San Francisco greeted us with a cloudy sky and a light drizzle! It was scary to even leave the warm, cozy bus!

After dressing in all our warmest clothes, we hopped out at Union Square!

Our first reaction: "This place is cool!"

You could immediately feel the vibrant life, with hip youth wandering everywhere, and endless fun diners and clubs!

Not having any idea where to go, we first grabbed some free newspapers, which even contained a detailed city map!

We found the street where we had found a cheap hotel online, but there were no rooms available there(

We decided to walk along the main streets and check every hostel we saw! But it wasn't that simple:

it was Friday evening and almost everything was booked, or only the most exorbitant prices from $150 per night remained!

I even started to get a little worried, looking around at the homeless people, whose numbers were growing every hour!

But in general, we didn't lose faith in ourselves and our luck; as a last resort, we even had the address of a free homeless shelter!

The very same free newspaper helped us, where we found many ads for quite cheap hotels with coupon discounts!

We checked into a room for $60. This wonderful room even had a microwave, which I had dreamed of to eat the Chinese noodles I brought from New York)

On top of all this, there was a free continental breakfast in the hotel lobby in the morning, everything standard: buns with butter and jam, cereal with milk, juice, coffee, apples, bananas!

Out of habit, we also packed some food for the whole day)

It's a shame we had to pack our bags and look for new accommodation because hotel prices for the weekend doubled!

We found another hotel for $100 a night, dropped off our backpacks, and off we went!

We studied various brochures and maps well) Irishka persuaded me to walk towards the pier!

Not everyone would agree to that, because the whole city is located on hills, and often quite steep ones at that))

But we aren't afraid of difficulties)

San Francisco surprised us in everything! The architecture of the houses reminded me of some light, graceful European style, with the exception of Downtown. Everything here was as usual: powerful skyscrapers, familiar shops, banks—everything reminded me of New York in some way!

Cute old cars were driving all over the city, like our "Zaporozhets", an open little tram, small grocery stores where they sold alcohol around the clock!

And of course, rainbow flags without the white color were everywhere, and locals with broad views holding hands!

Now it's clear why Frisco is called the most democratic city in America; you rarely see such a number of gays and homeless people!

Our favorite places became the magnificent piers! I don't even know how to put it into words, the northern coast has a completely unusual atmosphere! Stone embankments with a huge number of sailboats and a stunning view of the bridges and the famous Alcatraz!

I dreamed so much of visiting this most famous prison in the world, unfortunately, due to money, I couldn't do it...

I had to settle for all sorts of prison-themed souvenirs)

We walked along the pier popular with all tourists, Pier 39, to Fisherman's Wharf—extraordinary places! Here you get charged with some kind of energy of a tireless traveler; you want to settle on a pirate ship and wander the World endlessly!

Visiting the most beautiful bridge in America—the Golden Gate bridge—had to be postponed for another day because our camera broke(((

The morning of a new day began in search of free food! This time there was no breakfast at our hotel, but it was enough to wander around the neighborhoods, because all the doors in hotels are open in the morning.

You create the right sleepy look and everything is ok, you can even take something with you)

We also bought a disposable film camera, 27 frames)

Golden Gate bridge turned out to be just as beautiful as in the TV series "Charmed")

We looked with delight at the picturesque views that opened up from the huge bridge, and prepared for 5 minutes for each shot)

In the evening we got slightly lost, decided to walk to the hotel, then barely found the bus stop)

It was somehow sad to leave Frisco (I loved calling it that), this city hooks you with something!

It seemed that there was still so much interesting stuff here, although we covered a lot in 2 days!

Finally, we took the subway to the airport; in my head, an old song by Carmen was playing, which I had loved since childhood:

This is San Francisco - a city in disco style, This is San Francisco - thousands of lights, This is San Francisco - a city full of risk,

This is San Francisco - made in U.S.A.