This year’s World Pride happened to be in my city, Toronto. Yay right?!? Not so much fun when you get assigned to work that entire weekend and you are stuck hearing about all your friends’ amazing plans. I was very close to deleting them off of all my social media (which is my generation’s passive aggressive response).
So full of anger, I didn’t even notice where I was assigned to be that weekend and amazingly enough I got to spend a full day in a city famous for its pride celebrations, San Francisco!
I arrived Saturday morning and headed straight out. A quick hop on/hop off bus tour ride to Union Square and I arrived in the central location, well-informed and excited to get my day started. Pushing past the hundreds of tourists, I browsed around until it was time to meet a friend of mine in the Mission District. It was a short BART ride to get there and was easily navigable, even for a fairly newbie like myself.
I had never been to this side of town and I was so happy that I went. This artist-friendly neighbourhood is packed to the brim with unique boutiques, never ending food choices (deconstructed samosa anyone?) and home to the greatest iced coffee I have ever tasted.*
I could have spent the full day just perusing the many shops and graffiti covered alleyways. As I walked along Valencia street towards 18th street the buzz began to pick up, and as I turned the corner to head toward Dolores Park, it became full on pride madness. Street vendors, DJ’s, dancers and a couple thousand really happy people lined the streets. If you have ever attended a pride event you will understand, it is the most love-filled place you can be. I spent the rest of my day basking in the sunlight, chatting with strangers, and taking epic pictures of men on stilts.
The craziest part was that this wasn’t even the day of the parade; it was merely one afternoon on the weekend. While I do love my city and wish I could have been around for the pride fun, I won’t deny that San Francisco does it best!!
Cheers from 30,000 ft
@elzzster
* The Samosa is from Curry Up Now and the Mojito Coffee from Philz Coffee.