We headed down towards the bridge by bus. It's amazing how many tourists there always are on and around the bridge. There were at least ten or so coaches parked up on the San Francisco side of the bridge. Real tourists are brutal too; I experienced one Chinese man literally clapping angrily at me to get out of the way because his wife was trying to take a photo of him. And that is clapping i.e. not speaking words, Chinese or otherwise. Sorry for existing!
We were intrigued to walk across the bridge after having become obsessed with a documentary called 'The Bridge', about people who have jumped off. Interestingly, there were strategically placed signs saying things like: 'the consequences of jumping from this bridge are fatal and tragic' and 'there is hope, make the call' next to phones for special emergency and crisis calls. Safe to say, no one threw themselves into the bay during our stroll!
The bridge itself is undeniably impressive, Kitty describes the red paint as seductive... And most of all the whole structure is ridiculously photogenic. If its possible for inanimate objects to be so! It also has incredible views out across the bay and back to the city of San Francisco itself. It probably took us double the time it should have done to walk across because we were too busy taking photos!!
Once we reached the other side we paused for a minute to eat a Reese's peanut butter cup and look back at how far we had already walked before continuing on downhill towards the town of Sausalito to catch a ferry back across the bay. The road down to Sausalito was not the most pedestrian friendly and people kept cycling past at high speed every two seconds, but we enjoyed our adventure!
Eventually, we reached Sausalito itself, which is an extremely pretty town built into the hill around the bay. It reminded me a lot of Salcombe in Devon, with houses built into the hills and boats floating lazily in the bay. Anyway, we really liked it!
We walked along the water and down the main street of the town to where we were getting the ferry. After eating our little sandwiches (Kitty's gluten free of course!) we sat and had an ice cream before boarding the boat. I was worried I was going to feel sick on this ferry ride back, as I am known for seasick tendencies, but I was fine! The views of the bay, the bridge, Alcatraz island and the city as we approached were well worth the $9 ferry ticket!!
Once back in Frisco we realised how knackered we were after our epic walk and went to get the muni straight back to Jeff's. It was certainly one of the more visually interesting journeys of our lives; Mental Monday's! Firstly, there are a lot of homeless people here but, apparently, there was some kind of homeless convention outside one of the banks; dozens of homeless people and their trolleys were gathered there all chatting together. Casual.
On our muni ride home we witnessed some of the most random things. A man got onto the bus and was arguing with the driver, who must have told him he wasn't allowed on, to which the man turned around and yelled to the whole bus 'F**k you all!' Nice. We drove past a woman randomly screaming at a bus stop. As you do. Another woman was dancing around the goods she was trying to sell on a street corner, whilst the police were right there telling her she shouldn't be there. A man with pink hair was shouting at his own reflection in the window of a bank. And a man with a trolley was stood on the spot wildly waving his arms around. Like I said, Mental Mondays!!
When we got back, we pretty much collapsed and ended up falling asleep for an hour or so. This is the sort of effect the bridge has on us, although some might put it down to some real exercise...
After making a dinner of yesterday's leftover BBQ, we got down to some planning for the rest of our trip. We've already done loads but we've got a hell of a long way to go!
Love the Crisis Counselling placard! Lovely day to cross the bridge it would seem. The clouds are marvelous.
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