Lewis discovers San Francisco street life

Map of California

Lewis the Lion arrived late into San Francisco and was lucky just to make the local train, the BART into the city centre. He had to nudge Helen at one point because she had started to drift off to sleep and they nearly missed their stop! Travelling could be tiring business, that’s for sure and especially when you’re passing through time-zones as Lewis the Lion explained in his last blog.

Lewis the Lion sits on a giant heart of San Francisco Bay

So, Lewis the Lion had headed to San Francisco as he had heard so much about it. It has the most famous bridge in the world, the Golden Gate Bridge, has an iconic former island prison, Alcatraz and has unique cable-cars running along the steep, city streets.

Many of San Francisco’s streets are very steep

So, happily one day, he thought he’d like to go and explore what this city had to offer, along with Helen and two French friends: Karim who he had met on Easter Island and Jeannette who he shared a dormitory with in his hostel.

Helen with her friends Jeannette and Karim

A bus in San Francisco cost $2 for a one and a half hour journey within the system so if you were quick, you could use it as a return ticket home! Lewis the Lion was also happy to see that on the bus was one of his magic words – thank you – in some of the main languages spoken in San Francisco: English, Spanish and Chinese.

Lewis the Lion sees one of his ‘magic words’ on the bus in a few languages!

Buses weren’t the only form of public transport in San Francisco: Lewis discovered that there is a very famous, iconic cable-car line or street trams that run up and down the hilly city of San Francisco. These days they are mainly used by the tourists but are undoubtedly a great way to get around the steep city of San Francisco. (Lewis will write more about the cable cars in one of his next blogs).

Lewis the Lion loves the old-fashioned cable cars

He discovered that like many American cities, San Francisco was designed mainly on a grid system. There was however one exception that he discovered called Lombard Street which was a real zig-zag affair as you can see in these photos!

Cars zig-zag down the famous wiggly Lombard Street

Lewis the Lion was lucky that his friend, Bret, drove him down it one day. It was much shorter than he thought but it seemed to draw the tourists nonetheless, all trying to click that perfect photograph of this wiggly road!

Lewis the Lion at the bottom of the wiggly Lombard Street

What surprised Lewis the Lion the most about San Francisco was the weather. He had expected it to be lovely and hot arriving there in mid-August but he was disappointed. Depending on where you are in the city, affects the weather. In fact San Francisco has it’s own micro-climate and the weather can change very quickly because of its bay and so one moment it may be hot and sunny in one part of the city and in another, cold and foggy. Helen even had to lend a cardigan to one of her room-mates who had likewise been caught off guard by how cold it was! However, Lewis the Lion also learnt that it never gets too cold in San Francisco: it has a temperate climate all year around. This is why San Francisco unfortunately has a particular problem of homelessness which Lewis the Lion will talk about a little later on.

The friends’ alighted the bus in Down Town San Francisco, in the central area known as Union Square.

Lewis the Lion in Union Square

On the friends’ walk through Down Town San Francisco, they came across a giant, silver statue of David Beckham in Union Square. Lewis the Lion smiled to himself that one of his British footballing heroes had his own statue here!

Lewis the Lion and a giant, silver statue of David Beckham

Union Square seemed to be a central meeting point in the City and it was surrounded by high-end fashion shops. It definitely seemed like an elegant part of town.

Lewis the Lion and the posh shops in Union Square

Next the friends walked up through China Town. This was perhaps the biggest, most beautiful China Town that Lewis the Lion had ever visited in his life and he loved to soak in the atmosphere as padded along. Before he got there though, he got his first glimpse of the San Franciscan cable cars: Click here to see it go by.

Lewis the Lion wanders into San Francisco’s China Town

Like in many other China Towns that he had seen around the world, this one had a special entrance on the street with stone lions guarding the way.

Lewis the Lion sits on top of a Chinese Lion!

Some of the many shops that lined the street sold furniture, statues and ornaments. Lewis the Lion particularly liked the bronze statues outside the shops of children reading. He thinks that it is so important for children to read and to read lots!

