Between Homelessness and Beauty

San Francisco was the first American city I visited in my life, I was there for about 2 weeks. It's so different to the cities I have already been to, and very impressive. Of course, like every city, there are some pros and cons.

General overview

I like the idea of dividing a city in blocks. One block is about 500x500 meters. As San Francisco has a population of about 900. 000 people, you can imagine that there are a lot of blocks and the possibility to walk around them. Each day, my cousin and I walked many kilometres. In every block there are supermarkets or small shops where you can get food or other things you might need.

But the big issue in San Francisco is homelessness. In Las Vegas or Los Angeles there aren't so many homeless people like there are in San Francisco. The problem is that they sometimes stink, are on drugs or even very drunk. So they behave weirdly while they ask you for money. One day for example, we went to a coffee shop to get some breakfast, and one homeless woman went in and tried to steal the tip jar, while shouting and spitting on the ground, it was really uncomfortable.

I don't want to sound like somebody who is looking down on people, I actually feel a lot of pity. And, coming from Germany, where the state is always helping and giving money to unemployed people who can't find a job, when I saw the situation in the USA and San Francisco, I couldn't believe it. The state doesn't care at all about those poor people. But, to be honest, the problem is so big that I didn't feel very comfortable in this town. Maybe you need to get used to it.

Places of interest

Of course, number one to see in San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge.

Really cool place. But actually, it was tough for us to get to the point where we were in the first photo. We walked over the bridge, from the other side you couldn't see how to get up the hill. We were walking around for about one hour, but finally we found a way and then we went up. It was worth the effort because the sight was amazing.

On the bridge, there are five lanes. They manage to switch the lanes in the afternoon to one lane for going into the town and four lanes for leaving San Francisco (in the morning conversely). How they do it? With this car. He's "sucking in" the border between the lanes and switches them. It was really interesting to watch:

What really is cool are cable cars. They look old school, and for $7 you can buy a ticket to drive one.

I actually also liked the fire trucks. Reminds me a little bit of "Grand Theft Auto".

There is also one place from "Grand Theft Auto" with streets between the some houses which are going up a hill.

Some weird stuff

In the United States you can see plenty of huge cars. We always thought that they are absolutely unnecessary while living in a town. You would drive those big cars on a farm or in the desert, but well.. Some Americans may need to compensate something?

What I didn't understand is the content of this picture. If you have happy hour all day, why is there A happy hour still?

What's quite funny is this picture: A sign that says "Please do not feed the birds. Thank you. " And in front of that sign there are some birds eating the bread that people threw away. Actually the people often only eat the crab soup and throw away that bread... A total waste of food, but well, now I have a funny memory.

All in all, it was a really nice experience. San Francisco is a big city with a lot to see. Even though there are a lot of homeless people, I would really recommend visiting SF for at least some days!