Surviving the San Francisco Giants Parade

Halloween is one of the craziest holidays of the year, but this year it was extra crazy in San Francisco. In addition to being dedicated to candy and costumes, October 31^st marked a day of all-out celebration in honor of the San Francisco Giants’ World Series victory with a spirited parade running through the city. As a Giants fan, I couldn’t miss it for the world. But being the naïve person that I am, I seriously underestimated the Halloween-appropriate wave of black and orange that engulfed the entire city.

The chaos of the occasion could already be felt miles away from San Francisco. Getting into the city was the most excruciating experience ever, and that’s coming from someone who used different types of transportation that day. In order to avoid the difficult hunt for parking, my friends and I decided to drive to the nearest BART station and go from there. At 7 AM, we didn’t expect the freeways to be so congested already, but they were. We also didn’t expect the cars in the BART parking lot to be like packed sardines, but they were. And, surprise, the packed sardine analogy also applied to the inside of the train. The means of transportation were tight everywhere we went, and returning home was no different.

This is what I’m talking about.

As if making our way there wasn’t already hard enough, making our way through the parade was an even greater challenge. We thought that since we had gone early we would be able to claim our spots upon arriving and just sit back and enjoy the show. Really, we were welcomed by mobs of people running down the streets and, literally, climbing up the walls. I can’t really complain about those that were intoxicated; they were awesome sources of entertainment. I saw one man standing on top of a street sign. I saw another man climb up the side of a building (Spiderman?), who later proceeded to pull people up until there was a good crowd of hollering drunks on top of the roof. It really was a disaster waiting to happen, but being surrounded by insane people wasn’t even the worst part; it was the lack of cell phone signal that made it so irritating. There was absolutely no way of getting a hold of anyone, thus, I wasn’t even able to see or speak with my family whom were also there.

Despite all of the insanity, the parade was an experience that I would never trade for anything. Being there, celebrating in the midst of swarms of people who love a team just as much as you do, is the most awesome feeling.