Immediately after exiting the east side of
Golden Gate Park, I found myself surrounded by homeless people again. It felt just like exiting the subway station on Mission Street, except these bums were actually standing and discussing things instead of screaming random shit into the air. I passed these groups as quickly as possible and walked down Haight street. There were more bums as I walked along and another type of entity I couldn't quite pin, they seamed like backpackers, they looked like they probably slept on the street, but they were more organized and less deranged and smelly. As I took a photo of one of the land marks, one of these walked up to me and demanded to see the photo I'd taken, she then went onto carefully explain that she didn't tolerate people taking photos of her and that I could take the picture again without her in it. I wasn't quite sure what to think about this but my best guess was that this chick was on the run for murder or something, so I gladly deleted the photo while she watched.
I'd been walking now for approximately 4 miles at this point and was in desperate need of beer if I was going to survive any longer. I found the first place I could, Trax Bar, and grabbed myself a seat. The bar tender her was odd to say the least, his head seamed to wave back and forth while we spoke and he seamed to stare in random directions instead of making eye contact during out conversation. As a trailer for the new Transformers film played on the tv behind me, he went into a long tangent about how he couldn't wait for this film to come out and then he reached into a plastic bag and pulled out a cookie. "Unfortunately this doesn't have any weed in it but here you go" he explained as he place the cookie on a napkin in front of me. After one bite of this thing fear overtook me as I began to wonder what might be in it instead of weed, I wrapped the cookie in the napkin and threw it into the nearest trash-bin as I exited.
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| outside Trax Bar |
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| Mysterious cookie at Trax Bar |
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| corner of Haight and Ashbury |
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| other corner |
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| random smoke shop |
Now that I could think again I quickly became aware of my next objective, food. Magnolia Gastro Pub and Brewery seamed like it would be a good fit for my taste. This place was fairly packed and I was lucky to get a seat at the bar. I ordered myself their custom brewed Cole Porter and some fish and chips, my heart sank when the people next to me had a tray of sample sized beers delivered to them. This is what I should have ordered, but at this point I had miles more to walk so I had to restrain myself from ordering this in addition to the porter I already had. The porter was more on the bitter side, but went well with the fish and chips which I'd smothered with malt vinegar.
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| Magnolia Gastro Pub and Brewery |
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| beer selection |
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| porter |
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| fish and chips |
