San Francisco continued - days 29 - 32

Day #29
Buggered off to the post office in North Beach for another mammoth posting session – three packages containing CDs, new jeans and unused shirts. As I missed breakfast, I stopped for brunch at the Burgermeister in North Beach and had a wicked chicken sandwich.

Decided that I hadn’t done enough tourist stuff, so decided to catch the bay cruise ferry, which is always good to pass the time (done this three times already). The fog was interesting this day, obscuring the bottom half of the bridge. Got some very interesting photos. Amongst the plethora of French tourists, I got talking to an American couple. Turns out the wife was an SF native and had bought her husband to see the place, so she wasn’t that bothered by the tourist stuff either. So while he took photos of everything, we just nattered away randomly, completely missing Alcatraz in the process. Turns out the lucky buggers were off to get tattooed at Black Heart Tattoo in the Mission.

Once we docked, I went for a lay down on Maritime Park for an hour. Then decided I was gonna do my own Mission pub crawl after Suzannes on Saturday night. So jumped a cab to my first stop, Dirty Thieves, right down in the Mission at 24^th @ Treat. Was a bit wary going in, as it’s a total neighbourhood bar. Its meant to be a “dive bar”, but to be honest, I don’t class any of the SF pubs I’ve been to as dives. Sat down at the bar and was met by the friendliest barmaid ever. Quinn introduced herself, was brilliantly efficient (I was never waiting for another beer), and ridiculously chatty. She didn’t need to make me feel as welcome as she did, but it meant I stayed for three beers, rather than one! Also turned out, shes an old Soho resident. Asked me if I knew the Crown and Two Chairmen, I mentioned the Ship (she worked on Wardour St) and she knew it. She knew too many random details to be faking it. I decide its time to move to the next bar, and she says to pop along to the other bar where she works at on Tues. I end up not taking up the offer unfortunately.

Walk along 24^th to Valencia and head to 500 Club and Clares Deli for another meatball sandwich. 500 Club is mental, as they are having an anniversary party for the bar. On walking in, one of Suzannes mates recognises me and starts chatting. I go and get a sandwich (OMG they are AWESOME) then have a beer with Pete. I try and buy a tshirt from the bar (they have an excellent design with an SF Giants logo on the back), but they’ve run out. So the barlady gives me a free beer for the disappointment. WHAT? :-D

Head to Zeigeist for a final Anchor Steam, then leave to take a cab. Before I’ve even waved at one, the door guy has whistled one down for me. Again, incredible. This is the first time a door guy has done something like that.

Get back to the hotel, suitably tiddled and can’t stop grinning about what a fun night I’ve had on my own. Its thanks to Suzanne that I got to know so many great bars. So much so, I emailed Tonio immediately and told him he needs to see these places when he comes to SF next year.

(for links to these bars, see my previous blog)

Day #30
Took today a bit easier. Headed back down to Union Square to go and see “Drive” at the cinema. I like it a lot. But then I love any film where someone gets their head stamped on until it bursts.

Grab a cable car back to the Wharf and have an Italian meal, then go for a massive walk along the Marina to Chrissy Field. The weather has been amazing today, so everyone is out lying on the beach. The place is overrun with joggers, and I feel bad for not doing any gym or exercise stuff since August. I’m actually slightly jealous of these people!

For the evening, I’ve got tickets for Bob Mould at the Herbst Theatre. It’s a fund raiser/awareness thing for a childrens art/writers program in the Mission, and he was going to be interviewed for most of the event, then play a few songs to end it. It was basically one big promotion for the book, so didn’t really find anything out I didn’t already know, but was cool to see Bob chatting away quite happily. Then he played “I Apologise”, “Hoover Dam” and “See A Little Light”. After the show, he was signing copies of his book, and there wasn’t a massive queue to see him. So I grabbed a Blow Off poster, joined the queue and hoped he’d sign it (as he was signing the book). He was cool about it, and I was incredibly nervous to meet him (again – was just as nervous the first time). I babbled something about the book being great and was great reading the Jon Wurster segment (Superchunks drummer, who played for Bob recently), to which Bob replied “Pffff, forget about it, the guys a demon.” He then asked if I was going to the after show party next door. “We’re playing some records, some rock stuff, and some house stuff if you wanna come along.” Of course I did.

Popped next door to the Rickshaw Stop, and was pleased to see they had Deliverance on the massive overhead projector. So I grabbed an Anchor and sat down to watch while people arrived. They stopped the film as Ned Beatty got his bumming, and switched it to Logans Run instead. ACE. I get to watch Jenny Agutter naked for a bit now. Bob appears with his bear friends and stands directly in front of me, while the DJ plays weird mashups of Fugazi, Joan Jett, Gang Of Four, Gen X and Ramones. He’s a really shit DJ, but I just enjoy it more because of that. Bob turns round, sees me and goes “Hey, glad to see you came along!”. I just raise my glass at him. The guy rules.

