SAN FRANCISCO

A BUS TO SAN FRANCISCO

After the conference, I had two days free time at Los Angeles, before heading to Grand Canyon. I did not have specific plans at Los Angeles, other than visiting Premier studio. I remembered that one of my cousin Prashanth, who was living somewhere in California had not picked up my cell and just called him.

This time he picked up and was surprised to learn that I was at Los Angeles. He asked me to visit him a day, as he was just 700 miles away from Los Angeles. After weighing options and consulting my other cousin Devi Prasad, I decided to visit him during these two days.

Though both of them suggested that I could take a two-hour flight to San Francisco, I decided to take a night bus. One thing, I wanted to have a feel of road journey and another was that I could save a lot of time during night journeys.

Devi Prasad booked tickets in Grey Hound bus services and Prashanth said that he would pick me up from the bus stop. When I reached Grey Hound station, it looked somewhat like a mini airport. There was online ticket counter, where I got my boarding pass after submitting ticket copy. There was security check and I was asked to wait near Gate 6.

When the gate opened, no one was in hurry. There were two people loading the luggage to the bus boot. It was a ten-wheeler bus and looked sturdy.

The driver was a lady and as she took to the steering, she announced that there would be one stop at 3.15 am and next stop would be at Oakland at 6.25 am. She did not miss even a minute on both the timings. The journey was simply great.

It took just 10 minutes for my cousin to pick me up. He had arranged a conducted tour around San Francisco and I had to reach the pick up point before 7.30 am. I decided to dump my luggage in his vehicle and carry on with the conducted tour.

Over a decade, Prashanth and I had not met each other. On the way, he explained me that San Francisco was on banks of bay and there were at least five hanging bridges across the three cities. It took over 40 minutes for us to reach the pick up point.

Our first visit was to Muir Woods – 12 miles from famous Golden Gate Bridge. On the way, the bus driver gave a brief introduction to San Francisco and its history. In 1846, San Francisco had a population of only around 600 and by 1850 there were 30,000 people. Thanks to the gold rush of those ages, where people from East coast had found a way into the West coast through the bay.

As we passed through the Van Ness Avenue, the driver said that the entire area was destroyed during 1906 earthquake. The rows of Victorian mansions had caught fire after the gas line burst. The military had dynamited the buildings to create a fire line. Entire area, known as Marnia district has been re-built with Victorian mansions. It was the same area, which was worst affected during 1989 earthquake, which measured 7.1 on Rector Scale. ``Though only Marina district was affected, the media made it look like entire city was burning,’’ the driver said.

As we proceeded, I realized that the fire brigade personnel are local heroes. Apart from regular earthquakes, San Francisco is also famous for summer forest fires. The fire force personnel take all measures and come out with innovative ways to counter the annual threat. They are much respected than the police personnel and looked upon as saviors.

As we approached Muir woods, I felt the weather was colder than in San Francisco. Muir is a remnant of ancient coast redwood forests that blanketed many northern California coastal valleys before 1800. However, the entire forest was denuded for wood. In a bid to conserve these redwood forests, a conservationist John Muir persuaded wealthy businessman William Kent to visit the area. In 1905, Kent purchased 295 acres of land and donated it to the government. In 1908, it was declared as national monument and is now part of Golden Gate National Park.

It is a different experience to walk through the redwood forests. A stream flows through the reserve and temperature is low. One cannot see the sky through the trees and while traveling in other parts of the city; one can imagine the extent of destruction caused during 1800s.

Back on the way to the city, the driver never stopped explaining about the city. Besides being beautiful, San Francisco is an interesting city. The five hanging bridges are architectural marvels and designed to withstand strong earthquakes. They swing up and down as well as sideways during earthquakes.

The city had been witness to many movements, including great hippy movement in the world. During Gay movement, there were 500,000 gays took procession in the city. Even today, Gay movement is alive here. When I visited San Francisco, Halloween day was approaching and each house was being decked up for the occasion. Earlier, Halloween used to be great event and the city administration used to close Castro Street for Halloween party, which used to be over 24 hours. However, couple of years ago, some miscreants created problem during party and the local administration banned celebration. Interestingly, last single screen theater in San Francisco is located on the same Castro Street.

The driver cum guide had a great sense of humor and used to explain everything with his own anecdotes. He never liked some people renovating Victorian mansions with modern stones. ``Some people think that beauty can be bought through money and make it ugly,’’ he said.

One of the first buildings to collapse during 1906 earthquake was Mayor’s office. ``It seems, there was a lot of graft and kickbacks, when they built that office and it collapsed. Unbelievable that they built their own office like that,’’ he smiles. It was re-built in 1915 and the present Mayor office is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. It is built with marble and granite and has 23 carrot gold leaves around it, symbolizing gold rush years.

 While passing through `crooked street’, which has seven steep curves, the driver said ``I don’t know why they call it so. I know only one crooked street in the world and that is in New York. It is called Dalal street.’’

 Towards the evening, I decided to spend time at Fisherman’s Wharf. Wharf is a small harbor and unlike the wharfs I have seen in India, these are made livable for even common people. They are clean and have many activities around the wharf. Boudin is a famous bakery of San Francisco, which is in wharf. Breads in different shapes and sizes were displayed in the bakery. A lovely place to spend an evening or two, where I sat on the pavement, munching shrimps I bought from nearby eateries.

San Francisco is the only city where road is shared by electric buses as well as infamous cable cars. Cable car has been main attraction in the city, which is virtually built on mountains. Though the regular traffic (mostly cars) share the same road, I did not see any traffic snarl. In other parts of the city like Brad Street, I could see regular buses near Metro station. Despite of multiple public transport system in the city, no one can afford to miss a ride in the cable car.

Cable car was introduced in San Francisco way back in 1873. The horse drawn carriages faltered and rolled back downhill, dragging even horses. Till 1906 earthquake, cable cars were primary mode of transport for the city. The earthquake destroyed most part of the cable car system, sprawling around 52 miles. The municipal administration managed to restore some of the routes.

San Francisco will be incomplete without mentioning Golden Gate Park, which is largest in the city. His name was John McLean, a gardener who decided to develop the park in the desert. He lived for 90 years and looked after the park like his own.

An interesting story about McLean is that he did not like statues inside the park. Whenever politicians erected a statue inside the park, he just went and planted some shrubs around it. Over a period of time, the statues would be covered with these shrubs. Many such statues were discovered after his death.

The city has a lot more interesting things, but hard to cover it in a day.