Cross Country Chronicles: San Francisco and the Green Tortoise
The day we left Reno was scheduled to be our shortest drive of the trip — just over 3 hours to get to San Francisco. At least, that was the plan. There’s quite a bit of road construction on that stretch of I-80, so it ended up taking us a bit longer than we’d hoped. Finding parking in San Francisco is a pretty stressful way to finish up a drive, too. The city has great public transit — if you can get there without a car, do it. Parking is super expensive anywhere you go, and the streets there are pretty hectic. We paid $30 to park overnight, and I swore to myself it would be the last time I ever drove in that city.
I hope your brakes are in good shape.
Once we found parking, it was all uphill from there — quite literally, actually. I’d heard about how hilly the city is, but until I saw it for myself, I never imagined just how steep these roads get. Seriously, don’t drive here. (Walking uphill is good for your butt anyway. Everyone in this town has a great tush.) But I digress — really, aside from the driving and parking, Jess and I both loved San Francisco. Our first stop was the Green Tortoise Hostel, where we were spending the evening.
Before we even checked in, we were in love with the place. A look at the hostel’s bulletin board packed with city info and activities in and out of the hostel told us this was our kind of place. The place was packed with young people from all over the world. The common room is a great place to make new friends and get new travel ideas. At the hostel’s free dinner that evening, we talked with some other travelers who were passing through San Francisco from different directions and swapped stories and ideas for the cities on our various routes. After dinner, the common room becomes party central — once a week they hold the Beer Olympics, other nights there’s live music and dancing, and other nights it’s just a place to chill out and bond w
ith other travelers.
We loved everything about the Green Tortoise Hostel. The rooms were clean and cozy, the bathrooms offered plenty of privacy, and the whole environment was really rad. There’s a recycling bin in every room, and a compost bin in the kitchen — like the name implies, this place really is green. The staff was super friendly and helpful, too. We told the girl at the front desk, “We’re in San Francisco for ONE DAY. What do we do?” She helped us narrow it down and then showed us what public transit to use and how long we could expect everything to take. Thanks to her assistance, we were able to squeeze in lots of sightseeing and souvenir shopping in our way too brief time in the bay area.
Fisherman’s Wharf is just about a 20-minute walk from the hostel, so we spent our afternoon there, among zillions of other tourists. There’s store after store of cheap souvenirs, as well as some finer shopping, dining, and kids’ activities. You could spend all day here, but if you just have an hour or two, be sure to poke your head into Chocolate Heaven. Yum!
Before we left town the next day, we headed to the Castro. It’s a fun neighborhood, and we wish we’d had more time to explore, but we did find a spectacular Indian restaurant — I heartily recommend Bombay Indian to anyone passing through.
We didn’t have time for much else in the city, and we were bummed we were going to have to leave without first seeing the Golden Gate Bridge up close. We wanted more time at the Green Tortoise Hostel, too, and we both decided we’d come back within the year if at all possible. Sad to leave, we did get one final treat on the way out of town. Our gps took us out a different way than we’d come in, and this was our final glimpse of San Francisco:
