So by a killer stroke of luck I happened to be in San Fransisco smack dab in the middle of the gay pride celebrations. I've attended a couple of gay pride parades in Toronto, and they are always fun events. Needless to say I have been taking part here. Yesterday there was a party in Dolores park preceding the Dyke March. I didn't go to the march, but I hung out in the park beforehand. I bought a disposable camera and took the whole roll. Only a few are of topless women. Then at night-time they closed off the streets to traffic at Castro and Market (the heart of the gay district I think) and had a street festival, playing music and such. There were a ton of wacky people walking around, some of whom were doing so buck-naked.
Today was the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade. It didn't go as smoothly as the Toronto ones I've been to. There were some big gaps when nothing was happening. It was a pain because it was cloudy and cold this morning (the sun has since come out). There was a giant rainbow flag carried by a zillion people that everyone threw their change onto. But because it was windy the flag would thrash and hurl the coins willy-nilly (sometimes hitting people). It was pretty funny. I heard someone say that the flag was a mile long. I don't know if that was true, but I do know that it was fucking big.
I got myself a bed in a hostel without too much trouble. It's in a different area of san fran then where my hotel was. While at first I was unsure about this it has turned out excellently by exposing me to more of the city. It's in the Mission district, which is also the latino district. Mexican restaurants galore dot the streets. There were some religious people giving a sermon outside a subway stop and they were translating everything into spanish as well. Hurrah for multilingualism.
