San Francisco, first impressions

After a 16 hour journey with little sleep I arrived in San Francisco yesterday evening (evening in this time-zone, night in the Netherlands). Flying with Continental is OK, although the time to make it to my second flight was very, very short, so I've only seen a bit of Houston George Bush International Airport while I was running to the customs and immigration desks, then to the luggage belt to get my bag, then to the luggage check-in to get it to my next plane, and then to the gate. But I made it, and during my flight I could sit back and relax, see a lot of desert beneath me, and got a little tour from the sky over Yosemite Park. Our plane had to stay in the air for a bit before it got assigned a gate so the pilot thought it nice to circle over Yosemite for a bit, instead of near the airport. He also pointed out some valleys, mountains and waterfalls, so I already know the way when I'm going there later this week ;)

Rowan picked me up at the airport and together we took the train to the centre of San Francisco. I insisted I wasn't tired, but as soon as I saw the bed I was lost and I fell asleep, though it was already early in the evening, so it wasn't too bad. Today I woke up around 8 and after some breakfast and a shower we were off to behave like tourists in San Francisco. The first stop was at the Apple Store :) Then we just walked along Market Street to the old ferry harbour, which is now a market place. Then we walked back trough the financial district (with the pyramid building that's mentioned in The Da Vinci Code) to China town. In China town we took a cable car to Fisherman's wharf, where I bought a jacket, since I need some more warm clothes. Someone told me that San Francisco is a warm place, so I packed only one jumper, but I'm going to be fine now. I also bought some rechargeable batteries and a plug converter, but both are pretty useless as my telephone charger and battery charger have a different voltage. Silly Americans with their weird plugs and voltages. After the touristy atmosphere at Fisherman's Wharf it was nice to get into a quieter residential place. The architecture here is really nice, though the houses are probably unaffordable. After a stroll down Haight Street we wanted to walk through Golden Gate Park to the sea. Though not even halfway (5 pm) we gave up because we were too tired. We did go to the Shakespeare Garden in which they have planted every kind of plant that is mentioned by Shakespeare, and the beautiful botanical garden. I've uploaded some pics to merpel.nl.

Now it's time for some food.