Quedamos a las 9am en la recepcion para ir a desayunar al Starbucks,
tras esto un poco de compras, ya que silvia no tiene nada que ponerse de abrigo para Alcatraz, y visto lo visto, hara frio. Tras ir de compras, nos encontramos con Chris y Mel en la recepcion del hotel y vamos a comprar los billetes de transporte municipal, que sirven para la red urbana de transporte incluidos los tranvias turisticos (los que se ven en las pelis).
que coger la linea F de tranvia para ir al puerto, y tenemos la fortuna de coger uno de los antiguos tranvias que aun funcionan en Milan (si, los que aun funcionan en Milan, como lo ois... Incluso la publicidad y los carteles estan escritos en italiano, increible! ). Nos echamos unas buenas risas recordando que en uno de estos tranvias hicimos la fiesta de cumpleaños de nuestra amigo Jenny...
Finalmente llegamos al puerto, hay una cola inmensa para coger el barco a Alcatraz de las 12am, hemos tenido suerte de haber reservado con antelacion, pues hemos vistoq eu las entradas estan agotadas hasta el proximo domingo!!!
Estamos un buen rato en la cola para entrar al barco y tras esto, el viaje es bastante corto, unos 10 minutos, esta tan cerca y tan lejos a la vez, sobre todo para los presos que solia haber aqui. La llegada a la isla es emocionante, una detallada explicacion hecha por parte de un ranger, acerca de los origenes de la prision y la gente que vivia aqui, seguida por documental de introduccion y la visita guiada.
Es dificil explicar lo que se siente mientras estas en Alcatraz, es una mezcla de satisfacion (para mi, por estar como visitante) y lastima (por aquellos que tuvieron que sufrirlo como presos, guardias y familiares. Si! porque los familiares de los guardias vivian aqui). El lugar es tenebroso, las celdas, las hay de todos los tipos, incluso las hay "buenas"... Enanas, grandes, y las peores de todas, aquellas con barrotes tras una gruesa puerta de acero con un minuscolo ventanuco con rejas.
La parte que mas me impresiono, fue el hecho que algunos presos pudieran ver desde sus celdas, y atraves una minuscola ventana en uno de pasillos, la ciudad de San Francisco, y de que fueran capaces de oir las voces de la gente en la ciudad.
Las vistas de la ciudad con sus calles como una montaña rusa, son increibles. Los pobres presos, eran solo privilegiados por esto, por tener la mejor de las vistas de la ciudad y del Golden Gate, pero por nada mas.
Una vez finalizado el tour, volvimos a coger el barco para volver a la ciudad, y tras haber andado tanto en Alcatraz, decidimos que nos mereciamos una buena comida al Hard Rock Cafe.
Cogemos de nuevo el tranvia hacia Powell Street, Mel se baja cerca del hotel porque esta bastante cansada, mientras que nosotros proseguimos en busca de una tienda de North Face, en busca de ofertas. El sitio es un poco complicado, y nos damos cuenta que estamos entrando en un barrio un poco especial. Finalmente Mel, nos indica que vamos por el buen camino, asi que seguimos nuestra caminata, sabiendo que no estamos perdiendo el tiempo vagabundeando sin sentido. Hacemos alguna compra en la tienda, y decidimos que ha sido suficiente por hoy, asi que pensamo en pillar un taxi, pero al final, andando andando, conseguimos llegar al hotel sin sufrir demasiado.
Descansamos un poco y nos encontramos a las 21 en la recepcion, nos tomamos un cocktail para empezar la noche y preguntamos al de la recepcion por algun lugar decente, barato y cercano. Ahora es cuando llega la parte para mearse de risa. El del hotel nos dio la direccion de un bar, fuimos, y mientras estabamos en la calle echando un ojo al menu (a partir de big sur bakery & Rest. decidimos consultar siempre el menu primero), sucede que muchas veces, no ves algo pero tu inconsciente si. Pues vi a un colega de trabajo cenndo en ese restaurante, Alessio Cali. Sabia que venia a California, que estaria en Los Angele, pero no tenia ni idea que venia a San Francisco, y mucho menos que ibamos a estar a la vez en
la misma ciudad. Un bonito reencuentro en el otro lado del mundo :)
Estuvimos ligeros con la cena, y tras esto, cansados del dia, decidimos ir a tomar la ultima al bar del hotel, pero antes de entrar al hotel, hicimos el recorrido en el tranvia de la calle powell.
