Of Hippies and Beggers, Gays and Lesbians

Friday 14th July Sat 5pm (San Francisco Time)
Here I am at the famous cross junction of Haight Road and Ashbury.

People literally stop here just to take a picture of the signpost. Lisa insisted that i took a photo here, so I did. But she couldn't explain why the landmark was important. It was much later that i read the tour guide and I understood more.

Here's a description from the tour guide.
"Perhaps no other neighbourhood in the city shares as rich a history as the Haight. Only the fabulous architecture remains as evidence of the district's original incarnation as a late ninteenth-century weekend resort where people came to play in the Golden Gate Park or take the steam train to Ocean Beach, and where the wealthy stayed in weekend homes or at the Stanyan Park Hotel. But if the Victorian era gave the neighbourhood its physical design, 1967's Summer of Love provided an idealogy, which over 30 years later, the Haight-Ashbury has yet to live down. Nowadays the young panhandlers (beggers) who jokingly ask 'Spare change for drugs and alcohol?" are mimicking the ethos of the 1960s when many of the shops gave away clothes and food and several restaurants went bust because they let so many peple eat without paying."

The last sentence is funny, isn't it? Too bad, that I didn't take any photos of the Victorian buildings because I didn't know about them until I read the guide (which is after we left this place to go to Castro.)

Here's a picture of some buskers (the people there don't call them buskers, they have no terms for them). Actually the hippies and gipsies, beggers and buskers look pretty much the same. Except that the buskers are playing music or doing something useful while the hippies are just hanging around playing cards or smoking. I didn't take more photos for fear of being bashed up by them. Even though Lisa kept saying that i'm a tourist and it's ok ... at most i give them a penny or 2 right? heh

Ian stopped by People's Cafe for a cup of coffee. I was surprised to see advertisement on the the sleeve of the cup. And of all things, it's advertising McAfee.. Maybe i should bring the idea back and do some advertising for my products..

Graffiti on the walls are allowed.

One of the interesting thing in SF (or is it the whole California or the whole US) I noted that was there will always be a time slot for street cleaning. See the sign below.

6pm
Carlos the Gay Town. Everywhere you go, there's this rainbow flag hanging on lampposts, in or outside shophouses. This is the sign of gay area/acceptance.I learnt from Ian and Lisa that the reason why Gays are accepted in SF / California because people feel that there shouldn’t be any discrimination. Afterall, this is a very cosmopolitan country where people comes from all walks of life. If you want people to accept you for who you are, you'll need to accept others for who they are.

I found it interesting that there's this Anti Aids poster campaign almost everywhere in this Gay Town. Is it an Irony?Gays don't look any different because they don't always hold hands. Yet, if you look around 90% of the time, the men are walking and talking in pairs. Lisa said that even if 2 men talking to each other are not a couple, chances are they are still gay. Hmmm.. Gays are indeed everywhere. There's young ones and old gray/white haired ones. There are casually dressed ones and those dressed in business suits. After a while, Ian and Lisa started holding hands. I haven't seen them held hands since I came.. a subtle indication to the public that they aren't homosexuals? :p

See the fog in the horizon? It's actually not just there, we are already in the fog. It's cold. Maybe 15 degrees? As long as the wind don't blow, it's still manageable.

Caught a glimpse of a passing train. There are all sorts of public transport in the City of San Francisco. I'll try to catch them over the days. =)

8pm

We went HOME for dinner. No no, we didn't travel all the way back to San Carlos. Ian and Lisa had placed a dinner reservation at a restaurant called Home in Castro.

And dinner was interesting. It was sweet! I had pork chop the western style. Grilled like a steak with a bone sticking out. It's sweet because of the raspberry sauce and mashed sweet potatoes that went with the meat. I had macaroni cheese. No, it's not like Kenny Rogers. It's really the good old macaroni that we recognises, and cheese. Didn't managed to take a good photo as the restaurant was dimly lit with candles. Gay Town is a Romantic area huh. =p

9pm

We had wanted to walk around before and after dinner but the strong winds started blowing and it was very cold. Brrrr…. So strong I thought I could almost fly off!! So we just continued the tour around town in the comfort of the car. I missed taking a photo of the Twin Peaks Cafe. The owner of the Twin Peaks Cafe was the founder of Castro. Managed to snap a shot of the famous Castro Theatre from inside the car though.

10pm
Absorbing the scenary of the city night lights while heading back, I begun to feel really tired and started to drift in and out of consciousness.

“Petrine, are you tired?” I’ve already dozed off when Lisa asked that.

I thought I heard Ian whispering to Lisa "I think she's dozed off".

And Lisa replied "Petrine's tired. She has stayed up whole night her time."

11pm
Reached home and decided that I really wanted to go to church tomorrow. But I couldn’t get through to Andrew (a friend and business partner staying in SF).

"Lord, will you bring me to church tommorrow please? I really want to enter Your house and worship with Your people together.. please help me make it come through.. thanks..”

Want to know if I went to church? Check out my blog tomorrow =)