Here more of the photos I sent my friend in Russia. Now though, instead of playing tourist for him, I'm getting my tiki on for me. He (and you) just get to come along for the ride...
After killing time in an organic fast food place eating a salad that had way, WAY too much Kale in it (and HOW! I'll spare you the details of the next morning...), I killed even more time at a Starbucks. And then 4 pm hit...and Pagan Idol opened it's doors.
At opening, I was the only patron there... I had the place to myself. It was awesome.
After enjoying a drink and some chat with the bartender in the downstairs bar, I made my way up the steps covering faux lava coals (EEK!) and visited the rear bar---which is my favorite of the two.
The upper bar is more GILLIGAN'S ISLAND tropical paradise than the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN nautical theme of the lower bar.
You almost expect hula dancers to emerge any second...
I was booted out of the upper bar for a Halloween tiki crawl group (on a Monday afternoon?). They arrived by bus and were all in costume.
Here are some of the revelers. I didn't know any of them, but snapped their photo anyway.
With the Halloween tiki crawl taking over Pagan Idol, I decided to check out a new (to me) tiki bar across town. (You can see more photos and read more about Pagan Idol HERE.) But first, i had to get there. When I arrived on the BART platform, there was chaos. The trains had broken down and there were people all over.
There were also people on the trains waiting to depart. But the trains sat there and sat there and sat there...
I went back up street side and ordered myself a Lyft.
The seating area is in the ruins of an old temple.
While finishing up my final cocktail for the evening, a girl came and sat near me. She was waiting for her friends and struck up a conversation with me. She had just turned 21 the night before. Last Rites was her first tiki bar. She asked the bartender to make her something special. The bartender created something called a Lover's Quarrel. I insisted on buying it for her as it was her birthday and her first tiki drink. Many happy returns, miss.
Soon afterwards, I got turned around (thanks Google Maps. Grrr.) looking for the BART station. I ended up in the Castro accidentally, so I had to hop on the Muni to get back downtown and to the BART stations.
Then a dash down the escalator to get to BART.
After killing time in an organic fast food place eating a salad that had way, WAY too much Kale in it (and HOW! I'll spare you the details of the next morning...), I killed even more time at a Starbucks. And then 4 pm hit...and Pagan Idol opened it's doors.
At opening, I was the only patron there... I had the place to myself. It was awesome.
After enjoying a drink and some chat with the bartender in the downstairs bar, I made my way up the steps covering faux lava coals (EEK!) and visited the rear bar---which is my favorite of the two.
The upper bar is more GILLIGAN'S ISLAND tropical paradise than the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN nautical theme of the lower bar.
With the Halloween tiki crawl taking over Pagan Idol, I decided to check out a new (to me) tiki bar across town. (You can see more photos and read more about Pagan Idol HERE.) But first, i had to get there. When I arrived on the BART platform, there was chaos. The trains had broken down and there were people all over.
There were also people on the trains waiting to depart. But the trains sat there and sat there and sat there...
I went back up street side and ordered myself a Lyft.
Soon I was waiting to enter Last Rites...a tiki bar that had opened only a few months earlier.
Last Rites was very cool looking.
The theme of the bar is that a cargo plane has crashed deep in the jungle. The inside of the plane's fuselage acts as the bar. Notice the plane's windows behind the shelving.
The seating area is in the ruins of an old temple.
While finishing up my final cocktail for the evening, a girl came and sat near me. She was waiting for her friends and struck up a conversation with me. She had just turned 21 the night before. Last Rites was her first tiki bar. She asked the bartender to make her something special. The bartender created something called a Lover's Quarrel. I insisted on buying it for her as it was her birthday and her first tiki drink. Many happy returns, miss.
Soon afterwards, I got turned around (thanks Google Maps. Grrr.) looking for the BART station. I ended up in the Castro accidentally, so I had to hop on the Muni to get back downtown and to the BART stations.
Then a dash down the escalator to get to BART.
Soon I was BARTing back across the bay...
When I arrived at the San Leandro station, my friend Erich was there to pick me up. It had been quite the day.
That would seem to be the logical end to my photo sharing adventure for my Russian friend. But it wasn't. I thought to myself, why not share everything. I know Russia and the US have many similarities---but we are also different. the commonplace to us may be interesting and exciting to them...so I continued to take pictures and send them over the course of my stay. Stay tuned for more.
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