Lewis the Lion loves the statue of children sharing a book

As he continued to wander along, he noticed a statue of a girl reading on her own.

Lewis sees another statue with a girl reading

He was intrigued to see if the sculptor had printed anything in the book? So, he peered over her shoulder to get a better look…

Lewis the Lion peers over the girl’s shoulder to see what she is reading

Lewis the Lion couldn’t believe it when he took a closer look. The girl was actually reading a story about a lion too! What a coincidence!

Lewis the Lion sees that she’s reading about a lion!

Beside the reading, there was also music flooding the air. Lewis the Lion stopped to listen and then talked to the musician himself.

Lewis the Lion listens to a Chinese violin player

It was a Chinese gentleman playing a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. It certainly added to the atmosphere of the place as well as all the Chinese lanterns strung up across the streets.

Lewis the Lion loves the Chinese lanterns in China Town

The smells oozing from the restaurants were mouth-watering and another day, Lewis the Lion would try some delicious dim sums but for today, he and his friends headed into a Chinese bakery for a quick, cheeky snack! This came in the form of a chocolate covered fortune cookie. Lewis the Lion always liked to see what the paper inside read, a bit like pulling a Christmas cracker with his friends. He thought this time, it was perhaps quite appropriate! What do you think?

Lewis the Lion agrees with the message in the Fortune Cookie!

Further up the road still, Karim had fun creating his very own San Francisco souvenir coin.

Karim turns the cent machine to produce a special coin

He had to enter a cent coin and a dollar, turn the handle which then pressed his cent coin into a special memorable coin. How clever!

A specially minted San Franciscan cent

The coin had the image of one of San Francisco’s famous bridges, The Golden Gate Bridge, which Lewis the Lion would see later on that day but for now, he was drawing nearer to one of San Francisco’s other famous bridges: The Bay Bridge.

Lewis the Lion sees San Francisco’s other famous bridge: the Bay Bridge

Part of this bridge had collapsed during a huge earthquake that struck San Francisco in 1989. San Francisco sits on the San Andreas Fault Line and so is prone to earthquakes. Consequently, its buildings are built very sturdily to be earthquake proof. Lewis the Lion was just grateful that one didn’t decide to hit whilst he was visiting, that’s for sure!

Before he reached the Bay Bridge, he clocked a lot of the typical American street furniture, such as water-hydrants,

Lewis the Lion sees a water hydrant

newspaper stands,

Newspapers are sold from boxes: you put the money in and help yourself!

post-boxes (Or mail boxes as they call them in America! Check out Lewis the Lion’s American English page to find out more!)

Lewis the Lion sees an American post-box

and pedestrian crossings,

Pedestrian crossings tell you how many seconds you’ve got left to cross. You can even see a tsunami warning sign in this photo!

all of which are different to those found in Britain.

How are they different?

Apart from noticing the differences between America and the UK such as the different districts of San Francisco, the number of skyscrapers or the houses that looked like dolls’ houses, Lewis the Lion just loved the atmosphere of this city. As it was a weekend, there were different markets, including this locally-farmed, organic fruit and veg market.

Lewis at the organic fruit and veg market

He was aware that the many people in California were very health conscious and they were prepared to pay a lot of money for it. However, Lewis the Lion liked the free stuff in life like strolling along by the Embarcadero on this sunny afternoon with his friends. He enjoyed the vibrancy of the San Francisco street-life, such as this percussionist raising money for charity.

Lewis is entertained by the street percussionist

Click here to hear and see what Lewis the Lion saw in this short video.

As he enjoyed a leisurely walk along by the harbour to see the different piers and wharfs, he happily absorbed the atmosphere around him.

Palm trees line the street by the harbour

The blue skies and palm-tree lined streets always brought a grin to Lewis the Lion’s lips for starters, not to mention the various street entertainers, from jugglers and buskers

A juggler entertains the passers-by

to eccentric people dressed like weird statues as you can see in this photo.

One of the many street entertainers by Fisherman’s Wharf

Naturally looking out onto San Francisco Bay itself, Lewis the Lion admired the bridges,

Rocket power by the Bay Bridge!

yachts and boats,

Boats and yachts fill the harbour

and could see a strange looking island in the middle of San Francisco Bay that looked like it had a fortress on it.