El primer cocktail estaba bueno, asi que porque no repetir.
Tras el cocktail, estabamos muy cansados y teniamos que madrugar, asi que a dormir...
Fran
English:
We meet at 9am and go to have break fast at starbucks,
then a bit of shopping as silvia does not have anything suitable to go to Alcatraz and survive, so she needs some fleece or some heavy stuff to get warm. After some shopping, we meet with Chris and Mel at lobby again and we go to buy the tickets for the municipal transports, so that we can use them in the trams and cable car (the famous ones). We have to take the F line of the tram to the piers, and we are lucky that this time we get really in one of those old trams from Milan (yes, those which are still running in Italy, run here as well, even they did not change some ads and the signs). We were laughing as we remembered Jenny´s birthday party in Milan in one of those...
Finally, we arrive to the piers, there is a big queue to hop on the boat of the 12.00am, and we are very glad we did the booking of tickets in advance, as we can see they are sold out until next sunday¡¡¡ We queue for a while and we get into the boat.
The trip is really short, something like 10 minutes, it is so close and so far away for those who used to be inmates of the prison. The arrival to the island is exciting, a nice explanation by one of the rangers, about the origins of the prison, the people living there and so on, and we head to the introductory film and the guided tour afterwards.
It is really hard to explain the feelings while in Alcatraz, it is a mix of relief (for myself) and sorrow (for those who lived there, both inmates and guards and family). The place is creepy, the cells, there are of all kinds, there were even the ¨good¨ ones... small, big, and the worse of the worse, actually those small one with bars and a thick door with a small nested window. The part which made me the worst impression was the fact that some of the inmates, were able to see from the cells, and through a small windows at the corridor the city of san francisco, and they were even able to hear the voices from the free people at the city.
The sights of the city with its streets like a roller coaster, are amazing. This poor inmates were only lucky for this, they had the better view of golden gate and san francisco ever, but no other privileges.
Once finished the tour, we hop onto the boat and come back to San Francisco, and after having walked for so long in Alcatraz, we decide to have a nice and deserved meal at Hard Rock Cafe.
We take the tram back to Powell Street, Mel hops off, as she is a bit tired, and we keep on going to go to a shop where North Face garments are on sale. The trip is a bit tricky and we realize we are getting into some dodgy neighbourhood. Finally Mel (aka Jesus Phone owner), gives us a bit of light, and we proceed walking, knowing that we are on the right trail. We do some shopping at the shop and decide it has been enough for today, so that we come back to Hotel, first thinking about taking a taxi, but in the end we make it walking without much effort.
After resting for a while, we meet up at 21pm at the lobby, have a some cocktail at Hotel´s Lobby bar, and we ask at the reception for some nice, close and cheap restaurant. Now it is when the funny part arrives, we were told of this cafe, a couple of blocks away from our Hotel, we go there, and while we were checking the menu (after the one in Big Sure, we decided to do it always before entering a place), this thing which happen sometimes, you do not see something, but your mind does, I saw Alessio Cali, a colleague from JRC. I knew he was coming to California, he was staying in Los Angeles, but I did not know
he was coming to San Francisco, and even less that he was coming at same time as we were planning to do so. A nice encounter on the other part of the world :)
We took it easy at dinner, and all of us decided to go for the salads, then we were tired and decided to go for the last drink at the lobby bar at Hotel, but before that, we got a ride on the cable car of powell street.
We had been satisfied with the first cocktail, so why not to have the last one there.
After this last cocktail, we were really tired and had to wake up early the next morning, so we went to bed.
Fran
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