Day 109 San Francisco, USA

Sunday 25th September 2005

29.9.05 20 °C

BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today we were catching the boat over to Alcatraz but before that we walked through Chinatown which even though it was a sunday it was packed full of people and all the shops were open.The sites in some of the shops was quite disgusting though with things like dried up fish that looked like they had been sitting there in the sun for weeks on end and other meats i dread to think what they were (possibly cat or dog i imagine).
Next was over to Washington Square to take some photos of the St Peter & Paul Cathedral and also some houses that are the most photographed buildings in California.Coit Tower was next although we didnt actually go to the top we still got some good view of San Francisco from here and also could see our next destination of the day Alcatraz.
We caught the ferry at 2.15pm and spent the next 3 hours walking around Alcatraz.It was very interesting and especially with the audio tour which gave us a good insight into what life was like here and things that had gone on here like the people who had escaped and the famous convicts like Al Capone and Robert Stroud (the birdman of Alcatraz).
The prison now is in serious decay and most of this is due to the Indians that took over the island in 1969.Alot of buildings had to be destroyed because of them and the grounds outside the prison are mostly shut off to the public to.
We caught the ferry back at 5.20pm and instead of walking up and down the steep roads back to the hostel we eventually caught one of the trams back after waiting in a queue for over 45 minutes for one.

Reece's Ph..041 (2).jpg
Chinatown