Two days out from a bum's perspective, hoofing it hither and yon. I was at Pier 39 today and saw a Spanish guy trying to lure a seagull nearer to him. So I throw a french fry halfway betwixt them and the Spanish guy is all nicey nice to the seagull and then suddenly "STOMP" with his foot "ARF ARF ARF" he goes chasing after it with his arms waving about. The seagull looks more annoyed than scared but backs off.
How did I end up there again? Well, I says to myself "I'm going to take the first bus I come across to wherever it takes me." So the first bus arrives but apparently it's a charter bus. That's probably the bus I should have taken but I had to open my mouth and ask what the fare was when it was pretty obviously not a municipal bus. So I'm waiting for a muni when I get impatient. Seeing a trolley approaching I head over to the trolley stop and take that car to the end of the line, which of course is Fisherman's Wharf.
So walking back along the shore to Market Street I figure that I don't much like this town but that it's a nice experience to be somewhere unfamiliar with nothing to do. I wouldn't want to go to Los Angeles - my preconception of Los Angeles contributes features to my conception of Hell. But perhaps a Toronto or a Seattle, or almost anything north of Washington D.C. out east.
The first half of my day was Chinatown. It's a depressing strip of street. There were a lot of those electronic stores where nothing has a price marked but everything's "on sale", and you can find cameras for "$129 (on up)". I found a crappy Chinese restaurant that was nowhere near the quality of a crappy Chinese restaurant in Chicago. One dim sum restaurant had a female barker on the street who accosted me from quite a distance. I'm not sure why she singled me out - maybe she could see the MSG craving in my moony face.
In any case, tomorrow I am definitely getting away from the city and driving out.
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