So leaving it to the very last minute, after Alcatraz I walk around to Fort Mason and get the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge!! The most iconic site in San Francisco, featured in endless Movies and the intro to Full House, you have to see it. I won’t bore you with statistics you can read on wikipedia or depressing stories about how many people commit suicide off the bridge each year (or week/day!). Just look at the pictures!
Actually I was kind of shitting myself walking along the bridge (yeah I’m not so great with heights), so I just took the pictures I wanted, walked half way, and retreated back to solid land!! Then slowly made my way to the airport. Next stop, New York!
New York, New York! Day 01 »« Alcatraz
My visit to Alcatraz was a lot “less nicolas-cage-and-sean-connery” and more “tourists-on-a-boat”, but its a great tour. The island was a Military fort and prison before a becoming a federal prison from 1934-1963. The Rock was literally just that, until families, staff and eventually prisoners, started gardening and planting on imported soil. Today, large trees grow on the island and the flower gardens are still maintained.
Its claimed there were no successful escapes from Alcatraz, but there were numerous attempts, often ending violently, and in 1962, 3 prisoners carried out an intricate plan. Using spoons, they dug around their cell vents, climbed up through the wall space and made it to the island shore with their makeshift raincoat-rafts washed up on nearby land! Mythbusters did an Alcatraz special, and concluded that it was possible! So while officially noted as drowned, their bodies were never found, and a paddle washed up on Angel Island.
So will we get a death-bed-message from the last of the 3 one day? Or perhaps a post-dated biography of the events. It would be a hell of a story!
Golden Gate Bridge »« San Francisco Mission District
The Mission is a neighbourhood in in SF with a strong Latino influence & population, loads of cafes and bars, alleys lined with graffiti art / murals, and a stack of vegetarian restaurants! I stopped in Gracias Madre, a Vegan Mexican Bar, for lunch, before wandering the streets checking out all the graffiti. Balmy and Lilac streets (off 24th street) are good, and another on or near Clarion street off Mission near 18th street. They probably change often though!
Alcatraz »« San Francisco! Day 2&3
The Cable Car in San Francisco is a bit of a rort at $5 a go, but you gotta do it. Unfortunately I was pushed inside for most of the trip, but after everyone got off at Lombard Street I was right at the front, hangin’ off the side, all the way down hill 
From there I walked around San Francisco Bay to Fort Mason and some lady gave me a free ticket to an art exhibition! (Didn’t stay in there long though) I found a Farmer’s Market and a stall selling awesome Vegan Gluten Free Crepes! Strawberry-banana-choc! Good fuel to walk all the way back to Pier 31 to buy a ticket for Alcatraz, and down towards Bay Bridge and back into town.
Next day, a couple of Canadian guys at the hostel had a Convertible Camaro! So we went for a drive in the morning, roof down, before a visit to the Giants’ Stadium. Then in the afternoon I went to the Mission District.
San Francisco Mission District »« San Francisco! Day 1
