Yosemite was a dream

So our trip to Yosemite started off on a crazy stressful note. 

We were meant to start our journey with a 6:50am bus ride on the 31st, however I (well I guess we? but since I was in charge of the booking, I should have checked) did not think of double checking how many nights we were meant to be staying in SF and was almost certain that we had one more night left. So in the day of the 31st, we were on our way to brunch when Topo mentioned that he got an email saying that our bus had already left and so I quickly checked our booking and realised that we had missed our bus :'((((( Thankfully, it was not pass our check out time at the hostel and so we had time to head back to grab our bags and think of a plan. 

always check people. always double check. 

A few tears, panicked moments, arguments and a train booking later, we found ourselves at the same cafe we had planned on going to brunch to called Vegan Picnic, which had phenomenal food!!!! We then caught the 2:30pm amtrak bus, followed by an amtrak train that had to stop halfway due to some malfunction = more stress because we were going to miss the last possible bus after to get to our accommodation, but thankfully followed by a bus that rescued all passengers on the silly delayed train to Yosemite Mountain Bug Resort! 

We had to lug our suitcases up a hill to get to our resort from the bus stop, which was hella tiring after having sat down for hours and when we finally arrived, I was just so so so glad that we had made it after all that afternoon's stress. Though I would have preferred not to have been so stressed out, it was a good learning experience to 

#1 always check your bookings especially on a multi-destination trip

#2 stay calm because things will eventually be ok 

I absolutely loved the tent that we stayed in! I have never stayed in an accommodation like this and would definitely do it again. We got a 15% discount off accommodation, food and spa (unfortunately we had arrived too late to enjoy it) because we arrived on public transport

I was so impressed by the restaurant at the resort because they had really good vegan options and even vegan desserts! There was a really lovely outdoor fireplace where 2 ladies were singing and playing the guitar whilst people ate smores round the fireplace :') 

The next morning, we had gotten up at 5:45am because we wanted to catch the earliest bus at 6:40am to get to the visitor centre. It was really chilly, much colder than I had expected, but we managed to get ready so quickly and grabbed our suitcases with us, even managed to grab lunch to go and ran all the way to the bus stop with our suitcases to then see the bus leave in front of our eyes. We were literally 30 seconds away from the bus stop  

took some pics whilst waiting for the next bus hehe

In the end, it all worked out perfectly well because when we arrived at the visitors centre at 8:55am on the next bus, we found out that it only opened at 9am. The reason that we wanted to go to the visitors centre was because the lady at the resort mentioned that we could store our suitcases there whilst we went hiking but to our disappointment (and anger), there was no storage spaces for visitors to leave their bags seeing that most people either arrived by car or were staying at lodges in Yosemite. Topo and I then walked around lugging our suitcases trying to find a sneaky hidden spot to store our bags. After 2 failed attempts because people had found us out and told us we couldn't do that, a lady mentioned that we could try to store our bags in one of the lodges despite not being guest. 

and Hallelujah! There was available storage space for us at the Yosemite Valley lodge and the kind staff let us store them there even though we weren't paying guests :) 

We then embarked on the Mist Trail, a signature Yosemite hike that takes you to both Vernal and Nevada falls. The hike wasn't easy,  it took us 4 hours for a round trip and we had to take breaks to catch our breaths and rest our legs but it was simply magical and breathtaking and just looking back at these photos makes me want to be there right now 

This was taken just from the bus stop outside the visitors centre so you can imagine that once you step foot into the Yosemite area, it's already beautiful all around you 

Topo and I actually joked when we just arrived at the visitors centre that the views here were already enough so we could now move on to our next destination hahaha

Hiking to Vernal falls was such a crazy experience! 

The strength of the waterfall was so powerful that you could feel the water on your face as far as 50m away 

this was the path to the falls where we had started getting wet

and we saw so many rainbows!!!! 

