72 hours means 3 days if you didn’t know that.
If you ever go to San Francisco around winter – specifically the week of Christmas, it’s freezing cold and don’t even bother packing summer clothes.
When we left Sydney, it was cold. Sydney decided to have cooler weather WHEN we left – a few weeks prior it was really hot, and we were really looking forward to colder weather when we arrived in San Francisco.
San Francisco this year (2019) was a very fun trip, even though we didn’t go to as much places as last year… (link to those posts are below):
San Francisco 2018 POSTS
First 24 HOURS
First things first, as always, when you go to another country with different time zones, you are prone to jet lag… and when you’re really jet lagged, it doesn’t matter how much caffeine or sugar you drink, you’ll crash.
I was begging for a coffee from Starbucks, with lots of sugar and cream, expecting it to be the official energy booster to keep me awake the whole day. But, the moment I finished it, I went on the couch to “rest my eyes” and BOOM took a two hour “nap”
Do you ever get that feeling when you wake up from a “nap” and you feel even more tired than you did before? That’s exactly what happened AFTER I drank a full on caffeine drink with a high load of sugar and a nap… so ironic.
But it didn’t really matter anyway, I woke up to the exciting news on what we are going to be eating next – Popeyes! And oh my it was good… just don’t ever make me decide which chicken place is better though – Jollibee or Popeyes, I can never decide.
Yeah we ordered A LOT of chicken and A LOT of sides. But the one thing we didn’t order, which is kind of a surprise since it was basically an international trend at the time – the chicken sandwich… I knew I was forgetting something!
I did end up having the chicken sandwich towards the end of the 72 hours though… and yes it was good, but more on that later.
On the SAME day we arrived, we made an instant agreement and decision to watch a Hockey Game. We immediately said yes because we’ve never been to a hockey game before, and it was a great exciting start to our trip. Also, I was sort of fully energised because of the apparent caffeine and nap that I had.
One problem though – we did not have any of the uniforms of the teams that were playing, so we settled with borrowing other Hockey jerseys of teams that weren’t even playing. We were warned that we may be booed by some people, but hey experience right? I ended up wearing a Vancouver Canucks jersey which was very oversized, but at least it was comfy…
Getting into a Hockey Game was the same as getting into an NBA game – you must have a clear bag, or a bag up to a certain size. I didn’t bother to bring a bag.
We parked far and it took a bit of a walk to get to the stadium, but once we got there it was pretty incredible. There were a lot of people already, it was nice and cold, and we got a pretty good view. And the good relieving part was that no one booed us for wearing the wrong jerseys! I don’t think anybody cared anyway. Watching my first Hockey Game live made me realise that I much more likely to pay close attention to a game when it’s live than on TV… maybe I’ll start watching more Hockey now??
***Yeah no, that didn’t happen. Haven’t watched one since.
Remember how earlier I said that the Coffee Frap that I got from Starbucks DID NOT give me an energy boost but instead did the exact opposite and made me crash for two hours? Well, I had something else that boosted my energy really high, and it lasted for the whole night – it was Deep Fried Oreos…
And yes they tasted amazing, I felt like more but I got full already. I felt more awake and even paid more attention to the game. I’ve had deep fried oreos before but when you still have after effects from an unplanned nap, the aftermath of eating them hits different…
Soon enough, we went back to the game. Since I’m no sports reporter and I’m not really good with explaining every detail with what happened to the game and who screwed up a team’s point, I’m not going to do so. All I am going to say was that it was really fun to watch, and the crowd’s energy was crazy. The only thing that I was afraid of was when they were doing the crowd cam, and were putting the camera on people who were wearing jerseys of the other team. Fortunately, they never put the cam on us, mainly because I was ducking but that doesn’t really matter.
To sum up those first 24 hours in San Francisco in one word it will be TIRED, “FUN” would be a close second, but when I look back at the first day, I really only remember the Hockey Game, how tired I was, and the things that I ate and drank to make me less tired. I ended up sleeping at 3am due to jetlag and also the deep fried oreos. I guess the lesson learnt here is to really figure out what activities you’d do on the first day of a trip knowing that you still have jet lag effects… but that’s different for everybody.
The Second 24 Hours
The second 24 hours of San Francisco were mainly going through some tourist spots, but just taking our time with it. Unlike last year, I didn’t have a huge bucket list of places that I wanted to go to in SF because we already went to pretty much all of them, but I did have a couple of places that I really liked and wanted to go back to. One of them was going back to the Golden Gate Bridge, because as you know – it screams “I am in San Francisco!”
