Beatniks and Hippies

For our last full day in San Francisco, we began by stepping back in time to explore the North Beach area. Apparently, this place was the epicentre of the Beat Generation in the 50’s when Kerouac and his buddies arrived from New York.  They are now remembered for;

‘developing a reputation as new bohemian hedonists, who celebrated non-conformity, spontaneous creativity, experimentation with drugs, alternative forms of sexuality and a rejection of materialism’

We parked at Washington Square and walked down Columbus Avenue to visit City Lights Bookstore before a coffee in the nearby Caffe Trieste.  These places were the meeting points for the Beatniks in an era of otherwise conservatism. We soaked up the atmosphere at both places, along with some caffeine, before moving forward a decade into the Haight Ashbury district for a taste of the 60’s hippie movement and its Summer of Love climax in 1967.

It was obviously all too much for Kerouac who died two years later. But what a way to go!