Day 4 - Thurday 8 June

As it was raining we explored the shops before visiting friends and meeting their happy 7 month old baby. We travelled to their place on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) which was fast and efficient but disturbingly noisy. Apparently the noise is due to corrugations in the old tracks. Short of replacing the tracks the bumps in the steel can be ground down, but many of the tracks are very worn.

An unfortunate side to San Francisco is the many homeless people hanging around downtown. There seem to be no facilities for them - not even any public toilets. Explicit signs at railway stations prohibit urinating and defecating with threat of fines, but no toilets are available. Tourists use restrooms in cafes and restaurants or large stores, but the homeless are excluded from these buildings. A lot of police, transport police and security guards are employed to keep the majority of the homeless population from entering public and private buildings.

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