West Coast Diary: On a Mission (Day 2)

San Francisco is well known for its Latin American population, so today we planned to go to visit this area known as the Mission District, see a local artist gallery and have some latin american food there.

After picking up some extra fruit at the local supermarket Wargreens to accompany our orange-pieces at the hotel breakfast, we then headed off down to Powell St and across 8th to Mission Street to start our exploring.

We first noticed it wasn't necessary the cleanest of streets around, and every now and then there would be a homeless guy pushing a supermarket trolley with his belongings in.

As we continued a few more blocks we saw more and more people on the street, groups arguing on corners, and people shooting up in side alleys. We were becoming uncertain if this really was the correct way we were going. But it was still Mission Street, so we surmised it must just be a bit further for the nicer area.

After crossing the road a good few times to avoid some very dodgy characters, and taking a chance to quickly look at the map, we realised that the only bit of Mission Street within the Mission District is from about 16th and above (where there is actually a metro stop). We had already walked from 8th to 13th so we decided 3 more blocks wouldn't be much worse.

In fact between 13th and 16th we were even more concerned, and just kept on going straight in the hope that at some point it would suddenly get safe. In fact, up until 17th it was still very dirty and smelly and felt quite dangerous (and this was about 11am with bright sunshine).

From 17th onwards all the shops were latin american, whether they were restaurants or shops selling cellphones, TVs, or newspapers. The street was still dirty but it felt a lot safer.

Upon reaching 19th our map directed us to take a left to get to the museum. After about 4 blocks (Florida) it actually started getting much better. The roads became cleaner, the only people around were dressed reasonably well tending to their cars or children.

We passed 'Flat Cafe' a mexican cafe, where we decided to sit down and have a cold drink, relax and take another look at the map now it was safe to do so.
The food also looked pretty good (mexican fast food style, and smelled amazing).

On to the Guerrero Gallery which is recommended in the Lonely Planet guide. We reached the street, and walked along it looking for the right building number, but to no avail. After asking two locals who didn't know anything about it, a third was more helpful. She said that it closed back in September of 2013, probably due to the rent increases. Great...

We decided to walk around the Mission District now that we had walked so far to get here. Carrying down Florida to 25th there were some really nice houses, well kept and obviously of a completely different standard to the ones about 4 blocks away.

Across 24th is Balmy Alley which is very colourfully painted. All walls and garage doors were covered in images of memories of home, people hurt, or political situations.

Going down 24th felt a bit like Colombia. The roads were quite nice, there were latin smells and sounds coming from every corner and the shops were all of a latino nature.

We passed the Edificio de Mujeres, which was brightly painted and quite impressive.

 

We popped in to a small corner store we found, which sells homemade and ecological products. The girl working there was from Cali, and explained a bit about how the area is so different depending which side of Mission Street you are. The tech workers moved here a while ago, and as the demand increased, so did the prices, until now a lot of the area is unaffordable for the people that have lived here their whole lives. This was the reason for the 'Gentrify' protests going on at the time, as the locals were unhappy about the tech companies causing them to lose their homes.

Looking for a place to eat, we walked along to Valencia and up to 18th. Here everything is in even more of a contrast to Mission Street. Big shops, boutique stores, very clean. A completely different world. We realised of course that this would have been a nicer street to walk down from where we started, and would have avoided all the dodgy parts, however it would have given us a wrong impression about the reality of SF.

Stopping at a restaurant called Mosto for some handmade tacos, and then going across the road to a chocolate factory to have brownie, made sure we were well fed. There was a chees store next door which looked really interesting, but after having eaten our meal, we thought we'd leave it for today.

On 18th we went left towards Dolores Park. On the corner was a Bi-rite Creamery. They had some amazing flavours of ice-cream on offer, of which I chose the Sonoma honey and lavendar, and can heartily recommend it.

There are some great views from this park, and people were enjoying playing, resting and walking their dogs, completely different to a few blocks across from where we just came.

The Golden Fire Hydrant was also found on the top corner of the park by the tram line (20th and Church). On 18th April 1906, an earthquake struck and the resultant fires from ruptured gas pipes burned most of SF to the ground. As corruption was so high at this time, corners were cut everywhere in building of the city, and despite being surrounded by water on three sides, the firemen were unable to get water up to the hills. The only fire hydrant that was working was this one (donated by Lotta Crabtree, a local opera singer). Lines were formed and buckets passed along, and most of the Mission Distric was saved by this one hydrant. As a result, this hydrant was painted gold by the residents, as a way of saying thank you for saving their homes.

Walking up Dolores (Mission Dolores was the first building to be built in San Francisco) we noticed the street is much wider than most others, lined by palm trees, very nice (and large) houses, and very clean.

When Dolores meets 14th, there is a church on every corner. One is German, another Catholic, a Jewish one and a Chinese one. It must be a very religious area (or the rent is cheap).

Reaching Market Street we hopped on a tram to take us back to where we started our journey in order to go across to visit the very important SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art). On arriving at the entrance, there were lots of big boardings on the street. Eventually we found some information written on one, saying that the museum is closed for refurbishment, and will reopen in 2016. Another well planned visit...

On to some shopping, as the shops are always open. The Banana Republic store was huge. It also had a 50% off sale on, which Olga liked. Then back to the hotel to relax before going out for dinner.

Leaving the hotel at 8.30pm, we walked up Market Street to the Ferry Building at the end. Unfortunately, the restaurants there had already closed for the night. We decided to walk back and see what we could find, initially along California, and then back on Market, we ended up at Super Duper Burgers. The food here was very good (burgers of course) and despite it being slightly chilly out, the milkshake went down a treat.

Finally after walking many many miles, we went back to the hotel for a well deserved sleep.