Historic Alcatraz Jail

The good thing of being on dry dock is that we get a lot of free time and even when we are on duty there is practically nothing to do. The other day me and my friends decided to take the Alcatraz tour offered by one of the countless tourism agencies around Fishermen Wharf on Pier 39. So we went early in the morning like at 9:00; I consider that early because by then it was still dark and full of fog all around. So we took the ferry and we arrived at the island which is no more than 3 miles far from mainland. I dont know why there are so many people who dont appreciate stuff like this, I love history, and to visit places that holds so much history and important events that marked time and made history, its just cool. (now I understand why my mom daydream frequently about visiting Israel) Anyway, as we were approaching the island it became notable that it was a very old building made of rudimental materials compared to nowadays' . Fog was everywhere, it was dark and somehow cold. There was a turist guy who briefly introduced the island history through its beggining till its ending. Afterwards we were allowed inside the instalations and that was it. So much history laying on those walls, on those iron bars and overall. Of course, it doesnt smell bad, and it's even clean (its a museum). We were given sort of a mp3 player with earphones and all the major events that occured there, we could listen about while we were walking and taking pictures. We spent there couple of hours and then left. Afterwards we went walking along the bay where there are countless of non-expensive stores and some others museums and atracttions. We went to this wax museum and it was just awesome who real those wax figures looked like. Representations of all modern important people from movie artists to presidents and even Saddam. Also from the past. There was even one where Leonardo D Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa. It seemed so real. And to finish that day, we went to walk in the heart of the biggest china town of america. Huge. We even had lunch in one of the restaurants...the service was horrible though. The menu in chineese. And just before coming back to the ship we went to the shopping area, my goodness, so many stores and bargains and so little money to spend. My mom would go nuts in there.