Saturday, free time

We had the whole day off! I got up at 10, which felt really great after all those days getting up between 6 and 7. Roeland, Manu, Sten, Danielle and I went to grab some breakfast at the All Star Café, just around the corner of our hostel. I ordered ‘the stack house’ which consisted of scrambled eggs with bacon and pancakes. Talking of pancakes: apparently, the things we call pannenkoeken in Dutch are called crepes in English; and the things we call American pancakes are called pancakes in English.

The next thing we had planned was to go to Twin Peaks. These are two neighboring hills in the geographic center of San Francisco where one would have an amazing view over the city, we had heard. But on the way we came by Amoeba Music, a well known record store, and we had a look inside. First I had a look at the classical music, but all the while nice songs were played in the store and I had already Shazam-ed like 3 songs in a row (but with no internet connection, so I got no results yet) till I decided that I really needed to know what artists and what album this was. So I went to the guy at the desk and he showed me the CD. It was Thievery Corporation – The Temple of I and I. Then I reckoned, why not buy it? So I did.

After the record store the group split up. Danielle, Sten and Manu did not feel like traveling all the way to Twin Peaks and so they went to Golden Gate Park. Roeland and I did go to Twin Peaks. After the beautiful view from up there we decided to walk back to Golden Gate Park and meet up with the other guys. At some point though, we were walking through Ashbury street, and found out that this neighborhood was actually the place where the Hippie culture has had its origin and where famous artists like Jimmy Hendrix, Janet Jackson and the Grateful Dead had lived. We went in some guitar shop and fiddled around for a bit with some guitars. Then it was time to have dinner.

We had diner with the whole group at Pork Store Cafe. I ordered a salad, which was a welcome variation on all the fast food here in America. After diner, Manu, Roeland and I grabbed some beers in the neighborhood, where some skater guy asked us if we wanted to buy his weed. We said no, of course, as it is still illegal in California to buy weed for recreational (non-medical) purposes, but he looked like a nice guy and we started a fun conversation. He told us the legal status of Marihuana. Apparently one cannot buy or sell weed, but one is allowed to give it as a gift. And it is also allowed to smoke it. So the situation is almost as weird as in the Netherlands. As of 2018 the use and trade of Marihuana will be totally legal in California.

At last, as a dedication to all the homeless people in San Francisco (and there are a lot of those), we bought some beer of the brand `Hobo Beer’ and we went back to the Hostel.

Sjors