Bob then takes over the DJing duties, and I’m amazed. That big hairy rock dude moonlights as a camp house DJ by night (see his Blowoff nights). He’s playing the gayest house music ever, and he’s dancing around behind his desk, and looks ridiculously happy while he’s doing it. Its incredible, and kinda cool that tonight I saw him do his rock thing and his DJ thing in one night. I finish my beer, grab my signed poster and go home, happy having seen and met one of my heroes.

Cab driver on the way back was awesome. Tattooed punk guy. We compared tattoos and talked SLF. Wicked.

Day #31
Had another tattoo booking with Mary today, but it wasn’t till 4pm. Got up in reasonable time but wasn’t sure what to do to kill some time before the session. So I checked the times and caught a ferry to Saulsalito, across the bay. The fog was mental again. Once we got to Saulsalito, you couldn’t see SF at all, which was a tad disappointing, but whatever. The weather was ace in Saulsalito, as usual! Had a quick mooch around the shops, bought little Jack a pirate tshirt, then had a quick lunch, before catching the ferry back. I like Saulsalito – its very chilled and quiet compared to the city, and its nice to get out on the water. Whats also cool is the random performing bums and/or hippies that line the queue to the ferry. Theres a hippy dude that plays “You Are My Sunshine” to his little mangy dog. I’m sure he’s been here since 2002!

Got to Tattoo City in plenty of time and caught Mary getting her lunch. Doug Hardy was working today so chatted tattoos with him for a couple of minutes, then went into Marys room for the next session. Was cool to see my line drawing of the snakendagger on the wall with all her other work.

This session, she drew straight on my arm, adding NEEDS MORE SNAKES to the snakendagger, and chucking in a mini sugar skull for good measure in the gap between the dagger and my old pinup. Session was ace – was very quick and painless, and we had a good laugh while she did it. The addidtions really add to the original tattoo – it definitely needed the wording! Talked more tattoos after the session, and I definitely need to come back ASAP so she can do my thigh. And another sugar skull in a gap I’ve found since!

Jump a cab and head to Suzanne down at Casanovas. Cabbie is awesome. Turns out he’s an old punk from the Mabuhay Gardens days, played in bands and supported some cool people there. He told some fun stories. Get to Casanovas, have a beer with Suzanne, then she takes me deeeeeeep into the Mission to Emmys Spagetti Shack. Such a brilliant restaurant, and such a simple idea. They only sold spaghetti, and only in two sauces – one veggie, one not. Its also attached to its own pub, so you can have a been while you wait. The place was packed and there was a 30-40 minute wait. Food was wicked, and so were the mad cocktails they did. Loved this place!

Jumped on the BART and headed back to Hemlock. Suzanne decides to take me on a very sketchy Tenderloin walk to the pub, taking me past loads of homeless people and drug addicts, all selling random shit on the pavement (what looked like stuff stolen from tourists suitcases). Turned a corner and was then treated to all the transvestite prostitutes lining one of the roads. I was well pleased when we got to Hemlock!

#32
Final full day in SF. Really sad to be going, as I was feeling so comfortable here, running around here and there, getting buses, going to fab little delis and stuff. Head out to find an internet café to print off some holiday biz. This takes a couple of hours, and after I find one in North Beach, I have a seat in a little café and have some lunch. Then my old friend Tom calls me. He’s a mate from SF that I don’t see very often, and hadn’t managed to get in contact with him until last night. Head to Vesuvio and meet up with him and have a few beers and a lot of laughs. I forget Tom is a lot older than the last time I saw him, and I’m pleased to see he can now grow facial hair. We talk about Doctor Who A LOT. After the third beer, he drags me round Chinatown and buys me a pair of orange rubber nunchucks. Then we part ways, as he’s off to another engagement, and I’m having a final beer with Suzanne again. Was so good to see him again after all these years. Man, he makes me laugh.

Go to Benders and order one of their ridiculous whiskey burgers. Absolutely incredible burger, again in a wicked hard bun, with ground bacon in the burger. Mental. I tell you, Kumas in Chicago is still my fave burger place ever, but I’ve seen some places on this trip that give the place a run for its money for definite. Had some AMAZING burgers on this trip, that’s for sure. I’ll list them at some point…

Suzanne turns up, we have beers, pose with the nunchucks, then we head down to Pops to watch the Giants game. This place is still wicked. Chuck loads of money in the jukebox, so we get a nice punk soundtrack while the game is on, and get served cheap(er) beers by Nikki, the tattooed barmaid (Suzannes mate). I try and buy a tshirt (designed by Lil Tuffy), but as usual, theres none my size. Then some random dude next to me says he has a spare and runs home to get it! WTF??? What a decent fella! He sells it to me for cheap, so I buy him a beer for his trouble.

