So, maybe that is what I will work on today. I think we will do the Hop On Hop Off bus on either Wednesday or Friday. I need to look at the stops for that and figure out what we will be able to hit from there. Then decide what we need to do on the day that we don't have the HOHO to move us around. We also have the time in which we walk to and from the baseball game to see some things. It would make sense to do the HOHO on Wednesday since it sort of helps you get your bearings and gives you information about places you pass that you might not have otherwise known. Then we will know what we need to go back to on Friday.
I think we will have plenty of time to see everything. It is just a matter of organizing our time. We really want to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. But I understand that it is a 1.7 mile walk making it 3.4 miles round trip. That could take a while at our speed and stopping to take pictures. Plus we are already starting to line up a stack of restaurants that we have to go to. I do like having restaurants that we want to visit. It eliminates the decision making once you get there.
In Barcelona, we didn't have any restaurants picked out ahead of time and we wasted a couple of hours our first night walking from one place to another trying to decide. I don't think we ate a single bad meal that entire trip. So, we probably could have eaten at any of the places we thought about and been happy. But live and learn. The meals in Barcelona may have also been so fantastic because they were so few and far between! We were so busy all day everyday that I think we only had lunch once! Dinners weren't until at least 9 there because that is apparently the way it is done. But I don't remember ever being overly hungry. We both lost weight on that trip. I hope that happens in San Francisco. I don't see how we can go wrong. I mean with all of those hills to walk up and down and planning a 3.4 mile walk from the get go, I think it is destined.
I love the days leading up to a trip. There is so much planning to be done. You sort of immerse yourself in the city you are planning to visit. It is almost like the trip really begins about a week before, when you are planning things everyday, making lists and on Trip Advisor 10 times a day checking on your forum posts and asking last minute questions. Even though I have been to SF before, I am trying to treat this like my first trip there since that last time, I just followed other people around. At this point if asked where anything was, I doubt I would even be able to find the GGB without a map.
I'm terrible about asking directions once I get to a place. You can ask my friend, Katherine about that. The first time I went to NYC for fun was with Katherine and she had no problem asking people for directions. I on the other hand was mortified every time she did it. I thought they would know once we asked which stop to get off on the subway that we were tourists. I think her reasoning was that they probably figured out when I was incapable of getting on the subway during rush hour that we weren't locals. So we may as well figure out the right place to get off.
I'll never forget standing on that subway platform on Monday morning at about 8 a.m. There were hundreds of other people standing around also, but it never dawned on me that when the subway doors opened there would be a massive rush to get inside the car and if you didn't push your way on you would be waiting for the next train. So, I just stood there in a sea of people sort of in shock. The doors closed and the train took off and I started laughing. I had never seen anything like it before!!!! Katherine said something like, "why didn't you get on?" I think I said something like, "you didn't get on either!" and she responded saying she couldn't just go without me. So, then we made a plan. When the next train came, we were just going to shove and force our way on. It worked. I may have held on to Katherine's shirt. I am not sure. It was a really long time ago. I do believe that at one point during that conversation she may have mentioned that we weren't in Texas and people weren't going to just stand back and wait for us to stroll on to the train.
Once we were on she asked a really nice looking man in a suit which stop we should get off on for Wall St. Her reasoning turned out to be that he looked like he probably worked on Wall St. so he was the perfect person to ask. He was very nice and even told us when we had reached the stop. But I was embarrassed anyway. Since then I have gotten better about that sort of thing. I am not sure why I have an aversion to asking people for help when I am in a strange city. But I really do. I know that when someone asks me for help and I am able to, I always give them the directions they need and it doesn't bother me a bit. So, I am not sure why I feel that I am inconveniencing someone else by doing the same.
During that same trip to NYC, we had a cab driver tell us that we were staying in a sketchy part of town. He mentioned as he drove us back to our hotel after a late dinner that there were a lot of street walkers in the area. Of course being from Texas and never having seen anything like that before, our response was to ask him to point some out. I don't think he expected that! That trip was a really long time ago. It was my first vacation with a friend. We had so much fun and it helped me to figure out that if I was going to travel like that in the future, I should really plan things out.
Since then I have been on numerous trips with my friend Jenny and I think we have learned a lot along the way. Here is a short list of some of the things I have learned.
- A surprisingly large number of people in Europe speak English and those who don't are not opposed to pantomime.
- On any given day in any port city in the world, everyone can tell you where the cruise ships are and how to find your way back to them.
- In other parts of the world, a lot of people smoke, deal with it.
- When on an island or in a coastal city, always order the fish.
- Wine is cheaper than water in many parts of Europe. Drink wine!
- New Yorkers are for the most part a lot nicer than people make them out to be.
- Know what you want to order before you get to the counter in a NY deli. The people who work deli counters are the exception to the previous remark.
- It is impossible to get a cab in front of GCS while the UN Assembly is in session and it is 6 p.m. on a weekday. Figure out something else!
- Always carry a hoodie to California. You will need it at some point.
- If you remember to pack an umbrella, it will not rain.
- Always carry a small utility flashlight.
- If a local person says, "it's a nice little hike", that means you will only be sore for 4 days max from climbing this MOUNTAIN.
- On a map when you are outside of Texas distances always look a lot further than they actually are. An inch in Italy is two blocks. An inch in Texas is 200 miles. Scale matters.
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