"If you're going to San Francisco; Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."

I didn't. It would have made me look silly. In fact, I haven't seen anyone wearing flowers in their hair in SFO.

We had a field trip to SFO on this Saturday (Aug 2). We were dropped off at Union Square and had the whole day to ourselves, no specific program was arranged for us. So, I thought I'd follow my classic way of exploring a city: simply walk around.

At first, I went in the "wrong" direction, as I immediately found the worst part of the city: what I like to call "Queens" after the Queens part of NYC. (I didn't dare to check out the Bronx in NYC.) People on the streets looked like junkies and hookers (or both) so I tried to find my way back to the financial district and hoped that it was not the only decent part of the city.

So, when I found my way back, I went on up North. Suddenly, signs started to change. At first, I though it was just the beers I had yesterday evening but no, the signs really became illegible to me. I pulled out my map and saw, I reached Chinatown. It's just like in Józsefváros, except that it's an actual district and it looks way better. But just like in Józsefváros, you can buy just about anything. People have their stuff out on the street and there's almost a street full of barbers and hairdressers.

Then after a while signs returned to normal. Or so I thought. The letters became familiar again, but I still could not make much sense of them. The Italian quarter. Every pole on the street had a mini Italian tricolor painted on it.

Still going North I bumped into the Bay, namely the famous Pier 39 with lots of seafood. Interestingly, there were like a hundred seals sunbathing on some wooden establishments made for their enjoyment. Skipped the tour to Alcatraz Island, it was clearly a tourist trap. Not that much into prisons anyway.

It was 2pm already so I started to inch back towards Union Square for he scheduled pickup (scheduled for 6.30pm). On the way back I stopped at a nice little restaurant in the Italian district and had the most delicious pasta in modern history. :) Only their Tiramisu was better.

In the financial center I finally got around to shop for a new pair of jeans (the old ones were really worn down) and imagine that in the middle SFO, I actually bought a pair for less than $7 (!).

Photos are uploaded to the Picasa storage area, and here's some other guy's video which really captures the atmosphere of the whole city.