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Before I get to the fun portions of my trip, one thing you should know is how thankful I now am for the CTA (Chicago Area Transit), despite how the train feels like a boat when riding it. One reason being that the CTA is easy to navigate. For the CTA, you’ve got your red line that goes north to south, a blue line that runs northwest to east to southwest, etc. There may be a few stops that hold multiple lines but that’s it. The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) on the other hand has way too many of those, especially in the southwest portion of the BART map below, which is where San Francisco is located.
To make matters worse, the trains aren’t color coded on the car like they are on the CTA. Instead, there are signs above the tracks that indicate which train is arriving. This means that if you’re coming down the stairs and hear a train, you don’t know whether you should make a run for it or not!
Another reason is that on the BART, you pay for how far you travel. Compared to the CTA, you only have to pay a set price for a ticket no matter how far you travel.
The ride took about 45 minutes until we actually got to San Francisco. On the way there, I passed through a beautiful scenery of mountains as well as Oakland, which I didn’t know is really close to San Francisco. In Oakland, I also saw where the Golden State Warriors play at home. Since there’s water between the two cities, the BART goes under the ocean, which freaks me out EVERY time! Finally, I arrived downtown and couldn’t wait to start my journey in and around San Francisco! So let’s get to talking’ about it in my next blog! First stop, Alamo Square!