The Giants lose, everyone poses with the nunchucks, then me and Suzanne head back to Hemlock for a couple more beers. Again, another of Suzannes barlady friends is working so we get free beer. Then its back to the hotel to pack for tomorrows trip to LA.

Once again, Suzanne has been utterly brilliant this trip. She put herself out big time in 2008 and she did it again on this trip. Shes such fun to hang out with and was brilliant to see my mate again. I really did have the best time in SF, and really can’t wait to come again. Its definitely my favourite city, and this feeling hasn’t gone away after 4 trips. I feel so at home here, amongst the bay, the hills, the punk bars and the tattooed people! I really wished I could have stayed another week, but it was time for the next part of my trip. First LA, then Fiji. I must say, I was getting very nervous about Fiji, I just really didn’t know what to expect from it and the so-called "backpacking" experience, esp as I’ll be well out of my comfort zone when I get there, and was already hating having a rucksack. EEK!!

San Francisco - days 25 - 28

Day #25
My day of tattooing was here. Got up early, left Tim in bed and went to Dennys for a largish breakfast, so I didn’t get hungry during the session. Got to Tattoo City half hour before kick off and chatted to Mary and Aleph for a while (the only people working that day). Aleph was DJing in the studio, and as usual, the music consisted of some kinda 80s goth-slash-hardcore crossover band. Got down to trying the design out on my arm, and all fitted nicely, although I was a little worried about the skull in my armpit. To be quite honest, I was quite nervous about this tattoo – my last three have been relatively painful, and this was gonna be in an awkward place. As I turned out I had nothing to worry about. I’d forgotten what a gentle tattooist Mary was – and although the armpit was fairly unpleasant, it was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. The whole sitting went like a dream, and Mary finished it in good time. Was a really great session, and such a great laugh – I always have a good time with Mary, and although we probably shouldn’t chat non-stop while the tattooing is in session (so she can concentrate!), we don’t stop talking about bands and films. Her little tattoo room is pretty inspiring too. Her artwork is amazing, and she has up all the line drawings of finished work, and its amazing stuff. I wish I had more time to get more stuff off her!

After the session, we head over to Marys house, pick up Little Jack (her son) and go for pizza. Unfortunately Big Jack is on tour with Swingin Utters, so I don’t get to meet him again, which is a shame. The Inner Richmond is a really nice area, very quiet, with lots of small shops and restaurants. Giorgios Pizza (where we go), is another of these fantastic pizza places, like the one we had in Brooklyn. Little Jack bounces around the restaurant, talking to whoever he feels like and generally being the little performer he is, while we have a great huge thin base pizza. Was so cool getting to hang out with Mary outside of work, and made a change from the pace of the main city of SF. Once we’d finished, the guys dropped me off at the hotel, and Mary took Jack home to bed.

Day #26
This was Tims last day. 26 days on holiday and was weird to leave him behind and now be on my own (apart from a few days in LA), but to be honest, it seemed like he wanted to get out of SF. We’d had a good run of it and had been a mega trip so far. I had to get up early to catch a coach for my Monterey To Carmel trip – which turned out to be a big disappointing pain in the butt!

Got to the wharf and caught the coach – and I was the youngest person by quite a lot. The drive to Monterey was amazing, but was gutted we never got to stop at any of the incredible beaches and cliff faces on the way down. Instead, I sat in a rattley mini coach with no suspension, getting more and more disappointed as the scenery shot past me. We had a toilet stop in a little redneck town called Davenport about 45 mins out of SF, when Suzanne texted me to see if I wanted a day out as the weather was lovely in SF. I was seriously tempted to get a cab back. The weather stayed gloomy for the entire trip, and as the trip went on, I got more and more frustrated.

First stop – Fishermans Wharf in Monterey. Forget that Monterey has some pretty stunning coastline, we ended up more or less exactly where we started. A tacky tourist spot we’d already left behind in SF. I ran off to find the nearest beach, and after an hour found some great rocks and loads of seals. This was more like it, but I had to go back and catch the coach. The rest of the trip was awful. A drive along a road full of expensive houses (bothered!), a stop at a golf course (really?) and a shopping centre in Carmel. Again I ran to the beach, took some photos, got sand in my shoes and got wet. Me 0 Pacific 1! Best part of the day!

The drive home was excruciating, and I was finally dropped off about 10pm, the last of the passengers. I immediately cancelled my Yosemite trip on Monday (no way could I do that again), cleaned my fresh and sweaty tattoo, then went to Hooters on the Wharf for beers and wings. That made up for the day big time!

