USA Day 18. San Francisco Chinatown

I've walked through Chinatown most days since I've been in San Francisco but I thought I'd dedicate today's post to the thriving couple of streets that make up the ethnic enclave!

 This morning I wandered directly into the heart of the Financial district as this was an area I'd cut through plenty of times, and stared at the buildings an awful lot but I never really explored it. I mean to be fair it's mainly just coffee shops and banks, but still I thought it deserved a proper perusal 

 Turns out there's actually quite a few shops, i suppose to target people on their lunch breaks or after a long day stuck in an office! I love looking up and seeing a layered view of different buildings from different eras like this

 The 'famous' Tranamerica Pyramid 

Anyway, onto Chinatown! This is the gate that leads you through to the main street but there's lots of side streets that all make up 'chinatown' 

 Most of the corner buildings had some more traditional chinese architecture which I really liked 

 There's obviously all the standard cheesy touristy shops at the beginning of Chinatown (I think that's just a unanimous thing Chinatown's have across the world' but once you get past that there were lots of authentic shops selling all sorts of Chinese bits and pieces 

 It was also really busy!

 right in the middle of china town is this church that survived some pretty serious earthquakes too

 Something about the lanterns found in Chinatowns just 'amps' up the feel of shopping there!

 One of my favourite things to browse were the Chinese Bakeries, I gave a Chinese pancake a go and it was… interesting. And a once in a lifetime experience because I won't be having another!

 dispersed around Chinatown were musicians playing traditional chinese instruments which really added to the bustling atmosphere!

 A massive tea shop! There were even more different types of tea in a room to the rear 

 Just a quick update really, as I spent the day pottering about Chinatown, doing some reading and booking my flight down to LA for Friday so I can catch my flight to NYC

USA Day 4. San Francisco Downtown

I finally got a decent nights sleep! I mean it was very hot, and pretty noisy, but it was a whole 9 hours! Considering I've been running on 3 or 4hrs the past 4 days, 9 felt like a miracle!

I love the hostel I'm staying in (despite the lift being terrifying to use) so today I decided to simply wander around the area surrounding the hostel and just explore Downtown with no real plan in mind - i.e. no looking at a map unless absolutely necessary and just enjoying the city 

Turns out I'm a lot closer to Union Square than reviews online led me to believe!

I loved walking around downtown as there was an amazing mix of old and new buildings with beautiful blue skies and gorgeous warm weather!

I might have got a bit excited about all the shops I saw. Walgreens isn't exactly the most exciting shop sign to show you, but I took about 20 photos of various shops, and this was the only shop I actually bought anything from! (I bought some Twinkies to try, and oh my goodness they are so sweet!)

Loved the bird art across the side of this building

This is around the point I got completely lost, and I'm still not 100% sure where this church is… Although I think it was called St Patrick's (possibly)

This was Yerba Buena Gardens and it was the perfect little slice of greenery and tranquil in the middle of the city (it also helped me to figure out I had somehow made my way south of Market Street)

Bloomingdales! There are several large department stores dotted around the centre and I got excited going into every single one!

I ended up finding my way back from South Market Street to the Cable Car line where I popped into Westfield (a Mall) and made my way to get some mexican food - since it's meant to be amazing in California, and I'm no expert but these veggie tacos were pretty amazing (although I might be biased as they were dripping in guacamole, which is a sure fire way to gain my love)

At the end of Powell Street. It's always packed as this is one of the places you can queue to get on the Cable Cars, but the line is always ridiculously long!

San Francisco Downtown is so pretty!

Ok, so I was a little lost again at this point, however I'm blaming that solely on this building. Surely it's not fair to have 'Saxs Fifth Avenue' on a street corner that isn't 5th Avenue, when there's a 5th Street two blocks away… Anyway this threw me off as I then thought I was heading in the wrong direction (I got avenue and street mixed up…)

The good bit about wandering with no real plan is I feel you get to appreciate the place more as you tend to notice the little things of the place rather than being focused on getting from A to B. 

a sample of the hills dotting the city. Downtown is relatively flat but I know I'm going to spend half my time here climbing hills!

I stopped for a Slurpee to refresh myself after walking for hours in the sun (this was a small!!!)

Another beautiful building I wandered past

I found another Walgreens (there's about 3 in a small area) and this one had a little frozen yoghurt section in the middle next to the fruit and veg!

I really do love the architecture of this city, particularly love the street lights!

Legendary Cable Car! They're always full so I'm biding my time before spending hours queuing up!

(Peach Green Tea Lemonade - it was yummy)

And I finished off my day by stopping off at a Starbucks. There are truly hundreds of Starbucks- I think I passed about 8 today alone. They're also a lot cheaper than back home so I just couldn't resist since this mamother concotion was about £2! It also made me feel like a local since it seems like American's aren't fully dressed unless they're sporting a Starbucks drink!