SF Nightmare

San Francisco is one of the worst cities to drive in.. I have sworn that I will never ever drive in that city again in my life even if it is a life and death situation.. even if I am dying I will not drive there.. Twice I had horrifying experiences in that city..

The first time I went there (I had seen it once before though when I had taken a city tour) recently, I was driving.. I had no idea how the roads were but I had felt that the city is little hilly during my previous visit to the city..  We were going on US-101 for almost 50 mins when we saw “South San Francisco” board on the mountain.. I was more than excited since I was the driver.. Then the fun started.. We were suddenly bombarded with lot of exits/ramps/forks in the road and we did what we should have never done! 😦 missed US-101 and enter CA 280 or some highway.. Then got scared and took an exit from that highway and landed into a city road.. From here, we fed the address of pier 39.. Then as we started following the GPS instructions, the roads started becoming hilly until we came to a road which was going up the hill and it was little steep.. I, somehow, managed to climb it but I was getting really scared..

Then after that, we found a road which was sooo steep (god save me).. I had never seen such a steep road going up in my entire life! 😦 The most idiotic thing to do was put stop signs on that road since some small roads were crossing this one! You need to climb the up a little bit, then press brake.. After seeing left,right,left, remove your leg from the brake and then press accelerator within few milliseconds else your vehicle will slide down the road.. To add to the fury, the road was crowded with way tooo many vehicles.. One small mistake and you will end up meeting an accident.. And there were so many stop signs in between.. The road was a one-way and (cant look into the rear view mirror else I would have had a heartache), I was so busy watching for stop signs, vehicles in the roads crossing this road, making sure that the vehicle doesnt slide down the hill (mummyyyy help meee).. After some distance, I noticed that the yellow line was on my right (???) and then I saw a vehicle approaching us from the opposite direction… I pulled my vehicle to the right.. The road had suddenly become two-way from one-way (god knows when!!) and I was on the wrong side of the road..

Then somehow with great difficulty (without having an accident), I reached the top of the road (or rather, the hill to which it was leading us to).. Then after seeing left,right,left, I went ahead and had the shock of my lifetime.. The road ahead was sooooo steep and it was a down.. It was like a roller coaster ride down there and the worst thing is that you are driving yourself !!! I got so scared and shouted “Mummyyy.. I cannot get in there” and stopped in the middle of the intersection.. There were vehicles in all the directions.. My friend showed her hand and made them stop.. Then I somehow took reverse and took a right turn into the road which was crossing this one.. I was like “somebody take me out of this place.. I cannot drive anymore.. Please god help me.. I dont wanna die so soon”.. Then we parked the vehicle near the curb and breathed heavily…

Then we saw a person going by and asked him how to get out of this horrid place.. please tell us some road which is not like the ones that we came through.. He told us there was a parking lot and that we can park our vehicle there and then walk.. He also told us the return route through roads which werent “that steep”.. He was truly an angel sent by god to help us get out of those horrible roads… We wondered how the residents of the city would commute everyday 😮

The second time I went there, we again lost the highway and ended up in a city called “Daly city”, adjacent to the dreaded SF.. but this city was worse!!! This time my friend was driving (since I had no courage to drive after the first experience).. She also started shouting “I cant drive.. take me out of this place”.. This city had roads which were more steep and very confusing.. Finally, after roaming around in that city for like an hour or more, we somehow managed to come out of it to the highway.. I kept praying to god all the while.. I finally made up my mind that I am not going to this city again in car! no matter what happens!! I got a phobia for hills now.. I am dreading to drive on any other hilly road in the world now.. SF phobia is bad! trust me! 😦

One such actual road on which I drove 😀 is here