sambapink

Just got back from a weekend in SF. I liked it, but I didn't love it. We did the whole bus tour thingy, which was pretty dissappointing. It was an automated voice recording, I feel its always better if the driver is telling you the history of where you are - they normally add a bit of personality to the tour and you get to find out some great things about a city. I can honestly say I learnt very little about SF (or maybe there isn't alot to learn - who knows?!).

Golden Gate Bridge wasn't disappointing, and the view across the Bay was spectacular. We couldn't do the Alcatraz tour as it was booked up by the time we went to get tickets, bloody tourists Haight/Ashbury area is neat - you could probably get high just walking down the street. Union Square has some great shopping and a nice central place to base yourself.

Cable cars were neat, food/resturants were ok, loads and loads and loads of homeless, weather is very changeable - be prepared and wear comfortable shoes , Train service from airport to downtown is very easy (Bart) and finally if you find yourself walking round and round trying to find a bar early on a saturday morning that may be playing a premiership game, try Jacks down in Fishermans Wharf

notacrime

CISCO

f***ing tourists

emailrob

Shame you didn't get to do Alcatraz, that was the best part of our trip

sambapink

Sorry, are you trying to make a point about me saying San Fran..?


I know Rob, the next trip we could do was too late for us to catch our flight - so we just went and had cocktails instead

snowbunny

Alcatraz is cool...

I share the same ambivalence about SF (as I've posted) - it seems like I should love it and I just DON'T. It's good for a visit and to see my friends, but....

whereas the pictures Manc took of his trip home, especially those of the Peak District, have me yearning to go there again.

notacrime

Yeah, in the politest way possible. Sorry for lashing out, just a pet peeve.

Glad you had a nice weekend. Sounds like it was great weather for it.

sambapink

Wow, wouldn't like to be near you when your not being polite

Its no fun being a f***ing tourist ya know..

Cape Blue

That seems to be quite a well-known peeve, I'm sure I have heard it before that some people don't like SF being called San Fran - why is that?

(that said, I find "frisco" a little hard on the ears)

notacrime

Yeah, 'frisco is almost as bad, but it has been called that by locals, (at least in the 70s!)

"San Fran" seems to be popular with the east coast crowd. Not sure why they feel the need to shorten it, they don't called New York "New Yo" or Boston "Bost", or Los Angeles "Los Ang" for that matter.

I live in Edinbu now. You should come visit.

snowbunny

We're not far away from grunts as conversation, are we?

Cape Blue

Oh, I've been to Edinbu many, many times.

I imagine there is some sort of (informal) formula for when names tend to get shortened, probably related to SF having two words with the second having multiple syllables. LA gets shortened to LA rather than Los Ang so there is probably something to do with the equality between the two words as well.

nethead

But no one was shortening it speech, only in writing, a lot of people would shorten New York, to NY or NYC. I think SF or San Fran sounds much better than 'Cisco or Frisco.

SambaPink, glad you had a relatively good trip, sorry you didn't love it. Like your photos on FB by the way, looked like you had great weather.

sambapink

fank you my lovely

elfman

When we lived in London we hosted quite a lot of my wife’s family and friends for visits and they nearly all had a habit of shortening the names of certain landmarks and tourist sites in a way that I’ve never heard British people do when referring to the same places. Some examples that I remember: they would refer to Westminster Abbey simply as “Westminster”, Buckingham Palace as “Buckingham”, Trafalgar Square as “Trafalgar”, and Portobello Road Market as “Portobello”.

I’m sure if British visitors to New York were to arrive saying they wanted to “see the view from the top of the Empire” or “get the boat across to Ellis” they’d get some strange looks, at the very least.

Englishtart

Me too!