Some random photos below – including the most massive hill I have ever seen – which Rob made us walk up. The photo’s probably don’t do it justice – and I have a feeling I will see bigger hills tomorrow.
Good to see you both arrived safely. That hill looks promising for some training. Shame we didn’t start pullup training sooner, you could have challenged that guy with the huge arms. 13! River, that haircut looks awesome by the way. Enjoy yourselves.
I’m digging all the photos…
Yeah thats how it works. Just leave it there, or tell them to keep the change when you pay them if you dont want any of it back. If you pay by cc there’s a spot on the bill where you write in how much you would like to tip….normally you would just round it up a bit to a sensible figure. Some places include tipping already in the bill so dont bother then.
Buying drinks at bars its not a bad idea to tip the first time and every second time or maybe every time other wise your service will go down fast, better to tip and be served straight away otherwise you are a low priority and standing at the bar sucks. Normally its not that bad if you go to a bar where drinks are real cheap. lots of places have like 1$ drinks so you can just get 4 for 5$ and smash them. If your only going for one drink then it doesn’t really matter if you tip or not. In vegas just buy drinks from a normal shop and drink on the street.
Also quite a few big citties have “city passes” where you pay for a booklet of tickets to all the main attractions and then you can do them at your own leasure, if you plan to do quite a few of them in the book most of the time its a fair bit cheaper so its always good to check it out first before going into places.
and buy a golden eagle pass for one years entrance into all national parks. its a lot cheaper than paying for each one cos there is so many of them that they just pop up all the time and most are worth going to if you have the time.
have fun.