After exiting the plane it was time for the "three Bs" border control, baggage reclaim and the BART. Getting BART tickets as a tourist is easy when you know how. Unlike most major cities things here work in reverse, you put some money in, work out where you're going and then use the +/- to get to the right amount. Once the train gets going it's a 30-40 minute ride into town. There are some nice views but due to the window tints you can't really capture them. Once at Powell Street station it was a short walk across the road and two blocks down to the hotel. My partner was already there so I just picked up my key, checked all was okay and made small talk with the check in lady about living in London as some of her friends were studying there.
I was not expecting too much from the room as it was booked as an Expedia Secret Hotels rate, especially after some of the comments on Trip Advisor suggested that certain guests were not treated overly well. Anyway, the room was on the 12th floor with a nice enough view and plenty of space to be our base for the next three days. The room was also pretty quiet apart from the occasional fire engine which I nicknamed
hell hounds due to thinking the apocalypse was about to kick off every time their sirens went off. In the grand scheme of things the fire engines are not particularly annoying or a major factor for losing sleep with the room itself being pretty quiet on the whole. Anyway, we were more than happy with the room and the location of the hotel making it easier to visit the main parts of San Francisco with relative ease.
The week before the trip I had been scouring Chow Hound for dining recommendations. The first from the list was a place called
Bodega Bistro specialising in Vietnamese Pho (noodle soup). The restaurant was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel at the corner of Larkin and Eddy Street. A top tip if walking from the Powell Street area to this restaurant is to walk along Market Street till you get to Larkin Street and walk up. Eddy Street in this part of town is not the most pleasant place unless you enjoy socialising with the many homeless and those lacking the soundest of minds who populate this particular street. Once at the restaurant we were not disappointed. We had some spring rolls to start and for mains I had the 'Pho Bodega Sur Demande'
rare steak filet slices, well-done brisket, and beef meatball combination in rice noodle soup and my partner had 'Pad Thai'
stir fried rice noodles with shrimp, egg, soy sprouts and coarsely grounded peanuts which I remember washing down with an ice cold beer. Anyway, the portions were generous and the atmosphere was good. I'm sure if we lived in San Francisco this would be the kind of place we'd return to on a fairly regular basis. Anyway, we re-ran the gauntlet down Eddy Street and made it back to the hotel. The first day of the trip was over and we needed a good nights sleep as we had a busy week ahead of us.