St Patrick's Day
Mar. 18th, 2012 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksWell, it was a bit of a madhouse out there yesterday.
I managed, eventually, to work out how you buy BART tickets for the train network. The ticket dispensing machine is odd. Usually you put your money in, select your trip, take your tickets and change. If the machine has no change to dispense, it tells you.
The BART system in San Francisco is different. There's a list of all of the fares, but your "ticket" is really a kind of cash card. So if you put in $10, you get $10 of credit - no change, no selection of your journey. If you want to make just one journey, you have to negotiate the "get change" procedure first.
While I was working this out only one huckster attempted to sell me a $10 ticket for $8. Obviously the ticket would not have had any credit on it. Poor huckster seemed a bit bemused by my responses, which were not the normal non-committal shrugs, but a stare-in-the-face statement of "I understand EXACTLY what you are saying".
The trip to the airport costs $8.10, about the same as central London to Heathrow, and probably about the same distance, although in a bit less time.
I was meeting Barb on flight 246 from Chicago, but in her last text to me she hadn't mentioned the airline. I had a hunch that it was United, but little more than that. SFO has three domestic terminals, but I was way too early, so I plumped for terminal three, and that turned out to be correct. Bought myself a coffee at "Peet's Parlour" and sat down to avail myself of the free wifi (take note, other airports) and a bit more reading of my Rough Guide To San Francisco.
Getting to the BART on Powell entailed passing by the heart of the St Patrick's Day Parade. It was certainly busy, although it was only later that the pubs would start filling up and the 18-25 year-old age group would be proving that, no, they can't really hold their booze.
Barb and I went for an afternoon stroll, with half a view to getting on the cable cars, but they were still packed and the queue looked to me to be half an hour long. So, we thought we would make the trip later, maybe Monday, earlier in the day, when it might be a bit quieter. Oh, and a bit less chilly. There was only one brief-but-heavy shower yesterday, but the temperature never really got above 12, and the windchill was making it feel closer to 6.
After a long walk along Market, and then up to Columbus, along Columbus past the City Lights bookstore and as far as the start of Stockton, we ducked into Café Maria for an Italian meal. My fried calimari to start was superb, although the distinct baby squid shape of some of the bite-size pieces was a little "graphic" for Barb's taste ("I was trying to look away as you ate them", she said). Barb's chicken Milanese was good, while my penne with meatballs in bolognese sauce was passable, but no. Final morebill was $70 including tip, which isn't much more than you pay in Pizza Express these days. And we were both full.
It was even chillier on the walk back along Stockton, where I made the wrond call in going along Stocton Tunnel, rather than Stockton St, which runs parallel to it, but above it. Bush Street is actually on top of the tunnel, so we ended up walking south a block too far.
Bodyclock is still not quite right, in that I woke up at 12.30am (7.30am London time) as if it were morning, but I got back to sleep okay, and it's now about 7.30am West Coast time. Haven't gone for an early morning walk. Will probably be breakfasting at about 8.30am, and perhaps a few more bus rides today (Muni pass bought!) and a bit less walking.
The BART station platform at Powell. All of the lines depart from just two platforms (one in each direction) and the signing is not paricularly sophisticated. But I guess that once you get the hang of it you wouldn't end up going to the wrong station more than once a week.
The parade is going by in front of these people. It started at 2nd Street and finished at City Hall, about a couple of miles in distance, and appeared to take more than a couple of hours for all of the various bands and floats to go by.
Looking along Market Street in the direction of the march.
The cable car making its way up Powell Street, away from the march.
Hardly the most comfortable journey, I feel. What would the Indian newspapers make of it?
The "parlour" of the Petite Auberge. Quite useful for updating the blog (although I'm in my room at the moment!)
The breakfast area of the hotel.
On the BART train to San Francisco airport. Very comfortable seats, but no special "airport" trains, which made larger suitcases a bit of a problem. There were announcements at every station by the driver, all of which were made incomprehensible by the driver's mumbling and a poor speaker system. I think that this is a universal trait on underground networks.
_______________________
I managed, eventually, to work out how you buy BART tickets for the train network. The ticket dispensing machine is odd. Usually you put your money in, select your trip, take your tickets and change. If the machine has no change to dispense, it tells you.
