I went by train from Sacramento to San Francisco early in the morning. Arrived at San Francisco that welcomed me with beautyful summer weather!

Went around looking for a hostel that I found at the Internet. Went walking along the steep streets of San Francisco wearing just shorts and t-shirt. Did not find the hostel where it should be located thou.

So I continued walking and walking and ended up at Lombard street. So I looked at my map, that I got from an old lady at the train, and saw that I were just a couple of blocks away from the famous part of the Lombard street.

Then I went down with a cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf. Found a couple of camera stores there, and what I have heard the camera equipment should be much cheeper here in the US comparing to Sweden. I went in to four different stores along the docks. After my experience’s with that kind of camera stores, I would not recommend them to someone else! I asked for a wide angle lens at one store, and after some questions he said to me “Are you looking to buy, or should I break your balls?” so I continued. The store after that acted so I think they would rob me. Because the seller I talked with gave me a price on a lens and said that would only be if I payed in cash and I told him that I didn’t have that money with me. So I went to an ATM to get some more cash, because he gave me a very good price. When I came back he asked me if I had the cash with me, I answered yes and then I told me that it would cost me $100 more than he told me before. At that time I decide to leave the store and I took a fast walk, and looked for any followers, back to the hotel. At the hotel I left everything that I had with me and brought just $20 with me out to find somewhere to eat.

After a nice sleep at my hotelroom with two kingsize beds, videogame, 8 pillows I woke up and took a long shower. The bathroom was equiped with a massage shower and it was really good! Then I ate breakfast and checked out from to hotel and left for Pier 33 to get me a ticket to Alcatraz. The Alcatraz I really enjoyed and I spent 5 hours there at the island looking at exactly everything!

The first sign that met me:

Went on a guided tour at first held by a guard named Eric. He talked mostly about the life of the family’s who lived there during the time Alcatraz were a prison. How the social life was and what the kids living there enjoyed doing there at their free time.

Then I went in to the prison building for the audiotour. You got a pair of headphones and digital audio player with you and then I started walking. The audiotour was also really good with the voices from old prioners and guards telling me their story of Alcatraz. Here’s one the “checkpoints” during the route:

Some of the most famous inmates:

Behind the bars the life can’t be that easy, but at least they could read about if the compact car really will save them money.

So close, but also that far. San Francisco seen from Alcatraz with a german girl in front of me. This day was also nice, but a bit windy out in the bay.

“Play-Yourself Bridge Game”, but I don’t think the bridge will reach from the Alcatraz island to San Francisco.

This is the dining room where all the inmates at their meals. It’s said that Alcatraz probably had the best food of all the prisons in the US.

From here the guards had a nice look over at least one corner of the prison area.

The water tower next to the outdoor area for the prisoners. I really felt familiar from this part of the prison, because of the movie with Clint Eastwood “The escape from Alcatraz”. Here I got a great shelter from the wind and I stayed here for awhile.

Down in the “basement” where they had an exhibition with weapons that the prisoners had made and also some of the uniforms that the guards had.

This area were closed for the visitors, but hey, it look cool at least!

Then I checked out the movie in another room and a stop at the souvenir store I had to catch the boat and say good bye to Alcatraz. As I said, I liked it alot the time at Alcatraz and I took over 200 images at the location.

After leaving the boat, I went for a walk down the docks and had a really good portobello sandwish at the Ferry Building. It started to become more windy and the weather report warned about a huge rain storm coming in, so I took the Amtrack bus to Emeryville to catch the train back to Sacramento.

Hope you remembered to click the images to get the pictures in better resolution.

Time for sleep!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 22:50:40 and is filed under The United States of America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.