Castro in San Francisco: A City Within A City

Castro is home to San Francisco’s gay community. It is called Castro for its busiest thoroughfare, “Castro Street.” It is thriving with bars, restaurants, shops, beautiful homes and commercial buildings and creative boutiques. According to research, this used to be the place for immigrants but at the advent of the 50’s and 60’s this became the ultimate place for the gay and lesbian folks seeking solidarity. Cost of housing here (usually 2-level apartment style) is from $700,000.00 to $2,000,000.00. The city is very clean and tidy.

Husband and I had another round of Italian dinner here, this time at Fuzio. Days ago, we had one in Little I taly. At Fuzio, we had sun dried tomato pasta and Greek salad. Both were good. The olive oil in the salad was quite tasty and almost like it has some peanut taste in it while the balsamic vinegar was kind of sweet, still the salad was great. We enjoyed our meal in this cozy restaurant, ranked as one of Castro’s famous Italian restaurants. While walking along Castro Street, we bought fudge, brownie and peanut cookies (they were huge, about the size of my palm). There were different types and there were phallus shaped cookies soaked in chocolate, held with Popsicle sticks. There were also the female anatomy cookies. Interesting as well. The cookies were yummy! Nope, we didn't get those sexy cookies, haha. As we walked farther, the more we felt the cold chill of the night so we drank coffee a lot. We had our gloves and hats on to keep us warm (not counting the three-layered clothes I was wearing) still, my hands were starting to freeze! It was nice to walk from afternoon to sundown- to twilight then up until the emergence of evening time was seen right between our eyes.After filling our tummies with lots of hot coffee, we needed to go to the loo. We were out walking and almost gliding as we tried to search for Starbucks in the area and found one on a corner street. It was filled up with gay men having some fun together over a cup of coffee. The place looks like it belongs to them. And for the first time in his life, men were checking out blue-eyed husband. I kidded him that he was a good catch in Castro since he turned heads quite a number of times that gosh, I couldn't track of the figures anymore!

We went to an art gallery (forgot the name) that featured the last works of Argentinean gay artist (forgot his name) who looked like a fraternal twin of Frieda Kahlo and whose oil paintings depicted only himself as the subject, like the way Frieda did in her life time. His colors were bold, brilliant and striking; they are evocative and festive yet had some surreal qualities in them. He depicted himself as a man-woman-transvestite in a variety of attires in different occasions (i.e. joining the gay parade, cooking time at home- wearing an apron and a dress but he left his thick moustache). Likewise, his paintings have hypnotic appeal and got the elements of surprise in them. Well, we left the gallery with another perspective of gay man's life. We are becoming to be more understanding of them.

While walking along Castro Street, we also saw the famous Castro Theatre where an Asian and American Film Festival was going on; there was a long queue of moviegoers waiting for the gate to open at past 6 PM; a number of them were Chinese s in charge of the festival. There were some Asian gay men we saw with Caucasian partners. Otherwise, most of the gays were whites. Refined, very professionally dressed and need. A few were ruggedly dressed but still maintained of composure that says, "I am in control." In Castro, men held hands as they walked along the street; no strand of bashfulness was ever present, they felt proud being gay in this community and they just look normal which was great! We saw some walking their dogs; mostly were attractive men. Gosh!

We saw a few lesbians, mostly wearing black leather jackets, other than 3 or 4 visible lesbians we saw, Castro is basically a homey haven that caters more to gay men than women. We also took notice on how the lesbians seem to be so “angry with the world” as manifested in their manners, gestures, mannerisms and facial expression. We sounded biased and yes, we are. Unlike the gay men, these women held contempt inside them whereas the men were so wholesome looking in comparison. The men were non-threatening and looked at ease with themselves; relaxed with the world they move in. Some are really macho looking, bearded men- but they are gay by choice and it is breath taking to see on how comfortable they are with their own sexuality! Beauty salons and nail salons are almost present in every corner and obviously; this is a good kind of business in the area that is sprouting fast and is earning a lot of money and has a strong numbers of clientele. For one, I never saw a mother with a child in a cart in Castro. This is really not the place for the usual normal family where parents are heterosexual. This is exclusively a gay man's haven. Even in bars, one rarely sees a woman. Some of the couples we saw were young, others were old and middle-aged. One man we saw with his partner was in crutches, skinny and looked so sick but the partner (both in their 50s) was very caring and comforting. It was touching to see them with their kind of love growing together with time.

In Castro, billboard ads on the streets are big and eye catching; they do remind gay couples to have protected sex and to be aware of HIV virus and to have periodic injections when needed (if they already caught the virus). Over all, our evening in Castro was a pleasant one. We took the F-line bus* from Market Street and came back on the same bus that brought as to the wharf.

(F line bus is antique, electronically operated a.k.a. "street car" and "tram" that runs on a rail).

We hanged out at the wharf after our Castro trip and went for an evening of fun and entertainment; went to the rhythm and blues bar where live music was playing. It was St. Patrick’s night and it was a full house. Husband and I enjoyed the dancing and the drinking part of our date. I had my usual gin and tonic while husband had tequila. After a few minutes of sipping our cold drinks, we decided to hit the dance floor and digged it for a good couple of hours! I was sweating a lot that I had to take off my pullover. We walked back (near Walgreen’s) at the Fisherman’s Wharf and waited for the F-line bus to arrive. By 11. 30 MN, it finally manifested and dropped us off at the Farmer's market (Ferry Building). From there we walked the very cold and chilly night in SFO for half an hour, crossing some 10 blocks of the financial district until we finally (sigh) reached Market Street and at last, 3rd Street where we had to wait for our bus that would take us to Chinatown area in Broadway. And after about 30 minutes of waiting time (plus the walking time to 3rd street which is equivalent to an hour), our bus number 45 finally arrived. Whew! At the bus, we felt relieved to be seated; got off past our Broadway Street and Pacific bus stop; walked through two blocks farther down the road until we were finally crossing Broadway with the crowd that said, "TGIF!" It was late (past midnight) and I was ready to drop dead in our hotel bed. At that time, I was so exhausted that I was ready to explode with my bladder being so full (after drinking at the bar), boy, I was sure ready to plunge into our restroom, fronto!

After a while, I prepared my hot bath and stayed on at the tub for about half an hour. It was, oh so goooood and quite relaxing after a day of walking! Meanwhile, husband couldn’t keep his feet on the ground so he went downstairs to check out what was happening in Columbus (only to come back 15 minutes later to say it was just the TGIF and St. Patrick’s Day crowd). The night finally came to a halt with husband and I tossing into our deep slumber and waking up the next morning, later than we had thought of. We left the city with a full stomach and a good meal (Chinese food). We were happy to have found a time to shop for our one-week food supply in Chinatown (we always shop there on our way out of the city). By early afternoon, we were ready to be back in the refuge of our home. At 2. 30 PM, we were home, tired but happy. We had a full week. Being home made us feel good. I love the scent of our place with the aroma of scented candles (cherry, lemon, strawberry) and airfreshner dancing in the air! No place like home!