Headed for the Frisco Bay

With our studies at George Mason behind us and an eventual return home not too far ahead, a few Brits and I have made the long journey west to see the West Coast of America, which has turned out to be a very different experience to the East. Alongside Joe, Georgia, Emily and Ross, I boarded the plane to leave D.C. for the last time and head to our first stop in San Francisco, via Dallas- which turned out to be a bit trickier than we’d planned. Sitting on the plane we were told by the pilot they were working on a technical fault which could take anything from 5 minutes to 5 hours to fix, a reassuring start! Our plane eventually set off and we landed in Dallas, complete with typical Texas Cowboy-dressed men walking around, just in time to miss our plane and be told we’d wait until the next morning to get to San Fran. After being awake the whole night before bidding goodbye to Mason and carrying a year’s worth of luggage with me, it was a pretty emotional day to say the least… thankfully some space opened up and 7 hours later than planned, we arrived in San Francisco and the 5 of us squeezed into a tiny hostel with a stranger who you had to feel sorry for. Our student travels had begun!

I didn't know much about San Fran more than the obvious Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, so our first day was well spent seeing new sights like the famous twisting Lombard Street, the Coit Tower, and hills- lots of hills. Seriously, people in this city must stay so fit because the amount of walking up and down is insane! With some beautiful weather out as well making the day a hot one, it might have been the reason I didn’t take to San Fran as quickly as I had other cities. We saw plenty but it felt a bit lifeless, or underwhelming considering how famous it is.

Our evening was great though, as I saw my very first baseball game with the Giants playing the Miami Marlins. The sport is much better to watch in person than on television because the atmosphere is everything in a stop-start game like baseball, and we quickly picked our favourite players to support- go Pabs! I love how passionate Americans get about sports, especially when they are celebrating their national anthem performed here by Metallica on guitar which was strange but great to witness first-hand. The Giants eventually lost after 4 hours or so but we’d left after 2- it got very cold, very quick, but seeing baseball along with ice hockey and basketball has been fantastic. My team always lost, but still…

 Big Fan

Less interested

Day 2 brought us to Alcatraz Island, a typical tourist activity but a must-see in San Francisco if you ever visit. Everyone has heard of the Rock- even if it’s through a silly Sean Connery film, and the tour didn’t disappoint, as we saw where the inmates were locked up, tried to escape, and how the history of the facility unfolded. For me, the best part was seeing some of the graffiti left by American Indians during their occupation of the island. We’d learned about this in seminars at Leicester, so to see the first hand evidence of it was fascinating. American Indians seem to be the forgotten group of this nation, with their decline simply accepted and ignored in popular consciousness, so this was a rare reminder of their place in history and current society.

After Alcatraz we went to the famous Bubba Gump restaurant. I have to admit I’m not a fan of Forrest Gump (I know, I’m terrible) but the food was amazing, the best Jambalaya I've ever had… sorry Mum!

At this point I was enjoying my time but I still didn’t feel like I’d really seen San Francisco, but on our last full day that changed as we walked up through the heart of Downtown, taking in Union Square, Chinatown (the biggest in North America) and up to Fishermen’s Wharf, and I finally saw a city bursting with life and colour, hustle and bustle and movement, art and music, and finally San Francisco won me over. It took it’s time, but it was worth it; I can’t compare it to any other place I've been, truly unique.

While doing my research one of the places I found that I really wanted to see was the Walt Disney Family Museum, in the Presidio along the way to the Bridge. I’m a big fan of those classic Disney films from the 40s and 50s so I wanted to check this out, and it didn’t disappoint, telling you the story of Walt Disney’s life through this amazing body of work, and best of all it had the stunning original artwork from films like Fantasia, Bambi and The Jungle Book which I loved. These tiny sketches and watercolours had so much energy and character to them, they matched any of the masterpieces I've seen in the many art museums I've visited this year- and I've seen a lot!

So San Francisco turned out to be so much more than a bridge, it was my introduction to the West Coast, and a place to see things I never thought I would or had never even heard of, but I’m very glad I did. And speaking of the Bridge- that was a pretty amazing sight too!

A