Day #27
Get up late and have time to kill before an evening meet up with Suzanne. Get to the cable car turnaround and jump on a cable car to Union Square. Get some wicked new jeans from the Levi store (514s – best fitting jeans I’ve ever had), wander around Rasputins record store for an hour (and buy nothing!) then decide that I might go to the cinema for a few hours. Grab the afternoon showing of the Straw Dogs remake. Which I really enjoyed, but might have to write a whole separate blog about. It was pretty much a word for word remake (even down to the characters names), they’d just transferred everything to the deep south. I must say the bear trap scene was done brilliantly though.

Grabbed a cab and headed to Zeitgeist for a quick beer to wait for Suzanne. Didn’t get ID’d due to my Black Flag shirt, but then got slapped on my brand new tattoo for my trouble! Had a beer then headed down to Casanovas (on 16^th @ Valencia) to meet Suzanne. She was already on the margaritas when I arrived and got informed I was being dragged on a Mission area pub crawl. Which I’ll say now is the best pub crawl Suzanne has ever dragged me on! Casanovas I’d been to on my last trip briefly, and after one beer, was dragged out to the 500 Club. This place was great- nice punky dive bar, big bar, great jukebox, and had the best sandwich shop ever next door. Clares Deli was incredible. I had a meatball sub, which got delivered to the pub, and was so good, I had to go back later in the week. Brilliant place and great that the bar and shop are next to each other. After chatting to some of Suzannes friends, she took me to Benders for a quick drink, then onto Dirty Thieves for a couple more drinks and a chat with one of her friends who bartends there, and is also a cracking artist. Talked punk rock, knocked back some Old Styles, then was taken to Pops, a bar that I’ve been threatened with many times before, but not managed to get there.

Pops is deep in the Mission, and is a great little neighbourhood dive bar. Total punk rock clientele, wicked jukebox, and plenty of room. Saturday night is 90’s night, and they were playing all sorts of alternative stuff, from Jawbreaker and Kid Dynamite, to whatever other 90’s emo they could get their hands on. We got free beers all night from Suzannes bartender friends, then she dragged me up to the DJ area. They were gonna play “Boxcar” and I was gonna be singing it! I had no idea they’d been doing karaoke, but the DJ area was carnage – 30 people grabbing the mike, singing their heads off and crowd surfing in an area about 15 ft square. I was given the mike, and the song started, but to be honest it didn’t really matter what I was singing. I had a couple of helpers, and the crowd went mental to the song. They played “Dammit” by Blink 182 next, Suzanne crowdsurfed, then it was time to go home! She’d surpassed herself with this pub crawl, and was an incredible night. It also opened up more places to hangout in SF, and once again, I felt more at home than I’ve even done in this city. Brilliant.

Day #28
Woke up with a mini hangover, a grin on my face from last night and for what I was gonna do today. I’d already decided I was gonna go back to Askew Grill after last Sunday, but on Weds, I’d popped into the next door pub Hobsons Choice for a quick beer before I met Tim. HC is a pub I’ve been to everytime I’ve been in SF, as the first time we went there (in 2002), the barman Chris had entertained us for the afternoon, getting drunk with us and being a bit of a loon. Turns out he still works here, and after meeting him briefly on Weds, I promised I’d come back. It’s a really normal no frills pub, with massive windows and a ridiculous vodka selection. Jumped on a bus and got to the pub for 1.30 and had my breakfast – an anchor steam. Then I decided to partake in the bloody mary bar – Chris pours a massive vodka with ice, then you fill up and make your own bloody mary with whats provided on the help-yourself bar. It’s a brilliant idea, and mine was particularly yummy.

Had some food at Askew Grill, then another quick CD stop at Amoeba Music. Then a final beer at Hobsons before going back to the hotel. Then things went a bit wrong.

Desperate to cut my hair, and having not found a decent barbers anywhere, I thought I’d cut my hair with my beard trimmers. Turned out it took 12 hours in the end, as the things kept running down the battery! I must say I did a good job in the end, but I had a fairly miserable evening mid-haircut in the Wharf that evening. Wearing my beanie to cover the half head of hair that was left, I ended up in Tiernans, a shitty tourist bar in the Wharf. I had a couple of Anchors and a nice pulled pork sandwich, but was surrounded by old tourist couples, and was subjected to the worst ear shattering teeth grating karaoke I’ve ever heard. I know karaoke is meant to be bad, but its good when its entertaining. This was just painful. X Factor rejects through and through. Not one person realised they couldn’t sing. Luckily the barmaid was on my side, and eventually got the guy to turn them down. But it broke me. I sloped back to the hotel thoroughly dejected (after ruining an ace day with more Fishermans Wharf!), and worked through cutting my hair on and off for the rest of the evening/night!