YOMAG - Travel - San Francisco

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San Francisco

Cavalese 21. 05. 2009

San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO

San Francisco is an important city on the west coast of the United States of America. It’s not a very large city. Only 679000 people live in it. But San Francisco is the financial center of western America. It’s also a center for music, art and tourism, three and half million people visit it every year. It’s an international city, in fact people from all over the world live there.
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco and California are Spanish names. In 1520, the Spanish army took Mexico, in North America. After that, Spanish explorers looked for more land. They sailed north along the western coast of North America. They called the land along the coast California. Many years later, Spanish soldiers and monks went together into California. The monks were religious teachers, or missionaries. Between 1769 and 1823, monks built twenty-one missions along the coast of California. They taught their religion to American Indians at these missions. Near each mission, soldiers built a military post. The soldiers protected the mission and the land too.
SAN FRANCISCO AND ITS BAY
Spanish ships sailed into some beautiful bays on the California- coast. These bays made very good harbors. But the sailors didn’t find the biggest bay of all. In 1769, some Spanish soldiers found the bay. The bay was separated from the ocean by a peninsula, that is a long piece of land. The soldiers returned to their post and described the bay. Seven years later, Spanish soldiers and monks came to it and they built a military post on the peninsula. They also built the Mission of San Francisco de Assisi. San Francisco, or Saint Francis, is a saint in the Roman Catholic religion.
GETTING TO KNOW SAN FRANCISCO – THE PENINSULA AND HILLS
San Francisco is a special city for several reasons. Here is one: the city has water on three sides. On the west is the Pacific Ocean. On the east the San Francisco Bay, on the north, between the Ocean and the Bay, there is the wonderful Golden Gate. The Golden Gate Bridge go from San Francisco to Marin County on the other side. San Francisco’s other bridges goes across the Bay to Oakland, a smaller city. It’s called the Bay Bridge. San Francisco is built on many hills. There are forty, some of the hills are very high and steep. Most of the streets go north and south, or east and west. The streets go up and down the hills. A few streets go through the hills. At the top of many hills there are wonderful views of the city and the water around it.
THE CLIMATE
San Francisco has a special climate. It’s never very hot or very cold. In December, the average temperature is 11,4 C° and in July it’s 15 C°. the weather can change several times during one day. Often it’s foggy, especially in the morning, then the sun shines. San Franciscans always have jackets with them. Only ten miles outside San Francisco, the temperature can go over 36,6 C° in summer.
GETTING AROUND SAN FRANCISCO
It’s easy to see San Francisco. Many of the interesting places are one close to the other. The most important part of San Francisco is between Market Street and Van Ness Avenue, and the water. Visitors walk along the streets of San Francisco, but they can get around the city in many other ways. Buses go all over the city and each ride costs the same, you can continue your ride on a different bus. Ask the first bus driver for a transfer, that it’s a free ticket for the second bus, you can use it any time in the next two hours. San Francisco trains run under Market Street instead of the streetcars. This subway is called the Muni Metro. Of course there are also many taxis.
THINGS TO SEE AND DO
VICTORIAN HOUSES AND SKYSCRAPERS On some streets of San Francisco there are interesting old houses, they were built before 1906 in the Victorian style. The fronts of these houses have a lot of decorations. In San Francisco the Victorian houses are narrow, they have bay windows, with glass on the three sides. San Franciscans paint their Victorian houses with bright colors. But there are many modern buildings too, for example the Transamerica Building. It was built in 1972 on Montgomery Street, the main street of the financial center. It has the shape of a tall pyramid. Other tall buildings, skyscrapers, are nearby.
BOAT RIDES In San Francisco Bay, there is a rocky island, it’s called Alcatraz. In 1934, a prison was built there for very dangerous prisoners. They couldn’t escape alive because the water around Alcatraz is cold and id pulls swimmers out to the open sea. In 1962, three prisoners disappeared from Alcatraz and nobody knows why. The next year, the prison was closed. Today there is a very interesting tour of Alcatraz, guides take people through the prison. Visitors can go inside one of the small rooms and cells. There are also boats that go under both bridges and very closed to Alcatraz.
SHOPPING
The most important shopping area is around Union Square. All the large department stores are there. Post Street has shops for china, silver and glass. One of these is Gump’s, a famous old store. The flower stalls in this area are famous, too. There is one on every street corner. The Victorian Houses on Union Square are now unusual shops, many of them sell antiques. There is good shopping on Fisherman’s Wharf. At Ghirardelli Square and The Cannery you can buy many things. Years ago, Ghirardelli Square was a chocolate factory and the Cannery was s fruit canning factory. Pier 39 nearby has over a hundred good shops.