Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Yoga in SF


Got up and did the 6am class at Global Yoga in San Fransisco this morning. The location of the studio dictated which hotel we stayed at, so it was within walking distance - tho at 5:30am in the morning it made for rather a cold walk!


It was a great class. Hot with far less humidity than we're used to, which is like all the others studios we have been to over here so far. Though I am under no illusion that the classes at TT will be like that. I'm sure they will figure a way to get that humidity cranked up! It just makes such a difference to your ability to breathe.


The Instructor was great, gave us a lot of individual detailed instruction and the class had a nice rhythm. There were some noticeable differences which are similar to the postures we do in the Advanced Series.


That is, no warming up in Pada-Hastasana, just get straight into it. For Dhanurasana /Bow they put their L arm straight up first and then grab the foot with the R hand and get into the pose. Then hold the posture for as long as possible, which was great for getting out of that comfort zone of only holding for 20 seconds!


Also, no towel in Sasangasana / Rabbit, which was the same at the Monterey studio and is an Advanced posture. Very hard to do with moisturizer on. Oy.

San Fransisco


We spent this afternoon driving up to San Fransisco. What a truely beautiful city! It is a Sister City with Wellington in NZ and you can see why. There are a lot of parks in the city along with the hilly streets of course which provide amazing views over the harbour. It has a great energy about it and the streets are filled with people so the city feels alive (sonething that LA didn't have?).





The famous Golden Gate bridge is visible from miles and so it was an easy landmark to find. We have planned to take pics of different yoga postures in front of all famous landmarks we visit so this is the first.


It is very poor excuse for a Bow pose but I had been sitting in a car for 4 hours previously, it was freezing outside so the bod wasn't warmed up at all, I had jeans on, it was very windy.....enough excuses, but you get the idea. lol


We walked around the city for a bit before settling on a place for dinnner. The area we are in reminded me of Ponsonby in AK and is full of trendy cafes and restaurants etc. I have to admit it feels great to be in a bustling city again and if I had to live in the States it would definitely be a city on my list.

Alcatraz







Spent another stunning day in the beautiful city of San Fransisco today. Woke up early and went to the Global Yoga studio for a 6 am class (which I will write about in a seperate post so that those of you who are non-yogis aren't bored with my blow by blow account of each posture :-) We then went down to Fishermans Wharf (in pic) and walked along the waterfront. Its very much a touristy area but still lovely all the same. The Wharf is alive and bustling with fresh seafood stalls and all the vendors try to out do each other for your business.


I'm amazed at how clean the city is. There is NO rubbish, cig butts, or graffiti anywhere and it would certainly put a lot of our cities to shame.


We then headed to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. We couldn't have picked a more perfect day to be out on the harbour as there wasn't a cloud in the sky and we got 360 degree views of the harbour from the ferry (though temps are still a bit cool for us Gold Coast residents).


The Tour around Alcatraz was really interesting. I didn't know but the place was originally built as a fortress to protect San Fransisco in the Gold Rush in the early 1800's. It was then converted to a prison until it was deemed too expensive to run and upkeep and it was closed in 1963. Little history lesson there :-) It also didn't have the "heavy" energy I expected it too. I'm wondering maybe if its because it is open to the public and so has had so many people through? Mind you I didn't feel too keen on hanging out in anyone's cell for any length of time!


Would have loved to have had time to stay longer as there is so much to do here but unfortunately the day of reckoning will soon be upon us so we have to start making our way back to the City of Angels.





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