cautions for san francisco tourists
May 18, 2009
Every time I bike over the Golden Gate Bridge, my heart goes out to all the poor tourists struggling to avoid getting hit or frozen. It seems that Bay Area visitors are left out in the wild when it comes to pre-conceptions of the city versus reality. Here’s a quick list of cautions any guest of San Francisco should keep in mind:
- It’s freezing here. Perhaps you’re visiting during the 5 or so days a year when the thermostat actually cracks 75 degrees. Chances are, you’re not, and instead, you’ll be afflicted with freezing windy fog and/or chilly nights. The temperature can easily drop 30 degrees around dusk. Therefore, come dressed for cold weather- windbreakers, jeans, and closed toe shoes. You’ll save the $24.99 it takes to buy a cheesy SF fleece in Chinatown, as well as much misery and mockery.
- Summers suck. At least, in San Francisco. The fog pretty much stays put for the months of June, July, and August. The best months to visit are May and September. Granted, the surrounding areas are much warmer and sunnier, but they’ll also be overrun by other tourists.
- When biking, stay on the right! I can’t believe how many tourists biking over the bridge meander all over the lane. You may get hit by an overzealous biker training for a race, and at 25 mph, that hurts. And you’ll get yelled at. In fact, you’ll get yelled at anyway. Just please stay to the right, for your safety and everyone else’s (and this includes the people hopping off their bikes in the middle of the lane for photos).
- Curb your wheels. If you’re parking in San Francisco, be sure to curb your wheels, which means turning the wheel so that if the brakes give way, the car won’t roll into traffic. There are few signs for this, but there will be expensive tickets. Also, the meter maids are extremely dilligent here. You will not get away with a 10 minute overtime in a 2-hour zone.
- Get out of Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s such a shame that tourists are stuck in the unclassiest part of the city. Branch out! In fact, buy this book, Stairway Walks of San Francisco, and get to know the neighborhoods intimately. The Telegraph Hill, Russian Hill, and Nob Hill walks are close by and particularly lovely.
- Avoid eating at chains. San Francisco has phenomenal food and wine, and the chains do a disservice to the fresh produce, meat, and dairy that’s raised around here. Check out the tiny cafes or ethnic restaurants that are off the beaten path, and avoid the tourist traps such as Ghirardelli Square, Columbus Ave, and Union Square. The only exception is In-N-Out. Everyone will understand why you love this fast foodery- and be sure to ask about the secret menu!
- Yelp and NextMuni rule. There are two sites which justify having a data plan on your cell phone while you’re here- Yelp and NextMuni. Yelp is the best source- albeit a tad controversial- for community reviews on any business here, from restaurants to dentists to hotels. Their ratings tend to be quite accurate, to the chagrin of the less popular establishments. NextMuni will tell you when the next highly-unpredictable bus will arrive. Because the taxis here suck. You will very rarely get one when you need it, and if you do, there’s a good chance the driver doesn’t know where he’s going anyway.
- There is no nightlife. Everyone goes to sleep early here. I attribute it to the gorgeous sunrises and so much to do during the day. So don’t expect much of a night scene, especially on weekends. If there are people out and about, it tends to be bridge-tunnel-and-peninsula people who are more raucous and out-of-control than the natives.
San Francisco is truly a lovely city, so please don’t let incorrect assumptions color your expectations. Take it for what it is- a gorgeous friendly place with a ton of hills and a well-positioned Patagonia store right next to Fisherman’s Wharf (after all, they have much better fleeces than those in Chinatown).
the shopaholic nerdette guide to buenos aires
February 28, 2009
At the behest of an old friend, I forced myself to allocate a 1 week vacation out of my job search. Destination: Buenos Aires, Argentina. I stayed at his home in the San Isidro suburbs, a quick trundle down the regional rail from the city center. Since it was a vacation, I spent a good amount of time relaxing by the backyard pool, but I also managed to explore a bit too. My favorite neighborhood was Palermo, which is the tree-lined Greenwich Village meets Noe Valley part of Buenos Aires. There are adorable cafes, shops, and restaurants all around, with the heart of my favorite part, Palermo Soho, on El Salvador (near Armenia). I also walked quite a bit around Recoleta, which is more Miami-esque, with tall and beautifully restrained apartment buildings.
For such a modern city, I was astonished with how undiverse it was in terms of race- I starkly stood out as a tourist, which kept me from carrying around my digital SLR too much due to worries about getting mugged. It didn’t help that I had a hard time picking up the accent in the dialect of Spanish around the city, so be forewarned that this is not your high school Spanish class. Also, people in Buenos Aires love their dogs, which means you should keep an eye out for dog poop on the rather uneven sidewalks.
