San Fran Pride Fest

26/06/10

Ok may as well get day one of LA out of the way while I have 7hrs to kill on the bus. I arrived at Banana bungalow at 3.30 in the afternoon and went for a little walk to the grocery store to stock up for the bus today. I was astounded and very excited to find that nectarines were the same price as granny smith apples! Wooooooooo my favourite! Definitely put two of those in my bag for breakfast before the bus! It turned out that the place I was staying was in this Jewish neighbourhood on the dowdy side of Rodeo drive. It was really cool though because they had all these Jewish bakeries and vintage stores. So off I went basking in the sun and making my way around the goodwill stores.

Back at the hostel I met the boys in my room. Yep mum I was the only girl in a room of 12 but you needn’t worry! They were all gay! It was great fun! So we all sat down to our free burgers, beer and comedy show that the hostel put on and chatted away. Luckily they had an early morning flight and had to leave the same time I did. Which is lucky because they went out after the burgers and were soooo noisy that no one else in the room would have been able to sleep. It was pretty hilarious though listening to the alarm go off, recognition of the time set and panic set in. It was a room full of “F@#K F@#K, SH*T SH*T” (they were British too so their accents added to the hilarity).

Ok now off to San Fransisco, so I arrived via a successful 8hr bus ride. Due to lack of funds and the determination to start exercising again I walked from the train station to my hostel. Yep that was a slight mistake, My hostel was in SOMA which is South of Market street which is the black area. It’s a no go zone apparently, but I decided to wade through the rubbish, debris and insolent outcries from the homeless with my 15kg backpack, suitcase, and designer handbag. I made it in the end but it was quite an experience to say the least. Once settled in I made my second big mistake. I decided to walk along Market street towards the city centre to do some shopping/ browsing. I thought being a major road it would be pretty safe, however I was wrong, it was still black country (I know I am seeming very racist at the moment but its hard not to when describing this scene). It was also feeding time for the homeless on one of the corners. Yep that was fun but on I walked, key protruding from my fist. One thing I must note is this, I got told by a black man that I had a “dayum fine asss” life goal achieved right there! Haha also got offered a job at a gentleman’s club the next morning when I was out walking in my pjs (yeah mistake number two). Thought that was pretty funny but at the same time I rushed into the nearest grocery store asap. Scary stuff when your on your own.

Next few days were cool, I spent one of them bike riding around the bay, I managed to half ride/ half walk up Marin Headlands to have a look at the bridge. It was worth the effort, especially for the free ride on the way down the hill! The next day was a walk through the Golden Gate park where I sat reading in the daisy fields.

I also found this amazing little food store that sold bread pudding. I know it sounds really weird but it was sooooo good! They sell it like icecream and scoop it into a cup and add toppings to it. You can have it hot or cold in so many delicious flavours. I had a cold choco-coconut pud with caramel sauce and coconut flakes. HEAVEN.

Come Friday I was finally off to Kyle’s (Kai Chi) place. Turned out he lives 40min from the city on the university campus. He was nice at first but is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo annoying! He is chinese and is very pushy and just annoying in general he is one of those people that wont leave you a moment alone. I want to strangle him/ think of the most gruesome torturous way to die (maybe attach his balls to a fishing line and cast out into the bay???).

The Friday night that I got in we went to a baseball game out at Oakland to watcht the A’s vs the St Louis Cardinals.

It was great fun! I got to meet a family that he had met though his church who had some kids around alices age that I got along with very well indeed. Best part of the game was that the family had a free ticket so I got dinner and a seat for free! Woohoo! From there we caught the train back to Castro which was FILLED with gays and transsexuals due to the pride festival. It was hilarious looking at all the costumes and nakedness surrounding the area.

We got Kai some more dinner and then headed up a hill to see the bridges all lit up. He called it a “hike” but it was really a 5min walk up a street.

So the first day we were together was a Saturday and so he took me to the Ferry building farmer’s markets. It was wonderful! I could have spent all day wondering around the fresh food stalls. If only I was allowed to cook I would have been in heaven buying all the fresh produce.

Sadly, Kai was not as enthusiastic about the whole ordeal so we continued on up to Coit tower to get a look at the bay and city.

