Flowers for my Hair

"All my bags are packed,

I'm ready to go...."

I feel a musical theme creeping into this blog already. The title is a line from a song in Westside Story;

I like to be in America

Ok by me in America

Everything free in America

(For a small fee in America)

The song is sung by Puerto  Rican immigrants and expresses their joy, enthusiasm and wonder at being in this new country as well as a strong streak of cynicism. Hmmm... I think that's a bit how I will feel. We shall see. 

Only another 8 hours before I find out, as at this moment we are travelling at an altitude of 10668 m, at about 922 km/hr, with only another   7056 kms to go. I've had my corned beef and mustard mash, followed by nectarine and muscavado Kapiti ice cream, served with a glass of Bancroft Chardonnay, Kapiti cheese and crackers. I've watched my movie and been to the loo, and now I'm wondering what to do next. I guess the sensible thing would be to try and get a little sleep but I don't want to miss out on anything as this is my first long haul flight and it's all a new experience for me.

I am travelling with seasoned veterans in the travelling game ( even if it has been over 30 years for a couple of them) and on this flight NZ8, there are 4 of us Hardings and one nearly-Harding. The young Harding and nearly Harding are the reason we are sitting here right now. We are off to celebrate their marriage in Florida in a mere 10 days time. Oh what fun.

First sight of San Fransico .

We were extremely grateful to Julie's brother, Guillaume, who hired " The Beast" to pick us all up and after taking us to his apartment in Daly City for an aperitif ( bit of a mistake really) before delivering us to our home for the next few days, the San Remo hotel.

The boys are getting into the spirit of things.

The San Remo is a quaint, old fashioned, historic pension style hotel erected after the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire that razed San Fransisco. Old style 'pull the chain' type toilets and tiled showers are down the hall from our small but perfectly formed bedrooms. The bedrooms have brass bedsteads and old ( they claim antique, but although I'm no expert, I have my doubts) furniture. Our room is directly over the front door, which I have to say, is a disadvantage, especially later at night when the patrons of Fior d'italia (America's oldest Italian restaurant) spill onto the street for a cigarette or two and continue their party out there. No air conditioning except for an overhead fan, so we opened our windows and that was fine at this time of the year except the energy of the city seemed to seep into our rooms.

Although the beds were hard, they were surprisingly comfortable. Even so, our bodies struggled with the time change and we had to be grateful for the few hours sleep we managed to get each night.

Our first impressions of the city:

#it smelt and felt like the seaside city it was. Although it was warmer and more humid than we expected there was a breeze that carried the scents of the sea.

# the streets were full of rubbish and only cleaned twice a week between 2 am and 8 am when it was an offence to park your car on the street.

# sad, sad, homeless people everywhere, pushing shopping trolleys full of rubbish or carrying plastic bags containing all their worldly possessions. More blacks than whites, more men than women.

# Dogs! There were dogs everywhere! The San Fransiscans are crazy about their mutts. They came into the shops and bars and we even saw one women bring her tiny little bag dog into the very posh Neiman Marcus restaurant above the shop. There were shops ( yes, that's a plural) dedicated entirely to clothing for dogs - t shirts and tuxedoes. Sheesh.

# The beautiful architecture. Streets after street filled with beautiful multi levelled Victorian homes. Many of them had these sort of semi towers ( bay window?) with rounded glass. There are of course the famous Painted Ladies, but they aren't the only examples.

# The divide between the poor and the... well, everyone else really, is enormous. As Guillaume drove us through the city we passed through some very grim and dark places. We pulled up at an intersection ( with our windows tightly wound up) and just back there was a tall, thin dark man languidly smoking beside a large sign offering a needle exchange, and just beside us was a small group of evangelists trying to save some poor souls. A cardboard notice stuck to the shop window asked "Were does God reside?"  With a journalist and a teacher in the car, that couldn't pass without comment. Will drolly asked " Do  you want us to stop while you hop out and put an h in that sign?" That shut us up as we blanched at the very idea.

# the city is built on hills that aren't just steep, they are very steep. I'm sure the front of the beast was rubbing on the road as we crested Nob Hill.

# It is a cosmopolitan city.Unlike Melbourne, though these immigrants are at least 2nd or 3rd generation and mostly  speak with American accents.

# San Fran seems to have a short history. They seldom mention anything much that happened before 1906, when the ciy had to be rebuilt. It is very like Napier in many regards in that they have both were reborn as the result of a seismic shift and they both are  'fruit bowls' .

Being tired and overwhelmed that first night, we decided not to go too far for our evening graze and settled for the bar under our hotel. Great move! Happy 'hour' from 4 'til 7 meant half price drinks and food which we enthusiastially partook. Delicious Californian chardonnay and shared small plates of exquisitely flavoured Italian food. Fried chicken livers wild mushroom and creamy polenta, fresh shrimp avocado  salad, cubes of delicate fillet mignon in creamy gravy, oysters in a half shell...( I have to stop because I'm torturing myself knowing it will be a long time before I'm back to try it again.) We decided that this was our new local and somehow we would get our names on one of those little brass plates that lined the rail in front of the bar. Both staff and patrons were full of personality and charm and I would happily return there again.