Shopping
Around the Palermo Neighborhood
The wonderful part of shopping in Buenos Aires is that the exchange rate is wickedly awesome. At first glance, the prices appear to be the same as those in the US, such as that beautiful dress that could go for $300 in the US asking for 300 pesos. But, then you realize that there’s 3.4 Argentinian pesos to every dollar. Jackpot! This was not a good discovery for a shopaholic like me to realize. Here were my favorites, all in the neighborhood of Palermo:
- Cora Groppo – a women’s clothing shop, with distinctive architectural pieces, the sort where seams, folds, and piping shape cloth into fascinating structures.
- Doma – gorgeous leather shop, with beautifully retro leather coats and bags. They seem to specialize in waxed or finished leather, so there’s a slight patina that gives their pieces a more urban air. I went bonkers here. Ask me about my new brown leather hooded trench.
- Humawaca – another beautiful leather shop, this one specializing in wallets and bags. There’s an architectural component to their designs, with lots of boxy leather swatches put together with sleek lines. I picked up their billeta, which zips apart into smaller wallets as the need arises. If it’s ever stolen, it’d be a hard call between whether the thieves wanted the credit cards and cash or the wallet itself.
- Maria Cher – a local Argentinian designer, who makes voluminous yet austere work clothes, such as shirts that billow around or architected pencil skirts, and really only look good on the local anorexics.
- Rapsodia – A women’s clothing shop with a free-spirited hippie vibe like Anthropologie or Free People, but better made and more distinctive.
Restaurants
A Table at La Dorita
For eating, I went to many more neighborhoods as my host tried to indoctrinate me to the meat, cheese, and postres culture. I tried to hold my own, I really did, but I weakened by the end and started ordering more salad than steak. The food was very good, but I found that the best of San Francisco was comparable with what I found in Buenos Aires. However, I believe most food in Argentina is better than most food in the US, so it’s hard to go wrong. Here’s my favorite restaurants:
- Cabrera – I never actually made it here, but it’s the famous (or infamous) steak house where you get a steak the size of a banana bread loaf. Per person.
- Las Cholas – this boistrous restaurant is located in the Las Cañitas neighborhood, with their premiere dish being “Gran Bife Las Cholas”, a huge monstrosity including a large piece of steak, with mashed squash, french fries, and grilled vegetables. My host actually managed to eat his entire plate. I went with the more mundane Bife de Lomo, a tenderloin of sorts, with a garden salad.
- Croque Madame – a super cute French-inspired cafe, with an indoors and outdoors. It’s in the patio of the Museo de Arte Decorativo in the fringe between the Palermo and Recoleta neighborhoods.
- La Dorita – a delicious Argentinian Parrilla, or grill, in Palermo. It’s so popular, they spread across the intersection. Both are the same, although if you’re outside, you’ll probably end up downwind from some cigarettes.
- Havanna – the famous “alphahores” (aka “alpha-whores”) are an Argentinian treat: crispy cookies sandwiched around buttery dulce de leche, coated with sugar or chocolate. Havanna shops are sprinkled around like Peet’s Coffee, and you can also buy a few boxes for gifts in the airport duty free.
- Krishna- among all the steak and cheese, there’s also wonderful vegetarian restaurants around Buenos Aires, such as Krishna in Palermo. I got their veggie platter which included fresh carrot salad and brown rice, a welcome respite from the typical heavier menu items.
- Weinert – not a restaurant but actually a delicious Malbec to keep an eye out for.
Activities
Argentina v. France
There’s lots to do other than just shop in Palermo or eat steak. Here’s a few activities to check out:
- The best tours are given by Eternautas, and their “Images of Buenos Aires” is a great tour to start off with. One warning- there’s only 3 stops on the tour, with the rest being drive-bys, so there’s not many opportunities to take pictures.
- My friend took me to a tango show at El Viejo Almacen, which means the old inn. It’s a cute small place, with an enthusiastic cast of performers. Tango shows are much more than just dance- they also include musicians and singers. If your Spanish is as shaky as mine (especially in a country with such a distinctive accent), be prepared to be the only one in the audience not singing along to the famous tango songs crooned by the crowd-pleasing singers.
- I didn’t get to try it out, but if you’d like to learn tango, the top school is apparently La Viruta, which has evening classes at the end of the week.
- The MALBA museum houses some beautiful selections of modern South American art. Sadly, no photos are allowed, and their postcard selection is woefully bereft, but I still vividly remember two paintings: an impressionist portrait of a girl wearing a red scarf on her head, and a white painting of a nude implied on linen canvas.
- If you don’t get to an actual soccer game, you can always catch one at a cafe, such as a chain called Plaza del Carmen, such as its location at the corner of Scalabrini Ortiz and Santa Fe. You can stake out a table, order a cafe and some postres, and cheer or groan along with the crowd as the many televisions broadcast the action.
Overall, Buenos Aires was very beautiful, and I can’t wait to go back. I was lucky that I had a fabulous host with kind friends who helped take me around, but it’s also a very walkable city, and one of my favorite things to do was just wandering around the neighborhoods. Next trip there, I’m definitely budgeting time to visit the wine country of Mendoza, the Iguazu Falls, Patagonia, and Uruguay (for the beaches). Who wants to go? 
