3rd Oct
Today I went to Alcatraz. Tickets sell out a while in advance so we had booked them a couple of months ago. When you pre-book the tickets are $30. There are tour companies who are able to sell you ticket packages last minute with hop-on-hop-off passes. They charge over $100 for the tickets. What a rort.
I had read online that it was good to go early to beat the crowds so I booked the earliest departure time which was 8:30am. It was actually a little painful trying to get up that early to get down to the wharf because we have been out late at nights so sleeping in a bit.
The boat to Alcatraz leaves from pier 33.
And it's about a 15min boat ride.
A staff member at Alcatraz greets you at the pier and gives everybody a bit of a briefing on what you can do on the island.
He introduced an older man who has been a prisoner at Alcatraz prior to it being closed down due to increasing cost to run and maintain. People were rushing to take photos with him and I couldn't help wondering how he became such a celebrity when he was obviously there previously as a criminal. People are odd. He had written a book about what it was like to be a prisoner on Alcatraz and we were advised he would be in the bookshop signing and answering questions.
The island was a naval defense base before it became a prison. It was also inhabited briefly by some American Indians so has quite a history.
Up the hill a bit from the pier is a building in which they screen an introductory video on the history of Alcatraz. Then many people head up the hill to the guard office to pick up headsets for a 3/4-1hr guided tour. We decided to do the tour later because there was a tour conducted by some volunteers on the gardens of Alcatraz.
Our guide took us on a walking tour around the island. When the island was a prison, many buildings were inhabited by the warden and family as well as guards and their families. We saw shells of buildings that used to be there. The children used to go to school on the mainland each day and would leave and return by boat.
Our guide had photos of what the island used to look like when it was inhabited. Many of the prison guards' wives took to cultivating beautiful gardens on the island.
After Alcatraz ceased being a prison island, it was left for many years and a lot of weeds and trees grew wild.
The volunteers who look after the gardens are restoring them to the way they used to look based on the old photos they have of the island.
I thoroughly recommend this walking tour if it is available. It is usually an early tour. It's nice to look at some natural beauty on the island rather than focus solely on the prison side of things. It's really interesting that a prison could become such a tourist attraction.
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| Me in a solitary confinement cell |
After the walking tour, we decided to do the tourist thing and proceeded to the prison block to pick up our headsets and do the audio tour of the island.
The audio tour took me through the whole prison and everyday life inside.
The audio tour featured some of the prison guards and prisoners who voiced their experiences at Alcatraz.
I must admit it was mildly interesting but I didn't really care to explore the whole place so fast forwarded through most of the tour... meh it's a jail...
The grounds and view of San Francisco from the island were more interesting to me.
Our visit also happened to coincide with an art exhibition. I'm not sure if they usually have art exhibitions on Alcatraz but I did like this one. This exhibition was of a Chinese artist named Ai Weiwei.
This is an excerpt from a signboard about the exhibition:
"The exhibition addresses the situation of people around the world who have been deprived of their freedom for speaking out about their beliefs - people like Ai himself. A vocal critic of the Chinese government, Ai was secretly detained for 81 days in 2011, and as of August 2014, he was still not permitted to travel outside of China."
The artist Ai Weiwei has had his passport confiscated by the Chinese government and is a house prisoner in China. He designed this exhibition in his studio in Beijing and had students and helpers put it together on Alcatraz. I found this exhibition very thought provoking and moving.
The first thing you see walking into the hall is a large kite dragon. It really is beautiful. The dragon is meant to look both delicate and fearsome. The pattern on the wings of the kite contains birds and plants that represent nations with records of violating the citizens' human rights and civil liberties. There are also some quotes featured on the kites.
The next hall featured the images of people who have been imprisoned by authorities in their country for various reasons - racial, religious or political beliefs. The exhibition was a collage of their faces made by lego blocks. At the end of the row there was a book explaining why each of these people was included. I was glad to see Meriam Ibrahim's image there as I had been praying for her prior to coming to the USA.
It is interesting to note that the artist Ai Weiwei chose not to include his own image in the exhibition. I would have liked him to.
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| Nelson Mandela |
We had enough of Alcatraz so returned to San Francisco after looking at the exhibition.
When we got back to San Francisco, we decided to explore Pier 39. It is deceptive because this pier doesn't look like much from the street but when you walk along it, it just keeps going on and on...
At the end of the pier is a colony of sea lions. They are just lying there on pontoons - every which way and on top of each other. It's fascinating to watch and listen to them.
Apparently there are a lot more of them in Summer. It's Autumn right now and apparently a whole heap of them have gone on their honeymoon to Mexico. Those males without a mate - the rejects - are left here... I think they're really cute. Poor reject males...
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It's nice to be a sea lion... sleeping all day in the sun!
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There is a song by Tony Bennett that goes "I left my heart in San Francisco..."
At the end of Pier 39 there is a heart sculpture.
At Union Square, the park entrances also feature Tony's heart... I really do like San Francisco so I'm in danger of leaving my heart here as well...
After leaving Pier 39, we went back to the hotel to freshen up. I booked some cheap last minute tickets to see Pippin at the Golden Gate theatre.
It's no secret that I loooove musicals. Pippin is one on my list of ones I haven't seen but want to see. So we took the opportunity to see a show in a new place. It was a pretty little theatre.
I hadn't expected much of the show but was really impressed and enjoyed it a lot.
