You can always tell you are in San Francisco because you’d be walking along and then suddenly realize that the sidewalks are not even…

and that the incline is, in fact, quite pronounced:

But most of the times you can’t be too sure whether the next corner will find you uphill or downhill because the city is cocooned inside a fog…

then dusted with rain, making it sometimes difficult to navigate while avoiding messenger bikes and oncoming cable cars:

But a misty San Francisco is the perfect way to see this town to romantic dreamers like me. I find Lombard Street even more charming with the fog above its zigzag hill…

The Fisherman’s Wharf also feels more “authentic” in the winter dreariness. It’s a total tourist trap and I’ve been here on sunny days, but maybe I do prefer a rainy SF, London, and even Hanoi from all the years of reading Brontë and Hardy novels. And a certain dogeared book called Gorillas In The Mist.

I’m going to duck inside Boudin’s (home of the famed sourdough bread) for lunch and see if I can’t get better shots of the city once the fog lifts later…

See you then.