Day 26.

I FEEL FABULOUS!! What an amazing nights sleep, it's amazing what a good bed and a blackout blind can do for a guy! I'd originally planned on an early start to explore the city, but after all that camping malarkey I treated myself to a sleep in! Apparently so good, there was even an earth quake measuring 6.1 in Napa and I didn't even feel a thing! Jo said her room was shaking and everything! 

We met the group in the lobby after check out (I hope our next hotel is as nice!!) to go for a farewell breakfast. Personally I think it was just an excuse to eat! Me and fliss are quite the sharers these days, we got a fully loaded breakfast bagel and some French toast, both equally delicious!

This was where we said our goodbyes to mark, he was leaving a little earlier than the rest of us so as we left for the Golden Gate Bridge we waved him off in the opposite direction, safe travels! As I've said earlier, we're quite the walkers these days, nothing seems too far. Well Golden Gate Bridge was no exception, it may have been the other end of a city filled with hills but it seemed a good idea at the time! 

We clearly hadn't learnt from yesterday's experience with the hills, as we walked through the streets we came to Polk Street which, after walking through suspicious streets with dodgy motels on, was a refreshing change and seemed to be where locals hung out. It'd been almost 4 hours since our last iced coffee so, naturally, we were getting parched for one. Also in the quest for wifi as we needed to find 2 addresses we came across a coffee shop called Saint Frank which was super cute. It was very minimal with no obnoxiously big coffee grinders and machines, no large fridges filled with sandwiches and pastries and not even tills! It was just a long white bench with a few selections on the top with high tech iPads for tills! We're in love! We got two iced coffees which were the strongest ones I've ever tasted, I was going to be buzzed!!

After finding the addresses for Lombard street and discovering the Charmed house isn't actually even in San Francisco, it's in LA!? They couldn't of just found a house in San Francisco!? So that's now swapped into LA's itinerary. We left the coffee shop and took a right towards Lombard street... What the hell!? I swear in front of us was the worlds steepest hill, and we've climbed a lot of mountains on this trip! It was probably a 45 degree angle! It wasn't too much of a walk until we reached the famous Lombard street.

For those who don't know, Lombard street is the tight winding road/street in San Francisco. It sounds silly, but i was shocked people actually lived on this street!? It was a vibrant street full of plants with two paths either side. The road was full of cars, most probably tourists snapping pictures on the way down, the rest probably annoyed locals trying to get around! We went from top to bottom and got the pictures I wanted. Then back UP the hill to carry on to Golden Gate Bridge.

Thankfully! The long ass street to the park which lead to the bridge was flat so no strenuous hills, however is was long as hell and was full of gentleman's clubs, motels and fast food restaurants...(is this all San Francisco has!?) Why we decide to walk through these places I'll never know!? We reached Presidio Park which according to my map should lead us right to the bridge! We walked, and we walked and we walked until we saw it in the distance. In the distance!? We've been walking for a frickin' month why isn't it here!?

We went to the visitors centre there and guess what he said... 'Oh there's free shuttle that takes you right there!'

A what?

A FREE SHUTTLE!?

And I've walked all this way!?

Typical.

So we hopped on this shuttle and it really did take us right to the bridge. Well I thought Brooklyn bridge was a long bridge. THIS is a long bridge, as nice as it was to look out at the bay and back at the San Francisco skyline, we'd walked that much our feet we're on fire! So we made it about 3/4 of the way and decided to head back.

Not to be fooled twice, we got the buses all the way back! Well almost, I haven't totally lost my new found love for walking. We got dropped off at Market Street and walked up towards Union Square. Fliss needed an iPhone charger since there was a secret bus borrowers hoarding them! Well by this point it was about 7 and, unlike New York, not everything is 24 hour or open until crazy time so we'd missed the apple store (which, when stood right in front of it, is apparently very hard to find!? Shameful...) as we were stood on the corner deciding what to do, a gentleman came up to us asking for money, and I'm sorry but I wasn't going to give him money, I'm a backpacker!! I'm probably on a stricter budget! So before desperately trying to find an escape route he kindly offered to show me to an ATM where I could take money out for me to give to him! LOVE TO! So we made a dash into Forever 21, which is basically just the American version of Topshop. Which quickly escalated into fliss spending money, you'd think I had a gun to her back the way she spends!

We then had to move hotels, I really don't know why it didn't occur to me to not book into the same hotel as the one the tour ends on?? I really, REALLY wish I had!

We grabbed our luggage and caught a cab, it was just down the road, but as with any city, a nice area can quickly, after 1 street turn into hell. And here it was, hell. The hotel itself was actually not bad, it was just on the corner of the Tenderloin district aka CRAZYVILLE! Honestly, you wouldn't want to be caught out past 8pm there. The room was fairly nice, two big double beds, a big TV (not self scrolling) and a walk-in closet!? Am I coming out again!? Probably the only use for it really without a full length mirror...

The original plan was to meet the group for drinks, but by the time we'd got to our room and settled, all we really wanted was trash TV, a shower and a pizza! We ordered a HUGE pizza with all the trimmings with a side of hot wings and my American delicacy, lemonade!

After a few slices of pizza, fliss was spent and fell asleep against the pull of trash TV, she's quite the snorer after pizza apparently!

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