San Francisco, Las Vegas - tick 'em off!

Well I've just finished 4 nights in San Francisco and 2 nights in Las Vegas.

San Francisco - A really nice city that feels a lot like Melbourne. When in San Francisco you are supposed to do three things. Ride a cable car, visit Alcatraz and check out the Golden Gate Bridge. Well I only managed one of those. I wandered down to Fishermans Wharf where the boats leave for Alcatraz and found out that the next free space on a tour was in a weeks time at 2.20pm. So no Alcatraz for me. As a replacement, I ended up getting on a cruise for $10 that took us under the Golden Gate Bridge and then AROUND Alcatraz. So I didn't get on the island but at least I saw what it looks like up close. Kind of shabby. A girl in the hostel yesterday told me that going inside is awesome. I choose not to believe that. I reckon it was dingy, cold and probably harbouring bird flu due to the pigeons. :) In short, a health risk! I was wise to avoid the place!
The cable car I didn't do either. The queues to get on one were just ridiculous. So I decided that it was really only a glorified tram except that it goes up hills probably just a bit steeper than going east on a tram on Bourke Street so skipped it. I DID manage to see the Golden Gate Bridge up close when I hired a bicycle and cycled over it. It felt good to get back on a bike after more than 3 months. It was windy up the top and you couldn't see the top of the bridge due to constant cloud but it was well worth it and gave a great view of San Fran. I also walked just about everywhere including some parts of town that felt somewhat dodgy. A tourist with a map and no local knowledge is a danger to himself I reckon.
There were no moonie sightings either. Never even heard of them until today!
I really enjoyed SF but what was a real surprise to me was the homeless situation there. Driving in to the city on the bus we drove through a couple of streets that had heaps of people on them and pretty much everyone was either pushing a shopping trolley with all their possessions in it or wandering around without any real place to go. The bus dropped me about two streets from there at my hostel. I then discovered that it's a fact of life in San Francisco that pretty much wherever you go, there are homeless people everywhere! It's often in the daily newspapers but the last time the mayor did anything about it, he just hired more police which is so obviously a bandaid "fix". It was very disappointing and sad to see really. I did get a laugh at one point when a woman came up to me (one of so many) and jokingly said "Right, all I'm asking for is your credit card, your pin number, and about half an hour." I think that approach was doing quite well for getting her some spare change. I don't know what else to say about it cos I have no answers or anything and there's homelessness everywhere but it was a shock to see it in such public view and in such massive proportions.

Las Vegas - Any city that has the likes of Celine Dion and Barry Manilow singing 5 or 6 nights a week is either pure evil or has a wicked sense of humour. I choose to believe it's the humour option. I really enjoyed Vegas. Neon and bright lights everywhere. The only way I could see so many bright lights in LA is to crawl out of my bottom bunk in my dorm here and smack my head on the iron bar above! I spent most of my short time just walking around looking at what a shipload of money can build. Great water shows, trapeze acts, pyramids, a sphinx, a castle...etc. I ended up spending a while at the Las Vegas Hilton where I found the Star Trek Experience which awakened my inner nerd. It was pretty cool. Out-of-work actors dressed as Klingons and members of the Borg...etc .
I didn't even end up gambling while there. At one point I felt like I should so that I could say I have gambled in Vegas but then decided that i couldn't really give a rats about whether I have or not so just skipped it completely.
And I paid $6.49 for a gelati. Was so suprised when I was told how much it cost that I actually paid it.

Now have one more day in Venice Beach before I catch a plane tomorrow to London where I'll be staying with my brother and his fiance and seeing my parents who are visiting them too. It'll be 4/7ths of Evans family reunion and I'm really looking forward to it.