San Francisco - Third Day

I decided to explore the Golden Gate Bridge on my own that day. It wasn't that easy to find the right "bus stop" in SF. I walked around for almost half an hour using google map on my iphone but then decided to go back to hotel and ask the staff. One staff told me to walk to geary st and take number 38 express. Then change bus at park presidio to number 28. 

I was able to get to geary st easily since i have been walking a lot these past 2 days around union square. I got in to bus No. 38, and took out my 2 dollars bill for the fare. However, the machine wasn't working, so, the driver just asked me to sit down. In US, a single trip bus fare will allow us to travel for 2 hours, meaning that after we paid 2 bucks, the bus driver will issue us a transfer slip so that we can use it to travel or transfer to another bus within the time frame. I paid and got my transfer slip when I hopped on bus number 28. When I saw the slip, it allowed me to travel until 4 pm. Not sure why, it was for 4 hours, instead of 2 hours for that day. 

Anyway, Yeayyy... 
Here are some pictures that I took from Golden Gate Vista point. 

The sky was clear. It's just beautiful. I am glad that i made a trip there. Eventhough I was on my own, I met a lot of nice people who always offer to take a picture of me. I remember one lady from switzerland, after knowing that I am indonesian, she started saying "apa kabar", which means how are you. She worked in yogyakarta before. Haha...

I spent 30-45 minutes there taking picture. Then I took bus back. Thinking that the bus number 28 will bring me back to the same place. But , i think i was wrong. Luckily, i have google map on my phone. I stopped at Lombard street. I then took bus number 30. Then on my way, i see the street name "north point", that street name seems familiar, then i checked if the bus will bring me to pier 39. Yes, "north point" reminded me about pier 39. Coincidentally, it will stop at one stop which is quite close to pier 39 (about 10-15 mins walk). Yeayyyy, i should make my trip worth. I stopped and then walked to pier 39. Of course with the help of google map in hand. 

On my way to pier 39, i passed by fisherman wharft. I covered almost all places that I want to go that day.

It was 2 plus in the afternoon when I reached pier 39, and this was what I saw. Yes, Ben and Jerry! I know I definitely have to get one. I was super hungry at that time. 

My next stop was Pier Market Seafood restaurant. Clam chowder soup in sourdough bowl bread is a must try when you are at Pier 39. It's very filling. I like the soup, but I didn't finish the bread though. 

I walked around pier 39 then decided to go back to hotel. It was 3:50 pm when I saw a bus that I planned to take passed by. I missed it! The next bus came at 4:05 pm, and my bus ticket expired at 4 pm, so, eventually I paid another 2 bucks for that single trip. I spent a total of 4 dollars for my transport on that day. If I compared to the fare that I was planning to pay (USD34.99) for the one day trip of hop-on hop-off bus fare, I saved about 30 bucks. Haha...

On the way back, I stopped by 7-eleven to pick up stuff that I have bought online from amazon. It's very interesting and convenient that they have few amazon lockers around, so that when we travel, we can actually ship the item to the locker, and they will send us a password to open up the locker.     

I rushed back to my hotel, and took a rest for a bit, then got ready for a dinner meeting with my ex boss. She was my academic professor during my graduate school in Iowa. It was really nice catching up with her. After dinner, we went to a reception held by Iowa state University. I met few professors and a lot of old friends there. I haven't seen them for more than 4 years since I graduated.  

Multinational (left to right): American, Taiwanese, Korean, Indonesian, Srilankan.

Turmeric Fried Chicken - Ayam Goreng Kuning

A Ingredients:

4 cloves of shallot

3 cloves of garlic

4 cm turmeric 

1 cm ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

B Ingredients:

3 slices of lime leaves

2 slices of daun salam (Bay leaves)

500 ml water

2 pieces of chicken thigh 

2 pieces of chicken wing

Procedure:

1. Blend "A ingredients" using an electric blender. You may add one tablespoon of water to make it easier to blend.

2. Stir fry the blended ingredient, then put in the chicken, add water until it's enough to cover the chicken. Boil the chicken. I didn't boil it for long enough, and ended up that the taste didn't go in to the chicken. I will try again. 

3. Heat up oil, then fry the chicken. 

San Francisco - Second Day

My meeting wouldn't start until 3 pm on that day. So, I decided to walk around and explore San Francisco eventhough I have been there in 2006 for the same conference. I started my morning with a cup of soy hot chocolate. My stomach has difficulty to digest lactose in milk, so, soy milk would be safer for me. Do you see the size of their donuts? Probably, it's hard to judge from the picture, but, It's huge. Of course I would not eat such high sugar food to ruin my healthy diet.

I thought of taking a public transport to Chinatown. While I was struggling to find out whether any bus will go to chinatown from union square, a lady came to me, and told me that I should walk further down for a bus to chinatown. After telling me the way, she asked for money. I should have probably given her a dollar, but I didn't. I was being very careful since I was travelling alone at such a big city where a lot of homeless people are around. I said sorry, and then walked away.

Then, I checked my google map. It seemed that chinatown is just about 15 minutes walking distance from union square. I decided to walk then.    

If I am not mistaken I only bought fortune cookies there. I remember that my dad likes it. In the states, if we go to any chinese restaurant, they will always give fortune cookies at the end of our meal. Somehow, we can only find this chinese culture in the US. Haha...    

From chinatown, I walked back to union square and walked around Westfield mall. There is a ghirardelli cafe. They serve coffee, hot chocolate, and ice cream. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to try their ice cream. But, of course I won't miss their hot chocolate. It was delicious!

In the afternoon, I was at the meeting, looking at poster presentations held on that day, and I met one of my ex colleagues/ex classmates from Iowa State University. We still recognize each other. She is a Srilankan girl, called Umai, and she looks great with her long hair. She said I looked younger now, hahaha, what a nice compliment. Or I guess it's because of the pressure that all graduate students may have, therefore we looked more stressful at that time.

I was planning to visit pier 39 in the evening after my meeting. But, it was really a coincident that I met a good friend (also used to be my colleague at ISU). I never expect that I could see here there. She is a taiwanese girl (Janine) who is now working at Germany. We hardly contact each other after I graduated. Then, she told me that she is meeting another friend of us, Manuela. We ended up having a Japanese food nearby. 

It's a "surprise day" for me!

San Francisco - First Day

I arrived at SF airport at 11:45 am, earlier than the scheduled time. Queue was pretty long at the immigration. I think it took me about 1.5 -2 hours to get out from the airport.

I decided to get a sim card from the airport. It costs me 69 USD plus tax for an 8 day lycamobile. It's good for 3G and 500 minutes local call. 

Then I proceeded to level 3 for shared van trip to my hotel. I reserved a super shuttle, which costs 16 usd pertrip. 

Arrived at Parc 55 hotel at union square around 2 plus. The checked in procedure went really well. I met a nice receptionist who offered me a big corner room after having a short conversation. Her friendliness reminded me about life and culture in the states. Their service is unquestionable, and I simply respect their straight forward culture. 

In the room, I saw a note saying that day-light saving will be over the next day, meaning that on sunday of Nov 3rd, we will have 25 hours. What a lucky day for me, after such a long flight, I have one more hour to rest. Haha...

After did some stretching exercise, I took a nice shower, then went to the conference venue to get my meeting pass @ Hilton hotel where is located just less than 5 minutes walk from Parc 55. Then, I walked around the SF downtown. 

I had a cup of godiva hot dark chocolate. The price is not cheap (USD5), but, it was really good.  

P.S. Please stay tune for my next post!