The BART system in San Francisco is different. There's a list of all of the fares, but your "ticket" is really a kind of cash card. So if you put in $10, you get $10 of credit - no change, no selection of your journey. If you want to make just one journey, you have to negotiate the "get change" procedure first.
While I was working this out only one huckster attempted to sell me a $10 ticket for $8. Obviously the ticket would not have had any credit on it. Poor huckster seemed a bit bemused by my responses, which were not the normal non-committal shrugs, but a stare-in-the-face statement of "I understand EXACTLY what you are saying".
The trip to the airport costs $8.10, about the same as central London to Heathrow, and probably about the same distance, although in a bit less time.
I was meeting Barb on flight 246 from Chicago, but in her last text to me she hadn't mentioned the airline. I had a hunch that it was United, but little more than that. SFO has three domestic terminals, but I was way too early, so I plumped for terminal three, and that turned out to be correct. Bought myself a coffee at "Peet's Parlour" and sat down to avail myself of the free wifi (take note, other airports) and a bit more reading of my Rough Guide To San Francisco.
Getting to the BART on Powell entailed passing by the heart of the St Patrick's Day Parade. It was certainly busy, although it was only later that the pubs would start filling up and the 18-25 year-old age group would be proving that, no, they can't really hold their booze.
Barb and I went for an afternoon stroll, with half a view to getting on the cable cars, but they were still packed and the queue looked to me to be half an hour long. So, we thought we would make the trip later, maybe Monday, earlier in the day, when it might be a bit quieter. Oh, and a bit less chilly. There was only one brief-but-heavy shower yesterday, but the temperature never really got above 12, and the windchill was making it feel closer to 6.
After a long walk along Market, and then up to Columbus, along Columbus past the City Lights bookstore and as far as the start of Stockton, we ducked into Café Maria for an Italian meal. My fried calimari to start was superb, although the distinct baby squid shape of some of the bite-size pieces was a little "graphic" for Barb's taste ("I was trying to look away as you ate them", she said). Barb's chicken Milanese was good, while my penne with meatballs in bolognese sauce was passable, but no. Final morebill was $70 including tip, which isn't much more than you pay in Pizza Express these days. And we were both full.
It was even chillier on the walk back along Stockton, where I made the wrond call in going along Stocton Tunnel, rather than Stockton St, which runs parallel to it, but above it. Bush Street is actually on top of the tunnel, so we ended up walking south a block too far.
Bodyclock is still not quite right, in that I woke up at 12.30am (7.30am London time) as if it were morning, but I got back to sleep okay, and it's now about 7.30am West Coast time. Haven't gone for an early morning walk. Will probably be breakfasting at about 8.30am, and perhaps a few more bus rides today (Muni pass bought!) and a bit less walking.
The BART station platform at Powell. All of the lines depart from just two platforms (one in each direction) and the signing is not paricularly sophisticated. But I guess that once you get the hang of it you wouldn't end up going to the wrong station more than once a week.
The parade is going by in front of these people. It started at 2nd Street and finished at City Hall, about a couple of miles in distance, and appeared to take more than a couple of hours for all of the various bands and floats to go by.
Looking along Market Street in the direction of the march.
The cable car making its way up Powell Street, away from the march.
Hardly the most comfortable journey, I feel. What would the Indian newspapers make of it?
The "parlour" of the Petite Auberge. Quite useful for updating the blog (although I'm in my room at the moment!)
The breakfast area of the hotel.
On the BART train to San Francisco airport. Very comfortable seats, but no special "airport" trains, which made larger suitcases a bit of a problem. There were announcements at every station by the driver, all of which were made incomprehensible by the driver's mumbling and a poor speaker system. I think that this is a universal trait on underground networks.
_______________________
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-18 04:46 pm (UTC)Aksu
no subject
Date: 2012-03-18 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-21 11:22 pm (UTC)My, the weather here is unbelievable! By Tuesday it was late Spring, and this morning it was high summer, before clouding over again this afternoon, causing the temperature to drop from about 70f to 60f.
PJ
no subject
Date: 2012-03-21 11:24 pm (UTC)PJ