To be honest with you: I feel like death. What do they say? There are always consequences when you play too hard? Or maybe I just made that up
.
I am so incredibly jet lagged and honestly don’t understand how all these party people do it. Or the models. I turned down several modelling gigs only because I hate the jet lag. Kidding (obviously!)
So I owe you a San Francisco and New York recap. I’m so sorry I never wrote that that I promised the day before yesterday but travelling was quite insane. Our flight back home got delayed because of “technical issues” (very reassuring, I know) and the plane had to be brought to the mechanic (!). In the end we took off 3,5h later than planned and I was so glad that it flew at all.
In the end I got back home to my little apartment at 2pm yesterday afternoon and found it with Lindt chocolate balls and other treats all over the place. I love my guy! (Thank god there were no roses at the airport! – I’m all for chocolate!!
). Ok, I’ll end the gushing now.
Let’s start with San Francisco.
(Man, that seems like ages ago. Time flies!)
Driving into the city is – plainly said – a HUGE pain in the ass. Please excuse my language but you’ll understand my feelings when you drive through the city.
Once we got there we were informed that the office of the rental car company was already closed and that we could drive the car to the airport’s office. No, thank you (it was 7pm and we were tired). We ended up spending 29 bucks on an overnight parking place. Nice.
We had plans to stay at the hostel and cook something there but after all those troubles (we also drove to an other office but without any luck) we just needed two things: beer and Thai food.
On the next day we started exploring the city. One question:
Where are the hippies?
I know, I’m such a tourist but I thought that things were a bit more flower power-y. I wasn’t disappointed though, guess every city moves on with time
We walked to the piers (those hills!!) and made a quick stop at Trader Joe’s before heading to Pier 39, aka tourist magnet. We had to go and do something touristy though!
Look, it’s Alcatraz!
We dropped off our stuff at the hostel, walked around a bit more and then made our way to a very special dinner meeting. We thought that we still had time to have a drink beforehand but it turned out that the Mission street was a bit further away than we thought
.
When we got there I realized that I didn’t write down the house number. And, I guess you all know how long these streets tend to get.
I started to freak out a bit. It was 5:45pm and we planned to meet up at 6pm. Where is Gracias Madre? By 6pm I was power walking like a mad woman. My poor friend Simone! Anyway, I asked some random dude where the restaurant was and I was nearly crying and hyperventilating and he pulled out his smart phone and told me the correct number. 8 blocks down? Ok.. we walked by the restaurant before and didn’t even notice the sign! (It turned out to be tiny – no wonder why we didn’t see it!)
When we got there it was 6:20pm but our lovely dinner dates didn’t mind. So who did we meet up with you ask?
Well nobody guessed! (Don’t you know the food blogger elite of SF??
)
It was Me-Linh and Stef two fabulous food bloggers from the Bay Area! (They actually both go to Berkley – those smart chicks!).
They didn’t seem to mind our delay at all (which made me think they’re even more amazing than on their blogs – who waits 20 minutes without minding it at all??)
We actually met up at Gracias Madre, which is an organic and vegan Mexican restaurant and simply AMAZING (highly recommend that place!). I had such a hard time choosing anything because it was so overwhelming to be able to choose everything. I also had to constantly chat with the girls so it took me forever and a few additional decades to decide on what I should get.
In the end I simply picked the tacos (which were – as you probably guess it – fantastic).
So sad that the picture got blurry! I took an other one, though that makes you think of something nasty.. I’ll post it anyway.
Told you it looks nasty on the picture!!
After dinner we headed to Bi Rite Creamery & Bakeshop
You know the place is good when there’s a line in front of it!
Simone and I dug in and ordered a sundae. I never felt any guilt or shame when ordering huge desserts (and there were many, trust me) – you only live once and we can’t go to places like Bi Rite on a daily basis (though I would love to)..
Salted caramel and chocolate coconut ice cream, topped with caramelized peanuts, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.
Or: Food porn at its best.
I will write more about the food we ate on our trip soon but I need to include the most amazing eats of our San Francisco stay in this post.
Oh I love having friends who take me to food heaven that no guide book knows of. Actually, I’m only friends with them because of that. HA! Kidding!!
We parted ways after making plans for meeting up on Wednesday again (we had dinner on Monday).
On Tuesday we met up with my good friend Puneet (who also lives in the Bay Area) for a 10am brewery tour at the Anchor Brewery. Yes TEN A.M.
I was actually feeling more like having coffee but after the first tasting (at 10:45am) it felt fine to drink beer.
Then we headed out to Ike’s Place, a sandwich shop that got famous with amazing sandwiches (it was also on Man vs. Food).
Puneet actually drove us there. I was amazed.
What do we know about lines?
We ended up waiting for one hour.
It was worth it though – the sandwich was heavenly!
Too bad that the photo is utterly awful. I just had no time to take a decent picture
.
After our in the picnic in the park we decided to go to the thing that pops into every person’s mind when they think of San Francisco:
The Golden Gate Bridge! Puneet told me that it wasn’t red but “international orange”. Did you know that?
We were so lucky, the weather was amazing!
Afterwards we headed to the Haight which is a pretty cool street.
Puneet insisted on taking this picture.. Needless to say that I wasn’t that thrilled.
Then we were already off to see the Painted Ladies! Full House anyone?
Right before dinner we passed the City Hall (where Harvey Milk and George Moscone got assassinated – so sad)
We headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner! Now this restaurant serves some portions.. Holy mother!
This is the biggest salad I’ve ever seen. I didn’t eat all of it because I needed some room for cheesecake (obviously). The sauce was also way too sweet for my taste.
We all had to get our own cheesecakes of course.
I had the last one – red velvet cake cheesecake. Mmmm!!!
Unfortunately we were both feeling under the weather and couldn’t go out. I hate feeling sick on a holiday! I felt still very blah-ish when I got up the next day but decided that it wasn’t the time or place to be ill so I told my bad feeling to go away. It actually did in the afternoon
.
We met up with Puneet and went to see the crooked Lombard street.
And afterwards we headed to the pier where we got picked up by Stef and Me-Linh. After a short lunch we already had to say goodbye to Me-Linh which was sad.
Stef had a docror’s appointment so we hung out a bit (see the size of that iced coffee??)
..and then went to Lululemon after she came back. I am SO glad that we don’t have that shop over here (or otherwise I’d be broke very quickly).
One fro-yo and one yoga outfit later Stef and I headed out to yoga while Simone and Puneet went to the park.
It felt so incredibly good!! I missed yoga so much on our trip and it felt amazing to practice for an hour (even though the guy next to me moaned like there was no tomorrow).
Our foodie insider Stef made a reservation for dinner at Udupi Palace, an all vegetarian restaurant so we met up with Simone and Puneet there after yoga.
Food heaven? Check!
Afterwards we finally did go out which was a perfect ending for a perfect stay in San Francisco.
Me-Linh and Stef: I loved meeting you guys! It felt like talking to old friends
Come and visit me soon!
Oh and Puneet, I loved seeing you too of course. Next time you’ll come to Bern and we’ll swim in the river, okay?
I will post the NY recap tomorrow as this took me almost 2h to write and I’m pretty sure you’ve seen enough pictures for the day.
Tip of the day: Don’t go back to work the day after you came back from a long trip
Q of the day: Have you ever met any food bloggers OR have you ever been on a blind date? (Let’s face it; they’re quite similar – though with different intentions hehe)