Lewis the Lion sees the island of Alcatraz

Lewis the Lion discovered that that island, Alcatraz, was notorious as it used to be an island prison housing America’s most dangerous criminals. He will tell you more about it in one of his next blogs.

A little further on still, Lewis the Lion arrived at a very famous wharf which has a reputation for fabulous seafood: Fisherman’s Wharf. Look out for one of his next stories on the delicious American food that he found there!

Lewis the Lion at Fisherman’s Wharf

It wasn’t just at Fisherman’s Wharf where Lewis the Lion found that he was in for a treat because just a little further along, he arrived at a place called Ghiradelli Square: a place renowned for its fabulous ice-cream. Even if Lewis the Lion was feeling a little full after all of the San Franciscan delights he had tried during the day, luckily he still had space for a little bit for ice-cream for he knew that that was always a wise move!

Lewis the Lion at the famous Ghiradelli ice-cream parlour

It certainly had been the most fantastic day of sight seeing around San Francisco but Lewis the Lion hadn’t quite finished yet. He hopped on a couple of buses thinking he was going to the Golden Gate Park but low and behold, by mistake he’d ended up going via the most iconic bridge in the world: the Golden Gate Bridge and further more, it was bathed in sunshine. What a lucky lion!

Lewis the Lion sees the iconic Golden Gate Bridge for the first time

For now, he contented himself knowing that this wouldn’t be the last time that he saw this impressive bridge as he knew that Helen wanted to “Bike the Bridge” along with some of her friends. Again, Lewis the Lion will tell you more about it in one of his following blogs.

To finish the evening off, Lewis the Lion, along with Helen and Jeanette visited the hippy district of Haight-Ashbury near the Golden Gate Park. It was famous during the late 60s and he felt that he just had to visit this part of town as all day long the classic Scott McKenzie song had been whirring around his head: “If you are going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.” Click here to hear it on You Tube. Indeed this district certainly had a bohemian-arty feel to it, with retro-clothes shops and colourful murals displayed on the buildings.

There are many murals in the Haight-Ashbury district

He was especially happy to find a mural there that had a lion on it outside a children’s centre, as you can see in this photo.

Lewis the Lion is happy to see a Lion mural outside a children’ club

Like the feeling that Lewis the Lion had had when he visited Mexico City, he simply loved the feel of San Francisco too. It seemed to have it all: modern and classic buildings and a dynamic yet relaxed feel to the city. Here are some other photos of buildings that Lewis the Lion liked around San Francisco. He thought the City Hall looked a little bit like the Capitol Building in Washington DC.

San Francisco’s City Hall

Lewis the Lion near the City Hall

Lewis the Lion sees the Coit Tower in the distance: another famous San Francisco landmark

However, there was one thing in San Francisco that didn’t make Lewis the Lion feel all that comfortable and that was the number of homeless people that he saw on the streets. It saddened him to think of anybody living on the streets. Even though this is a worldwide problem and Lewis the Lion knows that there are unfortunately people that are homeless in the UK too, here in America the difference between the rich and the poor seemed to be all too evident and especially in California. Somebody told him that more homeless people come to California as the weather is generally temperate all year and so they have more of a chance of surviving the wintertime when living on the streets.

Lewis the Lion notices lots of homeless people

He saw many homeless people pushing trolleys around or holding out paper cups and begging for a spare quarter or dollar. Some of the people obviously weren’t very well, shouting out and talking to themselves, often in a filthy conditions. Many were seen rooting around in rubbish bins. Lewis the Lion discovered that there is not universal healthcare for people in America. In other words, you have to pay for your healthcare and some people just can’t afford it. He felt very upset to think that was the case and dreamed a big dream that one day the whole world would be eradicated of poverty and that everybody would have the shelter and healthcare that they needed.

What big idea or dream have you got to help the poor and homeless people in the world?

How could you make that dream a reality?

Discuss this with your friends or teacher.