Mixed feelings and first impressions of San Francisco

Even through the trains in the US drive rather slowly compared to trains in Germany, I barely slept tonight. I know that I must have slept at least a little, since I remember dreaming something about my dog Benny.
The train arrived in Emeryville around 8 AM and after taking a bus, I arrived in Fisherman's Wharf around 9 AM. At first I got my 7 day bus pass for all muni and cable cars at Walgreen. Next, I went to the hostel. After leaving my luggage at the hostel, I started exploring the city.

At first I went to Ghiradelli Square, where you could find several shops of the famous Ghiradelli chocolate (I got to try two pieces of dark blueberry chocolate). There was a cable car station nearby, so I decided to take one of them to the Union Square. Riding the cable car was definitely fun, it was almost like riding a slow rollercoaster and I had to hold my hat so that it wouldn't fly away.

From the union square I went back north in the direction of China Town. On the way, I ended up buying some facial cleaner (the seller kind of persuaded me to buy it, they had some kind of promotion), which I regretted later on. Finding the sights in China Town turned out to be a bit complicated and I got a little lost. Just when I had found what I had wanted to see, I realized that I had lost a map with lots of coupons, which I got in the Amtrak bus this morning. By then I was actually pretty annoyed by San Francisco.

Still I kept going. It was kind of surpried that I got many compliments regarding my hat throughout the day. I wouldn't have expected a 3 CAD hat to draw so much attention.

I went to the Cable Car museum, which was nice but not too interesting. Since I was pretty exhausted, I waited for the next cable car in the direction of Fisherman's Wharf. There was a cheap Supermarket nearby and I bought a sandwich snack there. Next, I walked to Pier 39.
There was a visitor center at the pier and luckily, I could get another copy of the map I had lost. There were also many fun shops. Since I felt like eating something sweet, I tried some Fudge for the first time, which wasted quite well. Furthermore, you could see a bunch of seals which rested on some platforms close to the pier. By the time I got back to the hostel, I was in a good mood again.

At the hostel, I finally got to move into a room. However, I was assigned an upper bed. That usually wouldn't be a problem, however, there was no real ladder and I would have to more or less climb over the edge of the bed. As I didn't feel comfortable with that, I requested another bed. Unfortunetly, there are only free lower beds until Sunday, so I will have to find another hostel for my last two days here.

To sum up, I have mixed feelings for San Francisco. On the one hand I love the cable cars and the city is kind of beautiful to look at (especially from afar). On the other hand, all the steep roads are a bit annoying (I think you could say that my mood went up and down in the same manner as the streets) and some things didn't go exactly as planned. Still, I had so many nice experiences today, that I probably shouldn't complain.