If you are going to San Francisco, remember to wear some slanty shamrock on your hair.
When flight number EI147 left its stand B26 at 9.15 am on an October Sunday it was making its own little bit of history – a direct flight from Dublin to San Francisco.
There has been talk of a direct service to San Francisco since the 1960s, but it was on the 40th anniversary of the summer of love that the plane eventually departed for the first of its four-weekly flights, due to go daily in Summer.
The Irish delegation was entertained by Gavin Newsom, the charismatic young San Francisco mayor who has championed gay marriage, the equally effusive Emer Deane, consul general in the area and a large representation of the city’s massive Irish community.
The GAA official who staged all-American championships there, the woman who is going to open a gaelscoil (there is a school in every other language medium so why not?), the proprietors of the countless Irish bars at every street corner, serving food and beer in one of the great party cities of the world.
You can see why so many Irish like the city. Rudyard Kipling stopped by in the 1890s and observed “San Francisco is a mad city, inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people.” In fifty years the gold rush, resultant recession and consequent rebound had transformed San Francisco from small harbour village to lawless Hades to a commercial, near-European centre.
This is the most European of the cities you will find anywhere in America, If you doubt him try one of the big cabaret shows. Blanket Babylon Club Fugazi 678 Green Street San Francisco is a madcap procession of political parodies which pokes fun at popular culture. “Madcap” is appropriate, for the hats seem to get bigger every scene www.beachblanketbabylon.com
If you can do another night, Teatro Zinzanni dinner show is a hoot, think Monty Python meets Cirque de Celebre, with a crowning performance by Cookie, the celebrated drag queen, a move star in his/her own right.
The fog came out to greet us as if it had a character to play. It clung determinedly to the Transamerica pyramid, the city’s most distinctive skyscraper. It fondled the Golden Gate bridge and shimmered around Alcatraz, sitting resplendent in its infamy in the heart of the bay. There is something west of Ireland about the way that the landscape changes here, sometimes by the hour. When you cycle or jog across the bridge, you can stop and gape at the some amazing seascapes, fresh water tumbling into salt water, Pacific cold meeting coastal heat, and a layer of white mist from which the skyline protrudes in the background. Is it real, or was it a landscape of our imagination?
The dreaminess affects how the world sees the city and how the city folk see themselves.
“Careful now”, wrote Ambrose Bierce, one the of the city’s most famous writer inhabitants, “we are dealing here with a myth. This city is a point upon a map of fog, lemuria in a city unknown. Like us it doesn’t really exist.”
Alcatraz and the Golden Gate are the signature attractions, getting to and from the island fortress is time-confusing if you are on a short break, but definitely worth doing.
It is one of the great ironies of history that the summer of love occurred in the district of Haight.
The romantic 1960s are well dead and gone and with Tim Leary in the grave but you can get as close to them here as anywhere. The bright colours of the souvenir shops, bars and clubs shine out through the fog. Below the hill the city’s lung offers gardens and parks, and, surprisingly, a statue of Robert Emmet, handsome and iconic outside the city’s centre of science.
The list of city signature attractions is headed by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 151 Third Street (between Mission & Howard Sts) Tel: +1 (415) 357-4000 Open: daily (except Wed), 11am-6pm (Thurs until 9pm) www.sfmoma.org. The permanent collection includes works by Frida Kahlo, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Jasper Johns.
If you are a fan of the photographer Dorothea Lange, whose chronicle of the lives of people in Clare in the 1950s is one of our great twentieth century treasures, SOMA has some Dorothea Lange photos on view in the SOMA area. www.sfmoma.org Take the BART over to Oakland to the Oakland Museum and you can view the entire 2400 photos that she took in Ireland in the 1950s.
Feeling peckish rather than puckish? Few places in North America have more restaurants. The must-dine is the The Stinking Rose in North Beach,serving some amazing garlic-laden food, with the world’s longest garlic braid encoiled through the ceiling. Try the 40-clove chicken at your peril, if you are not as brave the surf and turf is very San Francisco.
By then another evening party will have begun. Fog does that to people.
- See www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com for details
- Blanket Babylon Club Fugazi 678 Green Street San Francisco www.beachblanketbabylon.com
- Teatro Zinzanni dinner show website: 415-438-2668 or love.zinzanni.org
- Bloomingdales opened their first San Francisco store near Union Square this autumn. The locals stress the small shopping neighbourhoods where little boutiques and cafes prevail on city streets. The closest outlet mall is Petaluma 40 minutes out of town.
- The Stinking Rose in North Beach. 325 Columbus Avenue www.thestinkingrose.com
- Neptune’s Palace at Pier 39 has an array of seafood and a greeting party of sea lions to add to the atmosphere as you arrive.
- The Cliff House in Ocean Beach 1090 Point Lobos Ave offers some of the best chowder in the world www.cliffhouse.com
- The city’s most notorious attraction has a new cruise service on www.alcatrazcruises.com
- Eoghan Corry flew on the inaugural Aer Lingus service to San Francisco. www.aerlingus.com
- He stayed at Hotel Nikko 222 Mason Street (Union Square) San Francisco, CA 415.394.1111 www.hotelnikkosf.com
- San Francisco is bookable on www.aerlingus.com at lead-in fare of Eu239 inc taxes & charges
