San Francisco (without its weather) is the city I’d love to live in the most if I ever moved away from home. The food, the BART, the chocolate, my favourite bakery and ice cream place, the house in the opening titles of Full House… I’ve been to San Francisco a few times now and every single time I go, I visit the park, sing the opening theme song and reminisce about Becky, Jesse, Michelle and Steph.
TV talk aside, I could keep gushing about how livable this place is but instead I’ll recommend my favourite tour to do here – Alcatraz. It’s a quick ferry trip out to the abandoned prison island (purchase tickets through the tour company) and from the moment you get to the island, you’re entertained. You hear about the escape attempts, the riots and the living conditions. More amazingly, you get to hear most of it through an audio tour featuring the voices of ex-prisoners, guards or people who lived on the island. I’m not really doing it justice, so just do it – you’ll have a ball.
Week 15: Mexico (part 2)
One of the great things about Mexico is its incredible history. This country is filled with remnants of the many civilisations that have called Mexico home at some stage.
For example, Mexico City was built on top of an Aztec city so if you scratch below the surface, you’ll find acres of Aztec ruins. There’s a great site in Mexico City where you can see where some of the ancient city has been excavated and one of the modern roads is still running across the ruins. I asked a local guide why they didn’t just dig up the Aztec city and they responded, ‘why dig up a city just to find ruins?’ My internal dialogue and inner geek cried out loud at the thought of all the amazing things under the pavement I was standing on.
As I mention in the video, the structures of ancient civilisations are absurdly complex and often cater to moments such as stars aligning or the position of the sun at a particular time. Unfortunately, they were also incredibly mindful of acoustics when building these sites so my cursing would echo around the ruins as the guides told me the purposes of some of the architectural features.
Many people mention Chichen Itza when they talk about ancient sites in Mexico, but the whole country is decorated in ruins that I recommend you take a detour to see if you visit the country.