Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday in the United States. I took BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to San Francisco to spend a day there with a friend. I got off at Powell Street Station, which is the stop where Westfield San Francisco Centre is located. You can exit the BART Station and go straight into the food court of the shopping center without going outside. Normally, I would go straight to the food court to grab something to eat. Today I didn't want to spend more money than I had to.
I remember when I went to Tokyo two summers ago, I was so grateful that my cousin, who has lived in Tokyo all her life, took me to the restaurants which local people go. They were good and much cheaper. I used to come to the city when I was a teenager before I had a job, so I certainly know where the cheap eats are. I got out of the Westfield Mall and walked down Powell Street, passing the line of people waiting to get on Cable Car. There is a Blondie's Pizza at 63 Powell Street. I got a slice of their daily special for $3.75. If you must drink something with your meal, water is free. The reason I mention this is because some countries in Europe charge you for regular water, too. Not here in California. I don't normally drink anything when I eat anyway. However, I did feel like having something sweet after the pizza.
I headed back down Market Street toward 4th street. There is a 7-11 located at 711 Market Street that I always stopped by if I wanted something cheap to drink. On a hot summer day, I would get a cup of Slurpee. If you are really tight on your budget, you can have an entire meal at this 7-11. They have everything - fresh fruit cups, salad bowls, sandwiches, burgers, hard boiled eggs, red velvet cupcakes, hot dogs, Cup Noodles, sushi, etc. There is a large selection of self serve hot beverages, too.
During those days when I was paying off my credit card debt, I never went to Starbucks. If I needed to get coffee before getting to the office, I would stop by a 7-11 with my own mug. You could fill it up at a fixed price. I think it was about $1.00 back then. It's probably a little more now. Now they have this latte machine that makes 3 different kinds of latte and hot chocolate. There is even a whipped cream dispenser at no extra charge. I got a medium size vanilla latte with whipped cream for $1.69.
As I sipped my latte and headed back down Market Street, I heard someone playing drums - rock style. I love loud and fast rock drumming. I attempted in taking some drum lessons when I was a teenager and immediately realized that I don't have that kind of coordination to move my two hands and foot altogether at different timing. What was a girl to do? I dated a bunch of drummers instead.
There is a sign next to the drummer. It turned out that he's a traveling musician from Japan. It is awesome that he came all the way here and already set up his drums on Market Street to be a part of the scene. There were other people gathering around to enjoy the show. I wanted to help him out but I didn't have much cash on me, so I emptied out my coin purse into his box. I had a brief chat with the drummer, Masakazu, who hasn't decided which town he's going next; however, he will be touring with the pillows as their backup drummer later this year.
How cool is that? This is one of the reasons I love this area. You never know who you are going to meet when you go out there. All those years of being trapped in cubicles made me a recluse. I started to talk less and less and stopped talking to strangers completely. Talking to people is another thing on my "To Do List" for this year.
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| Masakazu is the one on the right giving the toddler a quick lesson |
My friend and I walked up Stockton to Chinatown. We reminisced last time we came to Chinatown and other parts of the city. From Chinatown we continued on to North Beach. At Broadway we made a turn and headed toward the pier for the Ferry Building. It was quite a warm day for January. I was totally overdressed and overheated from all the walking. We got some gelato ($3.65 per scoop) from Ciao Bella and sat outside for a break.
After heading back up Market from the Ferry Building, I hopped on the BART from Embarcadero Station to take me back to Berkeley ($3.90 each way). Spending a day in San Francisco can be as cheap as $16.89 (not counting the change I gave to Masakazu) if you are not into buying things you don't need.
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| View of the Bay Bridge from the Ferry Building |
I feel like I was there!
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