June: Since Eric and most of his friends worked in bars and restaurants, their hours mostly meant being up all night and sleeping all day. Well, that wouldn’t do for Hanna and me. We wanted to see San Francisco by daylight too. So, we ignored our sleep deprivation and went out into the city to explore.
In Hanna I had definitely found a likeminded tourist. Travelling with a friend is more complicated than it might seem at first – something that I’ve realised during my North America travels. Not that I’ve had any really negative experiences, I’ve just had to adapt to situations I didn’t expect.
I’ve learned that my kind of travelling is intense and time consuming. I’m like a long-distance runner, who can walk around in a new city, visit museums and watch houses and people for hours at an end. I usually try to start before ten, and I rarely return to wherever it is I’m sleeping before dark. I even forget to eat sometimes. I just get so absorbed by all the new things around me, and I want to see everything. It’s touristing at it’s most intense.
I think I have it from travelling with my dad growing up. For most of my childhood, he was the travel editor of one of the biggest newspapers in Sweden. I went all over the planet with him, trying out hotels and beaches and desserts for the readers back home. What this journalistic traveling taught me, was to be well prepared, read alot, and how to try out everything. Travelling with dad was no holiday, he was working and had to do all the things that might interest the Swedish readers. So even now, when I’ve been here and there by myself, I still have this feeling that I need to know, that I need to see. I can’t just skip. And I like being well prepared, and having these intensley long days while visiting a new city or mountain or island. I’ve just had to realise that not everyone can or feels like keeping up with my speed.
But Hanna is like a long-distance runner too. She needs to eat more often than me, but in most other aspects we’re compatible. I like trees and hiking more than her, and she likes shopping more than me – but by travelling together we both got the chance to do and see things that we probably wouldn’t’ve if we had been travelling separately. And she has no problem handling my long days, as long as she gets a good nights sleep once in a while – exactly like me! I’ve known Hanna since I was seven, but I’ve never really travelled with her. And I might have been slightly nervous about how our roadtrip would turn out, back in February when we decided that she would come and join me in Seattle for three weeks in June, but that wouldn’t’ve been necessary. Our weeks together turned out to be a great success, and our days in San Francisco became the crowning of our journey together.
We bought strawberries, peaches and plums at the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building.
There are beaches a short walk from Fisherman’s Wharf. The water is freezing and they are crowded on sunny days, but still. Beaches.
The Palace of Fine Arts. Completely fake, not old at all (few buildings are in this part of the world), but still pretty.
I would say that’s a pretty awesome view, from this beach in the Golden Gate Recreation Area.
And there we are, master travellers, in front of what might be the most famous bridge in the world. Golden Gate Bridge. So, just because, I’ll give you some more of it:
The view of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge.
So yes, San Francisco is a beautiful city, and being a tourist there is a joy and a privilege. But to be honest, it was not the sights that made the city so special. What made the deepest impression on me were the things we did and saw away from the tourist crowds. That’s where the San Francisco treasures were, and luckily, I had Hanna with me who was willing to explore them with me.
Katja Malmborg 