From there we walked back down to fisherman’s warf (which I had done two days earlier on my bike but faked anyway just to keep the peace) and onto Ghiradelli square where I had a legendary hot fudge brownie Sunday. Yup was prettts amazeballs. It was safe to say I didn’t actually eat for the rest of the day due to the size of the thing and the guilt trip that comes with it. From there I insisted that we walk instead of bus along the Marina to the GG bridge. I am so glad we did because it was such a nice day and all of the families were out on the little dirt beaches by the bay tanning and playing volleyball.

It was quite picturesque under the bridge. From there it was to the historic Fort Point and then sadly a bus was demanded by Kai to return to Ocean beach and the sutro heights park. We then continued up the hill past the Cliff house restaurant and the old sutro baths ruins to lands end where we sat, ate chips and drank beer while the sun set over the pacific.

Urgh this is where Kai (after ¼ of a bottle of beer) got his nerdy ass drunk and found the balls to put his arms around me for the sunset. Honestly my skin was recoiling from his touch. Urgh. So annoying! I suppose he doesn’t get much action. The only friend of his that is a girl that I met was blind and had a beard better than most guys my age. Sorry that was mean and I know I am going to hell.

By the time the sun set and we went off to get dinner (Asian food again..) it was already 10pm and so I couldn’t eat. All I could do was think of my bed but no it was not to be. Another 2.5hrs of buses, dinner and walking was ahead. Definitely what I would call a big day. One plus side though was we got to see fireworks over the bay on the way home.

Sunday came about and we headed off to the pride parade on market street.

It was fantastic! I was actually quite moved by it all. The first group to go past was the “dikes on bikes” hundreds of lesbian couples all on motorbikes ride by in their fanciful costumes all with beaming smiles from ear to ear. It was their sheer happiness that made it so special. I could really see how much the legalization of marriage had meant to them. I actually almost cried at the sight! Weird I know but I kid you not it was very moving.

After hitting up the gay parade, we went down to the Sterngrove summer music festival and watched this weeks feature Deltron 3030. I mean I wasn’t the biggest fan of the actual music but the whole scene was fantastic.

There is a little stage in the middle of a park/grove thing that was surrounded by trees. All throughout the area there were bubbles floating through the dope haze and screaming semi naked children. All through the trees on the opposite hill, people had set up their picnic rugs and eskies full of booze, cheese and crackers. Unfortunately we were unprepared and couldn’t find a spot but Kai being the chinese that he is pushed through and asked if we could share a rug with these two guys. I was outraged and so embarrassed but am semi glad he did because they were more than hospitable and welcomed us with a nice clean rug to sit on and fresh homemade guac and chips (still felt bad eating their food as well but man it was good guacamole).

Next on my day by day account is my first day of peace and quiet! I realized after my attention was totally consumed by Kai’s presence that I quite like being alone. Probably why I liked swimming so much. But anyway I went for a walk around the lake near the university, down to the beach (sadly too foggy to enjoy), along the coast back to the GG park, through the park past the bison fields to Lindley field where I sat in my new (conservative) bikinis and lay for an hr or two reading.

After that I was in quest for a birthday present for a certain younger sister from a certain unmentionable store. Turns out the store was a little further away than I thought and with a 4pm meeting time with Kai looming, I had to make haste and decided to run.

By running it was very grandma-ish as I had no bra on and a backpack so I didn’t want the ladies flying around everywhere and well running with a backpack just sucks full stop. But I made my stinky way (accumulated backpack sweat from the trip) towards downtown where I found my gift, found some fro-you and a bread roll to have with my emergency tuna and Argentinian mayonnaise. At the end of the day I had managed to walk/ jog 30km. Must say I am pretty damn proud of myself with that one (sounds more impressive than it actually was). After meeting Kai again we walked up to the twin peaks where we got a panoramic view of the fog. Only kidding, we did get a pretty good view I was just in a bad mood again by that time.

We grabbed dinner at a shabu place (more Asian food) and then I made my way downtown to catch the bus to my next destination! Santa Monica. I will leave that to a new post though because to be honest this one is long enough already! (as every true author must know when to start a new chapter).

Well until the next chapter then,

Dee