Day 25.

After taking a few days out to actually slow down and relax a bit in Bishop and Yosemite. I'm reenergised and ready to take on San Francisco! Well by relax I mean, scaling down a mountain in Yosemite, wading through rivers and chilling in natural hot springs!

I can't believe how quick these 3 weeks have passed, it feels just like yesterday we gathered in New York for our first day! Becca had said at the beginning that we would be like a family by the end of the trip and in a weird way, we are! We may have only spent 3 weeks together but it's 3 weeks unlike any other and we've shared experiences together we'll probably never share with anyone again. I've never been particularly good with emotions and feelings, I'm usually dead inside! But I want to use this as my way to thank everyone on the trip for helping make these past 3 weeks so unbelievably, amazingly special for me. So this is my letter of thanks and goodbyes to you all...

Once we cleared up our campsite for the final time we embarked on our final leg of our trip to San Francisco. Crossing the new Bay Bridge opens up the entire city, the old bay bridge actually collapsed a few years ago! You can see the Golden Gate Bridge far in the distance, Alcatraz standing high in the bay and the skyline of the city running along the bay. San Francisco was one of the cities I was looking forward to the most, especially from the excitement Becca shared for it, it was going to be a good few days!!

We got dropped off at Hotel G which was literally a stone throw away from Union Square (like literally, could throw a stone at it!). Our room wasn't ready as we were early so we checked our luggage in and decided to go for a 15 minute wander round the square until it was ready. Well, 15 minutes turned in about 4 hours! We ended up just walked around the city and ended up all the way at Fisherman's Wharf! Yeah, that wasn't before walking up crazy steep hills (I knew they would be steep, but this trip would teach me the meaning of steep!!) and through one of the oddest china towns I've been to in my life. Oh and trying to get your beard trimmed in America is like trying to find gold in a hooker's jewellery box. You ain't going to find it! I popped into a hair salon where when I asked about facial hair, they just looked at me bewildered, so I then described what I wanted, again bewilderment. SERIOUSLY!? Oh forget it, MOM I LOOK LIKE IM HOMELESS PERSON GET USED TO IT! So after quite a few miles later we made it to Fisherman's Wharf.

After spending so much time taking in nature and viewing the amazing things it has to offer us, I really thought I'd been converted, but San Francisco has made me truly realise, I'm a city bitch at heart! Being back in a city felt so good! The noise, the smell, the people, THE AGGRESSION! I love it all!! God I've missed car horns honking at everything... We walked along to Bay to Pier 39 where I didn't realise is the hang out for so many sea lions! There they were, just laying in the sun on a deck. They were so cute, apparently very aggressive but still, you could see them playing in the water together, laying in the sun or just hopping between decking. It was really lovely to see them in they're natural habitat and not forced to stay like in a zoo.

We thought we'd attempt at getting a cable car back, when in Rome! (Well when I'm San Fran actually). However, as with what is the theme of this trip, when we attempt to do these things we just end up walking, for miles and miles and some more miles, all because we're ironically too lazy to figure out how to get in them! So yes, we ended up walking back up the crazy streets, which actually paid off!

We'd been told to make sure we see Coit Tower which was a building donated to the city was the Coit family in honour of beautifying the city and for people to appreciate the views of the city. Well as we were walking back, there it was! Just on our left! It's apparently a really hard climb to the top from the bottom, and we were one flight of stairs away, better do it now! It was a full panoramic view from the tower, you could see absolutely everything the city was offering. I'm saying this like I saw it for myself, oh no, I didn't! The tower was $12.50 just to go up a few steps to the top of the tower. Don't think so! I'll stand on a wall and get the same view thank you! So that's what we did! #savvytourist

We made it back to the hotel hours after we had planned, of course being the last ones to collect our luggage. OMG the room, the room!! After sleeping in tents for 3 weeks, G Adventures had done well with this one! It was fancy, it had an amazing shower, it had a 50inch TV which also had a menu that scrolled itself! OH! After face-planting the bed in true Becca style, we glammed ourselves back up and met the group in the lobby for our fair well meal and drinks.

We were eating at Tacolicious tonight, what a fantastic name! Well, it sounded obvious now really, but trying to get 13 people a table at a small restaurant on a Saturday night in San Francisco at 8pm is tricky! It's also a 2 hour wait, yep, 2 hours and all I'd ate all day was a bloody bagel! So Becca tried her best to find somewhere else, but we were already there, there was a tequila bar, we were pretty happy after a drink or two! And what's 2 hours for a taco huh!? So while some people enjoyed giant shots of tequila me and a few girls went down to road to a cocktail bar where I got such a delicious cocktail! I got a Lady Guadalupe, which I don't have a clue what was in it, I just loved ordering it, Lady Guadalupe! It definitely had chilli in though, because my mouth was on fire after it! God I've missed $12 cocktails!!

I'd love to say the tacos were worth the 2 hour wait, but they just weren't! They were served platter style, which for a group of 13 isn't a good idea, and the tacos were quite oily... Luckily the beers were delicious! 

After dinner, Becca wanted to take us to see the Golden Gate Bridge, we drove for about 25-30 minute to a place called Baker Beach which was amazing! For me personally it wasn't just the view of the bridge at night, it was to be on a beach in front of the sea. I'd forgotten how much I love being by the sea, as the group admired the beauty of the bridge, I took 5 minutes away to just listen to the sea... This was one of the best moments of the whole day. Becca and fliss then joined me to stand and listen, well up until the group decided they were too cold (San Francisco is very chilly!) so we headed back to the van, turns out converse high tops aren't great beach shoes!? 

We played the trip's theme tune of Wagonwheel by The Old Crow Medicine Show (who knew we'd turn into country music fans!?) which we all had a song along to! It was actually quite sad to think this was the last time we'd spend together in the van, especially after all the time we'd shared in there (which we all know was ALOT and most of it sleeping - Chloe and Laura anyway!). We then all met in Mark and Lewis's room for our goodbye meeting.

This is where it all got a bit emotional! Who'd of knew I'd find emotion on this trip!? Mark had prepared a poem for us all, which turned out to be hilarious and he picked up on somethings I had totally forgotten about! Such as Konstanze thinking a leaking gas pipe was 'ok'. Thanks Mark!! Becca then began her speech. She spoke about how she's watched us all change over the three weeks, grow in confidence and bond as a group, she said how she'd had her 'made it' moment with us and that this was actually her first fair well meeting like this! Her speech hit home with a lot of us and was pretty inspiring, well done Bec!! You drew emotion from a stone! She then gave us each a card with a message on. It was the cutest thing I've ever been given! She finished my card with the quote -

'May your travels be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous but leading to the most amazing view.'

She also said that Australia will want to keep me, but come on, that's obvious!!

Thank you Becca, not only for the card but making this trip truly amazing. You've showed me a part of the world I've always wanted to see but you've shown me it through your eyes and allowed us to find parts on our own. You have an amazing attitude towards life and the world and I only hope I can carry this forward with me on my travels. Thank you ma'am!

I want to wish everyone in the group the best of luck with the rest of your travels and a very safe journey home! If your ever in Aus, give me a shout!

'What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do, especially in other people's mind. When you're travelling, you are what you are. People don't have your past to hold against you.

No yesterday's on the road.'

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