another sleepy morning woken only by the desire to hit the streets. we walked and walked and walked today, finally starting to get a grasp on the city we are temporarily residing in. this being-a-traveller business is growing on us slowly. by the time we hit nippon (ya!) we will be well seasoned pro's.
firstly we strolled across downtown looking for notebooks for betty to scrawl her dreams in. you would think in a town that has cars with inbuilt computers so they can reverse-park themselves and a culture that designs longer chocolate cookies so that you can dip them further into your glass of milk that we would find something that betty likes...i am afraid not. we must be some picky ladies!
so we wandered high and low, giggled lots for no apparent reason, caught our first bus and end up wandering the streets in mission district - the latin american end of town. the houses were so beautiful and colourful - everything seemed a bit more run down and interesting here and we thought we might be getting closer to finding the creative side of town. we stumbled and stumbled on, feeling our radar for excitement pick up little signals....but with every turn the houses seemed to just keep going and going. so we gave up in gave into our appetites and found a salvadorian restaurant that served amazing vegetarian pupasas (like a tortilla filled with cheese!) and beans and salad and beer. we felt like kings. we left the restaurant still thinking were lost in suburbia and walked one block and found ourselves in the middle of some latino wonderland of cheap shops, amazing food and second hand wares...oh and of course crazy people...there is about one crazy to every non here in the middle of the city. we wandered along for a fair while and found the most amazing and cheap second hand shop where we got a little too excited and lulu bought a distinctly ugly-fantastic sequined shirt.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Tuesday 1 - Muir Forest
the sleep of the dead granted us 13 hours to make up for the flight.
ah fightin' fit! and first thing on the menu for the day was pancakes betty style with coffee. this fueled a couple of hours of music making in the sweet acoustics of savanah's apartment. the accordion had never sounded so sweet. we then drove out to the the muir forest. this was a dream come true for lulu ever since san fran was added to the itinerary. the largest of living things resides in it's boundaries; the red wood trees. protected by the late mr. muir, these trees are taller than the hills we walked up on our journey through the forest. in late afternoon hues us three gypsy danced and giggled our way around the winding paths, up and down catching the light of the sun edging towards slow sunset. setting off the greens and the reds of the trees, the shadows of the roots in our path. there were some truly awe inspiring moments that rendered us all speechless. looking up to the circles of trees that grow in a 'family' leaning in toward each other, their branches reaching out as if in embrace. finding the giants that had fallen. catching the most beautiful mountain water in the creek. we even had the luck to see a little dear eating clover. betty and lulu made most of the quiet mountain moments, filling them with singing and beat boxing along to the sound of our steps.
dazzled, we drove back to the city, driving by the ocean which sits only a few kilometers from the forest. we really thought san fran was something special~! and only earlier that day we were secretly confiding that we didn't really find america that different to australia after all and perhaps we should go back and play music underneath the clifton hill bridge like we used to...
haha. weren't we eating our words as we drove home contently munching on licorice, apples and john coltrane inspired jazz?
we got back to the city full of the devil and decided to brave the chill for a look at the mega-shopping right outside our door. HnM was pretty intense and wacky! madonna currently has got her personally design line in stock. in macy's we went in search of notebooks, feeling like mischievous aliens in a glass playground. we were the last people in there, leaving with a big tup of ice cream instead for our feast later.
ah fightin' fit! and first thing on the menu for the day was pancakes betty style with coffee. this fueled a couple of hours of music making in the sweet acoustics of savanah's apartment. the accordion had never sounded so sweet. we then drove out to the the muir forest. this was a dream come true for lulu ever since san fran was added to the itinerary. the largest of living things resides in it's boundaries; the red wood trees. protected by the late mr. muir, these trees are taller than the hills we walked up on our journey through the forest. in late afternoon hues us three gypsy danced and giggled our way around the winding paths, up and down catching the light of the sun edging towards slow sunset. setting off the greens and the reds of the trees, the shadows of the roots in our path. there were some truly awe inspiring moments that rendered us all speechless. looking up to the circles of trees that grow in a 'family' leaning in toward each other, their branches reaching out as if in embrace. finding the giants that had fallen. catching the most beautiful mountain water in the creek. we even had the luck to see a little dear eating clover. betty and lulu made most of the quiet mountain moments, filling them with singing and beat boxing along to the sound of our steps.
dazzled, we drove back to the city, driving by the ocean which sits only a few kilometers from the forest. we really thought san fran was something special~! and only earlier that day we were secretly confiding that we didn't really find america that different to australia after all and perhaps we should go back and play music underneath the clifton hill bridge like we used to...
haha. weren't we eating our words as we drove home contently munching on licorice, apples and john coltrane inspired jazz?
we got back to the city full of the devil and decided to brave the chill for a look at the mega-shopping right outside our door. HnM was pretty intense and wacky! madonna currently has got her personally design line in stock. in macy's we went in search of notebooks, feeling like mischievous aliens in a glass playground. we were the last people in there, leaving with a big tup of ice cream instead for our feast later.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Monday 1b - Savanah our Saviour
flights being surreal and banal in themselves don't feel like they deserve much comment...
