CaliFrisco

So before you venture to California you will probably learn two things. 1) Locals hate it when you call California, Cali, and two) Frisco is a Texas town and should never be used to refer to San Francisco. Yes, both these rules were completely disregarded in the title of this blog. Whether this was to poke at Californian locals, or to peak their interest/enrage them enough to hop on this blog and rack up my page views is still up for debate!

Regardless, I'm writing this blog about the beautiful location known as San Francisco, California with vivid images of my recent visit west to see the city. (I know the blog is a little off schedule, but when  I realized that I could write about San Francisco after just visiting I was willing to take the hit...)

So there are a lot of pinnacles to San Francisco, but I'm going to talk about the ones I got to see. I have visited the city twice now, but this time around I got to do what I wanted to most; just dive in and get lost! However, before I was able to get lost I went on a boat cruise around the bay area! With student discount it was $21.00 and lasted an hour taking us out of port, under the Golden Gate Bridge, and around the island of Alcatraz. It was pretty neat, but honestly, if you've got the time you could do it by yourself. (Fair warning Alcatraz tours are booked months in advance if you want to get on the island!) Oh and did I mention the Golden Gate Bridge is only 1.7 miles long... walking distance.

All photo credit goes to my friends Tessa Taylor and Morgan Leichtenberger

Pier 39, the port where our boat cruise left, is a cool place to kill a couple hours. They have a whole section devoted to the local sea lions, a very unique mall strip on the wharf, and some bombin' crepes. Bubba Gumps has a location there as well if you're feeling shrimp (it's good, not good enough to die over, so if you're allergic please don't, but if you're not its definitely worth your time... plus they have Forrest Gump on loop so it's like dinner and a movie).

Next it was time to get lost. The crew that we had created in the city split into three. The largest of the groups ventured to Ghiradelli Square, home of the fancy square chocolates and some pretty testy sundaes as well. The next group was made of six and they wondered over to druggy lane, Otherwise known as Haight and Ashburry. From there they made it to the Full House house and took some worthy pictures! My friend, Zoe, and I disappeared from the group. We went to some of the parks around the bay, found a homeless hangout under some trees or really big vines (still don't really know what they were), and then somehow wound up in Chinatown. We didn't make it to Golden Gate Park like we had hoped but the ones we passed through were basically big open fields, perfect for a nap, with some statues around them. Chinatown isn't nearly as sketchy as it's made out to be either. Granted it was the middle of the day, but I was the only white kid I knew of within three blocks of myself (Zoe is mostly Chinese) and I was able to go in and by something from one of their market stands! (Don't get me wrong, I was as lost as a Nemo, but it wasn't threatening, it was exciting!)

Hippy Central                                Of course we landed on Lombard street at some point.

Eventually we made our way to the Dragon Gates, walked back to our bus stop, and headed back to Sacramento, where we were staying. Apparently the large group was summing up the trip to "Frisco" and one of the three statements that were agreed upon was, "Where's Nate?"

It made me laugh, but hey! The best way to get to know a place is to just get lost in it (there's this really good cafe called The Epicenter Cafe on Harrison Street that I found; it is recommended). So where ever you go in the future, get lost and let that start your adventure!

Buried in a Wall

So we just got done with a great ancient city so how do we keep going!? How about a great wall?

The Great Wall of China

This sucker is huge! It's over 21,000 km long and has been standing for more than 2,300 years! I have had the opportunity to see the wall for myself and when you are standing on one end and have no idea how far it goes on, you can be stuck in awe. Being the ignorant little nine year old I was, I remember being absolutely convinced I could walk/bike the whole thing with ease... I was either very stupid or very hopeful.

It's reaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllyyyyyyyy looooooooooongggggggggg

Since 1644 (after the Ming Dynasty was overthrown), work on the wall ceased. There has been restoration work done on the wall since 1957, but none of it has been done with military intentions, all were for the sole reason of tourism and preserving history. In December of 1987 the Great Wall was even placed on the World Heritage List UNESCO.

It's not always continuous either!

Another thing that's cool, but most people don't even consider, is that the wall is not continuous all the way through! There are plenty of parts where the Chinese Dynasty decided that mountains and rivers did the job for the wall. There are also places fortified with circular loops and parallel walls. This was the location of many battles so military stratagem was of importance. The wall was so important that it continued to be built for six dynasties! And when one person died while building the wall they were simply absorbed by the wall... no joke, it is thought that 400,000 people are buried within the wall...

With 400k buried in it, I feel like the wall could be really
creepy on some nights... Just imagine the Ghost Stories !!

There are so many wonders that come with the Great Wall, but one thing you must watch out for is the simple fact that you are a tourist. And tourist means money. And people try to take that money.
While I was visiting China the one thing that got me were the beggars...

Now we all have the neighborhood homeless we've seen or the beggars that stay on the corner of the street asking for food, money, or some other item, but these might have been the most aggressive beggars I have ever seen in my life. Now I'm not saying they tackled anyone to the ground, or that we were frequently pick pocketed out of our belongings, but they did manage to almost scare my mother to death when they decided that my seven year old sister looked old enough to buy a hand crocheted scarf and pulled her over to their booth. Needless to say, we were linked for the rest of the day like the chain of day care kids you see walking around campus every once in a while.

courtesy of wikipedia

The Great Wall is definitely not the only thing to check out if you make your way to China, but its definitely one you should keep on your radar. There are some AMAZING restaurants, including a Mongolian BBQ style place (where you cook your own food in front of you) that I can never seem to forget (but alas I can never remember the name....). The tiny villages are also very tranquil and an experience just to see! Overall China was a pretty cool place, just watch your wallets (and small children if you have some with you).