A day in San Francisco: Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate park, Sausalito

Long before it was the birth place of the Silicon Valley and tech companies, San Francisco was the place the hippie counter- culture emerged. The influence of ’68 movements, the flower children, the beat culture, today’s modern city still has a bit of bohemian air. 

You may spend a morning in the Haight-Ashbury area to see the typical two flour Victorian style houses, now converted into boutique stores, record shops, etc. You may then go inside the Golden Gate Park, taking the same with the Golden Gate bridge. Here is a good reason to cross this iconic bridge which has become the symbol of the city; to visit Sausalito at the other side, you will feel like you are in a summer residential area, picturesque streets, nice cafés. In order to see different silhouettes of the city we crossed the bridge by bus and came back by ferry. 

The hanging bridge that connects the two sides resembles so much to Istanbul’s bridges on the strait of Bosphorus we could definitely convince someone that our pictures were taken in Istanbul and not San Francisco. There is indeed an interesting story about it, the explorer Fremont, when he came to San Francisco he thought that it was so similar to the Golden Horn (the strait of water in Istanbul) that he called it ‘Golden’. After spending the afternoon in Sausalito’s calm streets we then come back to downtown arriving this time on ferry at the Port of San Francisco. If you want to spend more time by the sea you may then continue to Fisherman’s Wharf area to enjoy the seafood restaurants, do not forget to stop by the famous Buena Vista bar which is just a five minutes walk from he Wharf.