I took advantage of the opportunity to travel to San Francisco in early 2019 for a 28-team video game tournament because I was a top competitive video game player at the time. I knew I wanted to explore as much as I could with the limited time I had in San Francisco. Come and enjoy a brief San Francisco experience through the eyes of a college student, at the time, who loves to travel whenever he can!
Despite having a busy college life, I knew I could not pass up the chance to experience a new place and travel to the west coast of the States! The excitement was unreal because I was 18 years old and travelling with online gaming friends whom I was meeting in person for the first time, all while travelling somewhere I had never been before! The first day was exhausting because it was my travel day. Travelling by bus and airplane from sun up to sun down and adjusting to the time zone didn’t dampen my excitement, however. Since the video game competition venue was in Oakland, California, we took a taxi from San Francisco International Airport and drove on the scenic highway 101. Eventually we merged on to the dreamy Oakland Bay Bridge! There was not much to see but the lit bridge at night was a thing of beauty!
My first full day in California was spent in Oakland, near the gaming venue, and touring the local streets, both uptown and downtown, towards Oakland Inner Harbour. The street views were spectacular and each street had unique themes such as, tall commercial skyscrapers, tourist gift shops, restaurants, and Chinatown-influenced neighbourhoods.
The highlight of day two in California was eating out with my friends at Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ just down the street from the venue. This restaurant allowed us to cook our own food with the heating element in the middle of the table! Since we had a large group, we had to reserve the largest table in the restaurant. This restaurant accommodated all types of diet preferences, including seafood, a variety of meats, and vegetable options. Luckily, we had a few people in our group who specialized in barbequing and were able to cook our food exactly how we liked it!
On the final full day in California, a group of friends and I took a subway and train ride to the Union Station area in San Francisco. Our main goal was to visit Fisherman’s Wharf because of the many tourist attractions and picturesque walk along the way. As we went on our scenic walk to the coastline docks, nothing could beat the iconic hilly streets of San Francisco! Any photographers coming to San Francisco? You 100% need to snap a photo of this scenery!
We did not ride in a cable car on our journey, but the retro vibe the cable cars were giving off sure tempted me! For anyone visiting San Francisco, please do not hesitate, like I did, and hop on for a ride! When we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf, we immediately toured the “Aquarium of the Bay”. The aquarium offered many unique species for viewing and when we completed our tour, the aquarium tour guides took a group picture of us for a keepsake.
Shortly after the aquarium tour, we ate clam chowder at… you guessed it, “Chowders”. I highly recommend stopping here for a bite to eat because the locally made chowder was creatively served inside a big bun which had a dual purpose of a bowl and dipping food! Side note: You will also receive a nametag key chain if you tell them your name while ordering!
The most fun I had on our touring day was trying to navigate the Magowan’s Infinite Mirror Maze with friends! This was my first ever mirror maze and it was definently a trippy and mind-bending experience! To conclude our short San Francisco tour, we took a group photo near the Hearts in San Francisco end docks area with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background! We circled around the end docks to check out the sea lion viewing area and bought souvenirs at the Magnetron gift shop before heading back to the train station.
Upon further reflection of my extremely short trip to San Francisco, I had an incredibly good time with my friends touring the city even if the main purpose of the trip was to compete in a video game tournament. (We tied for 9th place, by the way!)
From the San Francisco Zoo to Coit Tower to Mile Rock Beach to driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, I still didn’t see everything I wanted to. I am planning a longer visit to San Francisco, California in the future and will definitely share my knowledge and experiences of this beautiful coastal city so maybe you’ll be enticed to visit it someday, too!