Category Archives: Cityseeker Stories

How to be a Tourist in San Francisco

1 Reply

Hi everybody! My name is Hannes Huebener and I’m from from Leipzig, Germany. The other day I faced an urgent problem when my parents came to visit me in San Francisco: what should I do with them?

So far, I’ve spent four months as an editorial intern for cityseekr. When my parents decided to fly into the city a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to make sure the time we spent here together was worthwhile. I also wanted to show them everything this beautiful city has to offer.

So, what to do? Instead of walking to every major sight on our own, my parents convinced me to go on one of those super touristy hop-on, hop-off bus city tours. At first, thinking about boarding one of those buses and being degraded to a bloody tourist once again didn’t really appeal to me. I very much wanted to think of myself as a “local” during my last month here. Ultimately though, I decided to leave those silly resentments behind, and, since my parents were buying the $35 ticket, I agreed to become a real tourist once more and jumped onto the open-top bus.


Photo courtesy of Open Top Sightseeing

And what can I say, it was actually a great experience! You can hop on the Open Top Sightseeing tour buses at any of the 20 stops that are spread out all over downtown and west San Francisco. With the ticket, which you can buy at any stop, you earn a 24-hour pass to get on and off the buses that come by every 20 minutes. Also, on each bus there is a tour guide that will supply you with entertaining stories and information concerning the area and the surrounding sights. Continue reading →

Wandering in Glasgow

Years ago I was traveling through the UK with my friend Matt. We were both teaching in France at the time and in the fall decided to take advantage of the generous Toussaints holiday to explore life on the other side of the channel.  We started off in London and took an overnight bus to Edinburgh; after a few days exploring the highlands, we arrived in Glasgow on a crowded blue and yellow bus on October 30th. We had booked an early morning flight to Dublin on November 1st, so that gave us only a day and a half in the city.

Glasgow Green

I never really thought I would make it all the way to Glasgow, but we embarked on this trip with no real plans, expectations, research or reservations—so I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised that we would be spending Halloween in Glasgow. The weather had been rather gray since we arrived and it had begun to drizzle as we descended from the bus and onto the damp Glasgow street. We had found a hostel (generically called the Euro Hostel) about two blocks from the train station, on the corner of Jamaica and Clyde Streets.  Compared to the hostel where we stayed in Edinburgh (which still ranks as my worst hostelling experience ever—rampant theft, filth and fleas), the Euro Hostel was a breath of fresh air with a clean, modern design and maple wood bunk beds. After settling in, we started walking. With no map in hand and no real idea about the layout of the city, we wandered. I had caught a nasty cold in Edinburgh (probably from that nasty hostel) so I quickly found a drug store and bought cold medicine and cough drops.  We were still trying to accustom ourselves to British business hours. Popping a cherry-flavored drop in my mouth and relishing the immediate effect, we continued walking, this time away from the busy shopping district. Continue reading →

What I Love About San Francisco

north face black friday
Jordan 11 Win Like 96 For Sale

In her last cityseekr post, our intern Ayeon Song reflects on her time here and what she will miss most about the City by the Bay.

Night Views 
San Francisco has the most beautiful scenery in the world! The view from Twin Peaks is my favorite.

Continue reading →

Stonehenge Musings

Leave a reply

In honor of the upcoming London Olympics, we’ll be incorporating more posts about the UK into this blog. First up: personal experiences at Stonehenge.

Photo courtesy of Joanna Ortiz

Laura D. says: I visited Stonehenge in the late afternoon on an especially windy day. The type of wind where your face immediately becomes chapped and you have to squint your eyes in order to avoid being blinded. However I did get close to Stonehenge and the weather didn’t disturb my sight that much, so the wind might not have been a big deal…except that I wanted to take a cute picture of me in front of the monument. The type of picture where I could show my family and say, “Look at this adorable picture of me at Stonehenge.” I did not get that photo. The wind destroyed my hair and no matter how many times I redid my ponytail, strands became loose and whipped my hair back and forth. I took about 40 pictures that day. I look normal in one photo. In the rest of the pictures my hair was in front of my face and I looked like the the creepy girl from the The Ring. Overall I’d call that a success. As for Stonehenge itself, well it was exactly what I imagined: impressive, large and old. It was surreal to be standing near a monument that was built thousands of years ago. And it was especially surreal to see that there was nothing around it, just a highway and a flock of sheep. The sheep came close to the fence and watched our group as we walked around the huge attraction. I took a picture of myself in front of the sheep. That was the one picture that I looked cute in. Continue reading →

Thoughts on SF

Leave a reply

In the third installment of her photo diary, Ayeon talks about some things she likes about SF and American culture…and some things that puzzle her. Read on…

It’s been almost one year since I came to San Francisco. I’m glad to have the chance to look back on my life in SF through this blog. Below are some things that I find interesting about San Francisco and American culture in general:

Walgreens

Have you ever heard the following announcement at Walgreens? “Customer service is needed at the counter.” On my first day in San Francisco, I went to Walgreens to buy some groceries. I noticed there was shampoo on a locked shelf. I always wonder why those shelves are locked, especially here in the USA. Are those items really a target of stealing? I asked a bunch of people, but it’s still unclear to me. Crystal, Chris, Adam – I’m still waiting for a good reason…

Old and New Technology

I know there are plastic Clipper cards for the Muni bus and train, but I was surprised to see paper Muni tickets too. It’s strange to me that the best country in the world still uses paper for some transportation tickets. What if the paper blew away, or I tore it? After I got used to it though, I now feel like it’s more convenient, reasonable and environmentally-friendly. In Korea, most credit cards can be used as transportation cards. Another thing I find interesting is America’s obsession with Apple. One day while I was at a cafe, I realized I was the only person with a Samsung laptop. Everyone else was using Macs. It was the first moment that I really felt like foreigner. The power of Apple is beyond my imagination.

Continue reading →