13 hours (which felt like 24 squashed into 13) gets us to the door of san francisco.
hoopla the circus is in america town.
first leg of our miraculous journeys abroad. miraculous because the journey has been in the making for many many days weeks months and sometimes felt like a bit of a personal joke on everyone else and infact betty and lulu would really say their goodbye's but be lingering around the corner to spring out and surprise all of their silly loved ones at the most comically timed opportunity.
but no alak, we really are here...strange and surreal in the streets of san fran. the crazy folk flocking to greet us, or so it seems but infact i fear these folk are always here! it really hasn't sunk in yet. and why should it? Savanah whisked us away from the airport to be cozied up in a wonderous loft apartment in the middle of the city with friends from old days and much good vegetable to be had.
we did make one journey out today amidst our sleep deprived haze, to the amazing heights of marin headlands. as you leave san fran and drive over the golden gate bridge the headlands sit to the left. up there we were in the clouds looking down through the wholes that appeared to the city, the bay, the ships, alcatraz and the amazing cliffs leading down down down. we saw hawks gliding low and beautiful moss covered trees and many different bird varieties. it was a rather enchanted little nook and so close to what is one big city...gives san fran an already charmed and unique complexion.
13 hours (which felt like 24 squashed into 13) gets us to the door of san francisco.
hoopla the circus is in america town.
first leg of our miraculous journeys abroad. miraculous because the journey has been in the making for many many days weeks months and sometimes felt like a bit of a personal joke on everyone else and infact betty and lulu would really say their goodbye's but be lingering around the corner to spring out and surprise all of their silly loved ones at the most comically timed opportunity.
but no alak, we really are here...strange and surreal in the streets of san fran. the crazy folk flocking to greet us, or so it seems but infact i fear these folk are always here! it really hasn't sunk in yet. and why should it? Savanah whisked us away from the airport to be cozied up in a wonderous loft apartment in the middle of the city with friends from old days and much good vegetable to be had.
we did make one journey out today amidst our sleep deprived haze, to the amazing heights of marin headlands. as you leave san fran and drive over the golden gate bridge the headlands sit to the left. up there we were in the clouds looking down through the wholes that appeared to the city, the bay, the ships, alcatraz and the amazing cliffs leading down down down. we saw hawks gliding low and beautiful moss covered trees and many different bird varieties. it was a rather enchanted little nook and so close to what is one big city...gives san fran an already charmed and unique complexion.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday 1a - Skullduggery
it all started on a great note...
flying to sydney early in the morning and finding our flight was delayed by three hours. so with time to burn in the airport we hatched the only sain and civilized plot to kick start the adventure - weazling our way into the qantas lounge. hehehe...we looked so funny, us colourful birds loitering out the front of the qantas lounge, all devious smiles, picking our likely suspects from the main traffic - business men. betty hitched a ride with a country singer/song writer on his way to nashville and lulu found a friendly old business man who was up for the challenge. oh boy did we come up with a good idea - free everything and with a view to make one's heart leap into one's throat; close-up planes landing on the tarmac from longhaul international flights. we were going to be up there soon - gulp~!
so three hours, many free pear vodka's later, all to the sound-track of betty's ipod pop, we left the lounge to start our boarding. because of the delay we were given a $15 food voucher each so we stuffed our sozzled arms full of fancy mueslie bars with poor breakfasts' in europe on our mind and boarded the flight to san francisco...
flying to sydney early in the morning and finding our flight was delayed by three hours. so with time to burn in the airport we hatched the only sain and civilized plot to kick start the adventure - weazling our way into the qantas lounge. hehehe...we looked so funny, us colourful birds loitering out the front of the qantas lounge, all devious smiles, picking our likely suspects from the main traffic - business men. betty hitched a ride with a country singer/song writer on his way to nashville and lulu found a friendly old business man who was up for the challenge. oh boy did we come up with a good idea - free everything and with a view to make one's heart leap into one's throat; close-up planes landing on the tarmac from longhaul international flights. we were going to be up there soon - gulp~!
so three hours, many free pear vodka's later, all to the sound-track of betty's ipod pop, we left the lounge to start our boarding. because of the delay we were given a $15 food voucher each so we stuffed our sozzled arms full of fancy mueslie bars with poor breakfasts' in europe on our mind and boarded the flight to san francisco...
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