Today, we woke up really early. We had some breakfast and rushed to the cars. One of our cars was in the driveway, the other downtown. Parking in Daly City is pretty impossible.
We drove up to the piers and parked our car. Today it is the day that we will see Alcatraz. Alcatraz, most known for being a prison for a lot of world-famous criminals, actually has had multiple functions over time. It started out to be a military base. The Americans had a strategic, triangle defence plan for defending San Fransisco. Later on, they decided it should be a prison. During this period of time, Alcatraz was home to criminals like “scar face” Capone, Machine gun Kelly and the bird man. Surprisingly, there were not only criminals and guards on the island at that time. Families lived there, children grew up on the island, while up on the hill, criminals were thinking through their escape plans. Weird enough, families did not notice the criminals and all felt great on the island. They loved living there and raising their children there. They never felt unsafe. I think I would have found it weird, living on a deserted island with all kinds of serious criminals. Escaping Alcatraz is not an option, though many tried to. The water is really cold and the stream is fast. People who tried to escape Alcatraz either died or were recaptured. Only three men once escaped and were never to be found (neither alive nor dead). Alcatraz was a real disaster. When prisoners looked outside the windows of the prison, when they were eating or were outside, they saw San Fransisco, just 2 km away. So close, but yet so far. Freedom was right there and that was real torture for them. Furthermore, in Alcatraz, there were no rewards for good behaviour, only punishment for bad behaviour. Alcatraz was not like other prisons.
In Alcatraz, we took a tour through the cells. The cells are small, only 1,5 meters wide, 3 meters deep and 2 meters tall. If you were to move in your bed, your feet would be in your toilet. There was a (rather uncomfortable) bed, a small stool and table, a sink and a toilet available to you in your own cell. These were the regular cells. There also was a block of cells separate from these cells, isolation. The holes, they called it. These were cells were there was no daylight. It was completely dark, night and day. Prisoners were sentenced here if they showed bad behaviour in prison. It was the prison in the Alcatraz prison. Some criminals stayed in here for 14 days in a row. One prisoner said that, whenever he was in the hole, he would rip off a button of his shirt, threw it in the air, waited until it fell down, got down on hands and knees and tried to find it back. And then again. Just to kill time. Another one said he killed time by tripping. “If you try really really hard, you can see things! Things you want to see! You start tripping! That is what I did!”, he said.
After the prison closed, the island was given to Indian protesters. They lived there for a period of less than two years. Now, the island belongs to birds and it is considered a national monument.
It was a really interesting visit. I learned a lot about the American history. And walking down the hallways of this once so strict prison was a really cool thing to do.
When we arrived back on shore, we had some lunch and walked to pier 39, where we saw about a hundred sea lions lying down on the docks. They were tanning, wrestling and having a bath from time to time. They made a lot of noise, as they screamed at each other.
We continued our program, and picked up bikes at a bike rental. We drove our bikes all the way up to the Golden Gate Bridge. We went up the bridge, and all the way across it! There was so much wind there I felt like I was just about to fly away! It was such an amazing feeling just biking there, high above the water, with the entire city of San Fransisco on my right hand side. I realised how lucky I am to be here. I let the wind flow through my hair and as I did, I got back to the other side of the bridge. We cycled back to the rental place, taking a small, apparently not legal detour (riding a bike in San Fransisco is really confusing!) and handed in our bikes.
We walked back to our cars, and drove them up to San Bruno, where Ery treated us on a nice red lobster dinner! It was a really fun (and tasty!) experience!
After dinner we went home, and went to bed. It was a really exciting day! Tomorrow a new location! Cheers!
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