Rainbows make me so excited

We then stopped for lunch and had delicious sandwiches that we had bought earlier on from the resort. They had wrapped the veggies and the bread separately so that the bread wouldn't have gotten soggy by the time we ate them - how sweet and the veggies were so fresh and there was even avocados in there!! Our lunch pack even came with a little ziplock bag containing trail mix with m&ms' and cookies!! enough said. It was a great lunch

accidentally dropped food quickly became a snack for this cute squirrel

I hope it didn't mind the mustard

We then continued our journey to Nevada falls 

This journey was even tougher than before because it had gotten much steeper 

We then embarked on the Muir trail back to the trailhead :) 

That's Nevada falls in the background 

Our legs were pretty tired by the time we finished the mist trail but we decided to go on the mirror lake trail since we had limited time left to explore the park

The trail was much shorter, it was just a mile away and also relatively flat the entire way

Mirror lake was not as its name suggested as the lake was definitely not still enough for you to see a reflection of the rocks (according to our interpretation, this was how the lake got its name) But it was still pretty and we lay under a tree for a good 45 mins before heading back to the lodge to grab our suitcases

I want to come back to Yosemite in the future and this time to do a week of hiking so that I get to explore everything that this majestic place has to offer :') 

San Fransisco part ✌

Day 4 in SF 

The next morning, Maggie and Sasha left for LA in the morning and Topo and I spent the morning in the MoMA. Thanks to Iwen, we managed to get free entry as she was a member!! 

We spent a good 2.5 hours at the museum and headed to meet Iwen after at Stonemill Matcha. 

It was such a lovely afternoon catching up with her after having not seen her for close to 2 years! We had great conversations about uni, plans after uni and life in general over 3 hot mugs of matcha lattes and I was so happy that Topo thoroughly enjoyed the chats as well because it always makes me happy when he likes my friends hehe (they got on so well that we parted ways with Topo saying let me know when you come to Botswana!)

We then headed to Gracias Madre and had amazing Mexican food!! Topo had the special for the night, a plantain tortilla dish with a traditional mole sauce, which fun fact can have between 20-30 spices slow cooked together and I had a burrito bowl with tempeh chorizo  

That mole sauce was just out of this world!

We then shared a Mexican version of a crème brûlée, which was real yum as well ☺

After dinner, we took a short stroll to Delores Park before heading back. Delores Park was beautiful with such chill vibes, I absolutely loved it!

You could see the skyline of the city centre in the distance :') 

Day 5 in SF

The morning started with a lovely breakfast at - you guess it, Nourish Cafe! I had an apple chai spiced muffin and a green smoothie and Topo had a Báhn Mì sandwich 

We then headed to Land's End to do a hike! 

The hike was really enjoyable with lovely views and the element of being alone surrounded by nature because you did pass by people but you were never continuously walking with people in sight. 

We got really hungry by the end of it and uber-ed to Loving Hut, an international vegan restaurant chain that started in Taiwan serving amazing asian food!

We shared a plate of orange 'chicken'

I had a spicy 'beef' noodle soup and look how real the 'beef' looked?! 

And Topo had a 'beef' hor fan! 

The food was absolutely delicious and authentic and most importantly with no animals harmed 

I felt so lucky that I didn't have to leave this amazing food behind because there's one in Singapore as well! 

After our late lunch, we walked to the nearest whole foods and got some donuts and decided to walk the entire 5km stretch through the Golden Gate Park to get to Ocean Beach to see the sunset

I think we must have spent a good hour walking through the park, but it was really enjoyable and cooling and great for digestion! 

We made it to Ocean Beach but it was so cold due to the strong winds! 

However, we pushed through and sat on a bench facing the ocean for another hour so that we could watch the sunset 

Before the sun had even set fully, we were both ready to go because it just got too cold and we were both tired and the sunset would not have looked any more amazing than it already did and so we quickly hopped into an uber back to our hostel!

and that marked our supposed last day in San Fransisco but because I forgot to check how long we were actually staying in SF, we missed our 6:30am journey to Yosemite but I'll go into more details in the next post :) 

San Fransisco part ☝

The coming series of blog posts is a recount of my 3.5 weeks of adventures in California and Nevada!

Day 1 in SF 

After a flight to London from Edinburgh, we arrived in SFO at 2pm and headed straight to our hostel after getting through the airport. Mistake #1: We took a city taxi instead of an Uber and it cost us 47 US dollars to get to our hostel and on top of that the taxi driver took it upon himself to reward himself with a $8 tip?! I knew there was a tipping culture in the USA but I was so shocked to realise that taxi drivers were meant to be tipped 15% as well! We later found out that we got scammed and he probably took advantage of the fact that we were tourists. It was rather funny at that point in time because both of us were just so confused after Topo passed him $60 expecting change and the driver just took it and said thank you and then got out of the cab to help us with our bags.

