Shopping... and a museum

After a lazy day yesterday (after my bad dream I couldn't face going out and figuring things out in the city) I got up early to walk down Haight St, which is famous for being hippy land during the 60s and also near where the Grateful Dead lived. I missed the tour they have on Tuesdays, so I didn't learn much, but I did go shopping and bought a patchwork skirt, silk pants (Asian style) and a tie up muslin cardigan. All kind of hippy-ish and perfect for traveling through Central America in! I also walked up a hill and got some great views of the city. Worth every puff and sore legs (just because of my general lack of fitness).

I also walked through Golden Gate Park to the de Young Museum. I think I was offered drugs twice and an old homeless man might be in love with me (for no reason I can understand, maybe he'd bought some happy drugs). It's also where I think San Francisco's homeless people go to hang out. Here they carry all their worldly possession in shopping trolleys, which you see full of clothes (and not really much else). It was funny because the trolleys were all parked down the hill (like a parking lot) and the homeless people were hanging out on the grass, drinking, talking, doing whatever. And now I feel like I know what homeless people do during their days.

The de Young museum had a really beautiful glass exhibit by an artist named Chihuly. I'll have to put up some pictures that I took (and normally I don't take photos of art that I see in museums) because it was incredible. Maybe just google it. The rest of the exhibitions were a bit underwhelming (should have seen them first!) but this was very cool. Then I went next door to the Japanese tea gardens for a nice walk around and some tea and cookies. If you ever go to San Francisco I don't recommend the tea garden except as a place to have a rest, but note that it costs $4 to get in, and another $5 for your tea and cookies, so you could go somewhere else for a break.

And tonight I went shopping with Carmen and we both bought a bit of stuff (I got two dresses, a pair of shoes and some shorts). It's been a spend-y day for me so I'm going to go easy on the shopping for awhile. I don't want my money to run out before I get to New York!

Now, mostly we've been eating at home because it's cheaper and more homely I guess, but last night Carmen and I went to the Mission (a kind of Latino neighbourhood in San Francisco - it's a slightly poorer area I guess, but it has a lot of bars and clubs and restaurants so it's a fun place to go) to eat at Andalu, a tapas style Mexican/Spanish/Asian style restaurant, which I recommend to everyone who comes here. The service was not great (just kind of slow and the front of house was a bit dopey - not rude or anything, just slow) but the food was incredible. So delicious! We had these "ahi tacos" (fish - tuna I think? - tacos) that were so more-ish and we got a cheese fondue which was divine and went perfectly with the toast and bread. And dessert was donut holes that you dipped in little cups of thick, dark hot chocolate with cream on top. It also has an extensive wine and cocktail list. I can only vouch for the sangria (yum) and according to Carmen they make good faux-hitos (virgin mojito). I will be posting photos of these when I get around to it, because it was so, so good.