When we went to the Golden Gate Bridge last year, it was during the time when California had just been affected by wildfires, and the air quality was extremely bad. It was really bad that the Golden Gate Bridge wasn’t even golden.
This year, it was much better now, the bridge was what the colour is suppose to be, and the air was breathable (except back in Sydney they were now the ones with the bad air quality after having bushfires). The air was breathable, for a second I was trying to think of a way to bring that back to Sydney, but obviously no.
Also, it was a lot colder and freezing, I was very cold. I survived though which was good.
We didn’t walk across the Golden Gate Bridge (or attempted to) like last year, but that’s just because we were too cold to walk. Although looking back, walking across the bridge would’ve made us warmer…
Also, we ended up in a different photo spot this year than last year. This is only because we got lost and couldn’t find the same photo spot, but it turned out better anyway since the Golden Gate Bridge seemed a bit closer than it was last year…
Straight after, we headed to the NBA game where the Warriors were playing. This was my second time watching a Warriors Game. We headed to the Chase Center, and this time I was actually wearing the right team jersey (well I was wearing a shirt but same thing…)
I learnt my lesson from last year and wore warm clothes this time, and I thanked myself for it because it was so cold. But for some reason when we went inside the center, it was warm… and I was telling my mom and sis that it’s so cold in the center, and they thought I was lying.
We weren’t as close as we were last year, but we were still able to experience the full game – and NO I am not going to review what happened because I’m not good with this stuff. All I can say is that the Warriors won and they smashed the other team out…
Also maybe spot the photobomber in this selfie???
To be honest, it’s so much easier to pay attention in any game when you’re watching it live compared to watching it on TV. I mean watching it on TV is entertaining too, but when you’re watching it live you can actually feel the atmosphere. Like when everyone is angry, you feel it. When everyone is excited, you feel it. When everyone is hungry, you feel it and you happen to go to the food stations when everyone else does…
And like I mentioned before, the Warriors won, and it wasn’t really a surprise anyway. But when they won, the atmosphere of the crowd went through the roof… it was crazy!
Several events later (which I can’t be bothered mentioning because it’s going to make this blog post super long), we got out of the stadium and waited for our rides to pick us up. While we were waiting though, we ran into Jordan Bell, and yeah I didn’t recognise him at first, but I guess he agreed to take a photo with us because we were from Australia (although my accent doesn’t make that believable though).
Last 24 Hours
Okay, to say the truth, going to the Golden Gate Bridge and the NBA game didn’t happen in the same day, whoops. We went to the NBA game first one day, but before that we went to shops and ate a lot of Mexican food. We also tried to go to the Golden Gate Bridge but we got lost and we didn’t have anymore time so we went straight to the NBA game.
The Golden Gate Bridge happened the next day. We went to a little town with cute little shops and restaurants and ate more food.
So yeah, I basically skipped another 24 hours (so this post should’ve been called 96 hours, but 72 hours sounded cooler… don’t sue me for clickbait hehe).
But anyway – our last 72 hours took place 5 days later. This was because we went to Santa Maria and LA in between those five days. So really, our last 24 hours in SF was our last day in the city (and the country as well).
Okay first, just when I was settling into this new time zone, THEN we leave. But at least coffee finally gave its effect.
Then maybe I’ll be a bit bias with how much this other coffee works since it happened the same day – but this place was Philz Coffee, and their mocha was delicious! They even had really good bagels that I ate A LOT of (it was our last day anyway…).
Okay, so in the Black Bear Diner, they had this REALLY GOOD pie, and I’m not even exaggerating on this one – it’s the Coconut Cream Pie! If you’re an iCarly fan you would know why I got so excited for this… and mylanta it was amazing!! However, I had to share with people, but doesn’t matter anyway since it’s probably not a good idea for me to eat it all considering all the coffee I drank..
And soon enough, the rest of the trip was filled up with last minute shopping and eating… and that sums up my 72 hours in San Francisco! (yes I know it’s suppose to be 96, but let me have it).
And just before I wrap up – I did have the chicken sandwich from Popeyes.. THE chicken sandwich that people fought over. THE chicken sandwich that had people punching each other because it got easily sold out. Yes, it is THAT chicken sandwich.
Until next time San Francisco!
