16/10/2006 San Francisco, Day Four

Aah, there you are.... After posting yesterdays entry I took a tram to the wharf and got a ticket to Alcatraz for today. I got back and went to Murphy's pub for another bowl of chili and a beer...great chili! Spent last night watching TV. Couldn't be bothered going anywhere. Today I took the Alcatraz tour. Interesting place but a little disappointing. It is an old, cold place but I didn't get a real sense of foreboding, probably because there were so many people there. But, it was worth seeing. It was good to see the excercise yard where Clint Eastwood sat in "Escape from Alcatraz". Took some good shots though. Afterwards I came back into town and went to see a movie. "A Guide to recognising your saints" with Robert Downey Jr. (He was in the film, I didn't go see it with him...) Great film. I've decided to go see Eastwoods new film "Flags of our fathers" on friday. I check out of here at 11am but my flight isn't 'til 10:30pm... I have some time to fill. The amount of beggars in this city is incredible. The last two days I have been cruising around with my MP3 player on so I have been ignoring them, it's been really good. Speaking of movies, I forgot to mention this in a previous post but the previews to the new james bond film looked fantastic, Daniel Craig really looks the part. Good casting choice I reckon. Also saw a preview for "300". It's based on a graphic novel and the story seems to be about the 300 Spartans...looks very edgy and violent. can't wait for that. Also, Borat, the film. The preview was hilarious, hope the film is too. Anyway, back to the beggars. They are pretty harmless, they ask but they don't stalk you or get abusive if you say no. I saw some english prick on a mobile tell one of the to F off when he was approached...I thought that was unnecessary. After the movie I just sauntered about the CBD (it was about 7:30 and there were thousands of people around union square..amazing)with my headphones on. It was lovely just walking along listening to music and looking around. Had a giant slice of pizza for dinner and went to the Gold Dust bar for a beer and a half. Got bored so I just came back to my room at about 9. Saw a guy at the bar, sitting with his wife and I couldn't stop glancing over at him.it took me a while to realise why. he reminded me so much of my dad, it was uncanny. I couldn't hear him speaking so I couldn't tell where he was from but it wouldn't have suprised me if he was a Yugo. Had the right head. the likeness was very strong though. Butterfingers was the candy bar of the day. Quite nice. Chocolate covered crunchy peanut butter...stuff. very sweet though. That's about it for now. Tomorrow I'm off to the Haight again to pick up a couple more souvenirs and maybe head down to the Castro for lunch or something. I'm going to try get a tour in as well. Just an easy way of seeing a number of things and take some photos. Still haven't gone to the Golden Gate. hey Rich, there don't seem to be any Plovers around but there were some HUGE ravens in death valley, as big as cats! But they don't swoop you (well they might swoop you!). Alright, that's it. Be well. M