On Thursday evening I deliberately left my camera behind and went for a walk up through Chinatown. As I said, it's useful to develop a three-dimensional map of SF. Whereas in most cities if you go 'up and then right' it's roughly on a par with going 'right and then up', in San Francisco one choice can entail you walking up a steep hill and down another, while the other choice consists of a gentle decline followed by a flat road. From where I am on Bush St, if I want to head north and east, then it's best for me to walk east and then north. But if I want to head north and west, then it's better (just!) for me to head north and then west. Unless, of course, it's more than a mile west, in which case it's better to head west then north. Well, you get my drift. Routes are complicated if you are travelling by foot or bicycle.
Most Chinatowns look roughly the same, which must be comforting for the Chinese diaspora. If I had been plonked down here with9out knowing what country I was in, it would have taken a while to figure out that it was San Francisco rather than London's Chinatown.
I got to the top of Chinatown and bore left from Grant St to Columbus. I was aiming for the Caffe Sport, a "genuine" Italian restaurant, I was informed. It was certainly characterful, and unique in several respects (thus, of course, qualifying as 'very unique' - a qualifier as apt as 'very pregnant'). The penne with a basil sauce was excellent, as was the other sauce I was given with bread. This consisted of tomatoes, basil, anchovies, capers, jalapeno peppers and olive oil (and probably something else that I have forgotten). Delicious.
Then again, SF, as I have said, is not cheap. Even a fairly basic single course with a bottle of sparkling water is going to be about $25. This town is probably not the best place for people holidaying on a budget.
After that it was nice to head back to the hotelo and to bed.
On Friday I somewhat retraced my steps of Thursday night, although I went via the historical district around Jackson and Washington. I've not included many of the fascincating bits of architecture here because if I did the post would become too unwieldy. But it's superb for a glimps of 'old' San Francisco, and it's remarkably quiet, considering how central it is (just north of the financial district, just to the west of the bottom of Fisherman's Wharf, and just to the east of the start of Columbus).
( The Financial District, North Beach, and then Ocean Beach )![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
