In The City

by Tom Welsh

I can’t really pinpoint when exactly I met Luke, I think through mutual friend & creative Sam Bailey. Fast forward a couple of years, and Luke AKA lord of all things internet gets a job in San Francisco, leaves behind life in South West England, I’m convinced to tackle the internet. A year or so into running the wonderful Exposure, I think he’s probably going to prove me right (you should definitely check it out, and probably get lost for a while).
I was lucky enough to hang out with Luke last spring when I was in the US on tour filming with You Me At Six. Whilst over in the US this summer shooting our new Enjoy The View campaign, I discovered I had a couple of days free in between Los Angles & Vancouver… and it’d have been rude not to swap by. One of the merits of inter-US flights is they’re pretty damn good value. I guess the same could be said if a route is cleverly anticipated in Europe, but almost all domestic US flight have wifi nowadays, which certainly is a change (I think at this point I’d done almost 20 flights in the past month….)

Anyway. I thought San Francisco seemed to be one of my favourite cities in the USA. At least from what I’d seen of it so far. My trip this summer was very short – just nights. After a night of probably too many beers Luke expressed a desire to show me around properly. I was very kindly loaned a bike by Kyle Frost (who you should follow here & here) and we were off. An avid (at least as far as I thought) fixed gear cyclist a while back in my University years, my legs were in for some work cycling the hills of SF.

Riding around San Francisco isn’t actually as difficult as it sounds. See, there’s this thing called The Wiggle, a ‘recommended’ bike route if you don’t want to tackle the most severe of gradients through . That’s the way it was explained to me anyway.

Lunch at Souvla. I love that so many US retailers operate cashless/paperless transaction systems. I wish it were more prevalent in Europe.

Welcome Stranger – This shop rules. Go visit. I finally replaced the wallet I lost weeks earlier in New York.

Hydration is key for a day on the bikes. Coconuts, followed by ciders, followed by Luke’s weird obsession with Sangria.

If you’re passing through San Francisco soon, exploring by bike is hugely recommended.