Update

Okay guys, I am finally awake again (at least kind of). So where did I stop yesterday? Right, I was trying to find the National Park in the Marin Headlands. Since I had no clue where to go I decided just to follow the road which was fine, until the junction appeared out of nowhere. So what was I supposed to do now? Which road should I take? I decided to go left, because on the right the street was going downhill and into the wrong direction. By the way, today’s wisdom was whenever you go downhill don’t enjoy it to much or get lost in the speed, because you’ll for sure have to go all the way up again. With that in my mind I turned left and up the hill again. After a couple of minutes I came to a tunnel (hello, in our beautiful Saukopftunnel bikes are for sure not allowed), but this one obviously was different. First of all it basically only consisted of one driving lane and two white lines which obviously indicated the bikeway. On the entrance there was a huge red traffic light and a big button. Hmm, what was I supposed to do now? Finally I figured out that the traffic light was only for cars, because there was only one lane. And the button? The button was for the cyclists, once you pushed it an orange flashlight started to flash, to indicate that bikes are in the tunnel. It was like this light was saying “Hey maniacs on the street, don’t kill the ciclysts or you’ll get sued really badly”. Cool thing if you ask me, but it was a little creepy inside the tunnel. Once I got out on the other side the street went downhill, not a good sign at all… Because you always have to keep today’s wisdom in the back of your mind: whenever it goes down you have to go up again, that lesson I have learned for sure now. But I had no other option than to go down. After maybe two miles there was a road which looked like it might go into the right direction. And there I went up again. And up. And a little further up. It got steeper and steeper… Oh, some more serpentines, GREAT! (By the way, do you know these old Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons? Cause the street I drove up looked exactly like those in the cartoon.) But I couldn’t turn around because I knew I had to go all the way up to the tunnel and Golden Gate Bridge again. So I just stubbornly continued driving up that fxxxx hill. I think you can still call it a hill, although in between it seemed to be a mountain! And it was so incredibly windy. If just that wind would stop almost blowing me off the road. I think you can imagine that in between I thought driving up that hill wasn’t the smartest move (especially because I was afraid I had to take the same way back), BUT finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, I reached the top and I had the most beautiful view over San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the bay that you could ever imagine. It was just great and I was immediately indemnified for the drive. And you know what the best thing was? I was all by myself! There was nobody but me up here! I didn’t expect that, because I saw crowds of people from the bridge. I found a nice little bench on which I lay down and just enjoyed the splendid view. Every once in a while a car would drive by, but who cares J So I stayed on my bench for a bit, just relaxed and enjoyed the view and the sun. Around 5pm I started to go back, I left the hostel around 10am and I didn’t know how long it would take me to go all the way back to the other side of the city and I wanted to be back before dusk. This time I drove down on the other side of the hill, and hoped that the road would bring me back to Golden Gate Bridge and fortunately it did! Once I was back in the city I decided not to take the way right next to the pier, but to just go straight into the direction I thought my hostel was. Looking back it was just stupid! Never do that in SF!!! Because what I thought was one hill I had to climb were actually two really big ones and in between you have to go down and then up again, and so on. And the streets here are incredibly steep. Once I was on top of the highest and thank god also the last hill I had to climb yesterday I “only” had to go down now. Yippie! Sounds great, but it really isn’t. Do never underestimate the slope! Just to give you a general idea, when I was sliding down this one hill a guy at the side of the street asked me if he should carry my bike down, because driving down would look a little dangerous. Hey, cars could drive it up and down too (at least they were parked on the right and the left side of the street), so why shouldn’t I do the same? It certainly was a thrilling experience, although I drove slalom. But my bike had really good brakes, so I did survive somehow without being injured. Once back at the hostel I was so terribly tired and all I wanted to do was going to sleep, but there is no way I could go to bed at 6:30pm. Therefore I decided to take a shower and then go out and grab something to eat, because I was as hungry as tired. I ended up with one of my roommates at a nice place just up the street and dinner was delicious. With a well-fed belly we went back home and were completely satisfied.

After yesterday’s adventure I think I’ll take things slow today and just walk a bit through the city. Maybe I’ll go for a ride with a cable car (but they are always so packed) and find a nice spot at the beach and just read a book, because I think on my trip yesterday I saw most of the sights. One last thing before I get ready to leave: whenever you are in San Francisco make sure you rent yourself a bike! It’s really one of the best ways to explore a city!