Downtown San Fran

I woke up feeling grotty and ready to curl back up but we had a walking tour to get to do after the few normal nudges from Edd I finally crawled out of bed. Luckily he's feeling a bit better today so at least we're taking it in turns to feel sorry for ourselves.

We only just made it in time for the walking tour after a half hour walk through the streets of San Fran. Edd got himself a cappuccino from a trendy looking coffee shop and we shared a muffin. It was a funny weather day today, borderline raining and fairly cold so not how I pictured when I think of San Fran. 

The tour was a downtown tour as that was the only available tour and it was basically a one street tour which, to be honest, suited me very well. We started, and stayed on market street, it's an interesting street because, if you look at a map of San Fran, it's the street that splits, what used to be, the residential part of town with the industrial part of town.

It's a really very obvious divide because the residential streets are tightly packed together and small compared to the big wide industrial streets that run down to the water at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the city. We learned about the cities beginnings, with a small Spanish, Christian mission and a military base but it was the discovery of gold that really expanded the city. 

In 1849 there were 500 inhabitants by the next year there were 24,000 due to the gold rush. Market street has always been at the centre of any action. I remember studying San Fran in school as an example of a city that suffers from earthquakes as it sits on a fault line, in fact I vividly remember it being an exams answer. Our guide reminded us of the big two earthquakes in 1906 and 1989 which had a big impact at changing the architecture of the city. 

In 1906 the earthquake reached 7.8 on the Richter scale and many fires after destroyed most of the city. In fact the only building we saw today they wasn't destroyed was the ferry building. It survived and was re-developed,at one stage the building was the busiest port in the whole of the USA and 2nd biggest in the world. The later earthquake in 1989 damaged a big dua carriage raised highway that ran along the water front and was therefore demolished. This has opened up the area again for restaurants and pedestrians.

Next we walked up market street and our guide explained that the city have a height restriction on buildings, they are keen to make market street a really lovely liveable place even though it's the edge of the business district. For this reason there are lots of rules when building along the street but they can be dodged if you make deals with the city. He showed us lots of examples of deals that had been made. For example you can build above the restriction if you agree to make a public space to break up the street and make it more welcoming for people.

It's interesting, businesses made deals and agreed to make public space but then using architecture make the area unappealing to the public so that they don't have to pay for the upkeep, the security or the plants. The guide showed us a space that had no seating, a path that lead you straight back out and cobbles that made it even uncomfortable to stand on.

The city caught on to this and have now made it a law that if you build a new high rise you have to make a public green space and there are conditions such as there must be seating areas and greenery. The government call them privately owned, public open space "popos". There are now over 60 popos in the city but they are mostly hidden as the businesses don't actually want people using them. It definitely breaks up the city those and allows light amongst the high sky scrapers. 

Another deal you can make, is you can buy floors of a building, knock them down and add them to a building next door, again it creates light through the city but allow businesses to build higher than the restriction. It was really weird and interesting to see. They also made a rule that all buildings now must put 1% of their budget into making the building different, ie not just a tower block. I have to admit I was expecting stunning architecture but in reality I guess 1% isn't enough and you end up with just square buildings with pretty statues on the outside. Better than nothing I guess!

Our poor guide had a tough time talking over a Chinese procession that was happening on the street and which was holding up a lot of disgruntled drivers. We've seen these protests in lots of the cities we've been in. I picked up a leaflet and can't believe what I've been reading. It sounds like the Chinese government are using prisoners for organ harvest. In 1999 the government made a practise called Falun Dafa illegal because of its popularity and promotion of independent thinking. 

It sound like it is some sort of meditation belief based on improving mind and body. They immediately arrested thousands of people and have imprisoned them, many have never been heard from again. The waiting list for a kidney in China is only a few weeks and with no donation system set up the supply of organs is unexplained. This is only from the leaflet I picked up so I don't know exactly how much is fact but it's really amazing that so many people are involved and how many protests we have seen.

When the tour finished I had run out of energy. We went down to the waterfront and the ferry building and found inside that it was very cool, full of little shops, all artisan, selling wine, preserves, cheese, pastries and, of course, craft beer! Edd was excited to find a rare and exciting fresh beer. It gets delivered only once a week (it's fresh so has to be drunk quick ish, within two weeks) at 2pm on a Tuesday. As luck would have it, it's Tuesday. It meant that although I was ready to curl up in bed we needed to waste a few hours before 2pm.

We walked up a hill (hills are everywhere in San Fran) and found the 3rd best place in San Fran for lunch (according to TripAdvisor!), an Italian deli that make the sandwiches for you when you arrive. The place looked stunning with produce stacked up everywhere and sausage hanging from the ceiling. We sat outside on the side of the street with people watching our food as they went passed, the sandwiches were ridiculously huge and looked very good! 

I ate less than half and was talking about taking the rest for later. This old lady walked up and came so close I thought she was going to join us at our table. It was only then when she passed us that I realised she was going through the bin looking for food. I'm so so annoyed at myself I wish I had given her the rest of my sandwich I just didn't register in time. I know people live on the street but I just couldn't deal very well with someone so unashamedly going through a bin for food when I was sat too full to finish mine.

There are lots of homeless, mentally ill and beggars on the streets. We knew there would be but I don't cope with it very well especially in contrast with lots of fat Americans walking passed.

We picked up some beers and Edd posed in front of the ferry terminal with the fancy beer for his app and then we started the long hike home. I think we are both under the weather because we both struggled to get home. Edd had back ache and I ached everywhere, felt hot and clammy. I have to say I was happy when we made it back to our hostel. We treated ourselves to a rest afternoon and got some desperately needed washing done. We had to work around the house cleaners who were hogging most the machines but we did eventually get everything clean and dry.

We popped to a bar for the NBA opening night and start of the Baseball World Series which were both playing above a bar in a very dark, rowdy bar. I sat and wrote some of the blog whilst Edd tried to understand the baseball rules. We then went for a wander because I was struggling and needed fresh air. I keep getting stomach craps and don't feel great at all. Edd got a subway and we are now curled up in our hostel room. Hopefully I'll get a good long sleep before our early start tomorrow for Alcatraz.