Anyway, we arrived at Music City Hostel - a hostel was the cheapest option we could find shockingly enough and it wasn't even that cheap as it cost us £33 a night! That is way higher than UK hostels which average at £15-25 a night. The hostel was nice and clean with great hot water in the showers and there were cleaners to make our beds daily! 

We decided to have a relatively relaxed day of exploring and our first stop was to China Town, just a 20 min walk from the hostel. It was unlike any other China Town that I have been to! It was so authentic and it was like you were actually in China! The Chinese Vendors were just minding their own businesses, not trying to coax tourists into buying their products and they did not put up a especially friendly front when you were purchasing their products, which I really liked! We purchased a box of jackfruit and boy was it yummy!! So glad that Topo gave Jackfruit a second try and really liked it this time :) 

After China town, we walked to Fisherman's Wharf and watched 2 street performances, which were rather entertaining and had dinner at Chipotle before embarking on our 40 min walk back to the hostel. About 15 mins away from the hostel, we heard loud cheers from a bar across the road and we saw that they were playing the NBA game of the Golden State Warriors against another team, which Topo was hoping to be able to catch when we got back to hostel and we decided to pop in to watch the game instead! It was an amazing atmosphere to be in because everyone in that bar was supporting their home team and cheered loudly in unison whenever the Warriors scored :) 

 

Took these pics on our walk back to the hostel after the game finished! 

Back in the hostel as I was getting ready to take a shower, a room mate walked in and she asked where I was from and we soon found out that we were in the same year at the same uni?! What were the chances!! Her name is Sasha and she's from London and we ended up spending the next 2 days together with her friend Maggie from Canada. 

Day 2 in SF

The next morning started with a healthy breakfast at Nourish Cafe just a 3 min walk away from the hostel - how convenient! I had a not so aesthetically pleasing but very tasty and refreshing green smoothie bowl and a Blue Majik latte, who's taste was unfortunately overpowered by the coconut milk.

We then headed to Golden Gate Park, a huge urban park in San Fransisco for some sight seeing!

This was us totally not looking like tourists 

Here's Sasha! 

We decided to check out the Japanese tea garden, which was not free but was worth the $9! We managed to catch a free tour just in time and I am 100% positive that the tour made the experience worth it because the guide explained the history behind the garden, which would make one appreciate it so much more! 

After the tea garden, we bought lunch from food trucks just across from the Japanese Tea Garden and enjoyed it whilst listening to the Golden Gate marching band!

They were playing in the dome-shaped area :)

Unfortunately, the entry fee for the 2 museums - de Young museum and California Academy of Sciences were too expensive for us to enjoy them. But we did manage to get free access to the roof of the de Young museum, which provided a breathtaking 360 view of the city and where I took the above photo! I loved how you could see the rows of steep parallel streets in the distance. 

We then decided to walk for an hour to a bike rental near the Golden Gate Bridge to cycle across the bridge ☺

and we made it! 

Cycling across the bridge was so much fun! 

After returning the rental bikes, we uber-ed to Gott's Roadside where we met Maggie for dinner and Topo and I both had the Impossible burger, it honestly tasted just like beef it was unreal! 

We headed back for dinner and had a really chill night chatting to 2 other guys at the hostel :)

Day 3 in SF

Maggie and Sasha had left for a tour to Alcatraz Island so Topo and I did some exploring alone in the morning. We started with breakfast from Trader Joe's, which was across from Nourish Cafe and I also grabbed a yummy dragon fruit smoothie from Nourish Cafe and we headed to the Palace of Fine Arts

It was such a beautiful place :') 

We then met Maggie and Sasha at Pier 39 and we then walked to Lombard Street - famously known for being a steep windy road on the pictures of post cards and managed to get an uber to take us down the street on the way to our next destination - Alamo Square where the painted ladies were (a famous row of houses).

We spent about an hour here lying on the grass before we headed for dinner at a Shizen Japanese restaurant just a 15 mins walk away. Also got these lovely pictures below before we headed off!

The food was so yummy and worth the hour and a half's wait in my opinion!!! We scoffed everything down without speaking in a matter of 15-20mins (maybe even shorter) and headed back after :)