Day 334: What would we do without our mums?
After a day in San Luis Obispo I took another train north, to San Fransisco. The trains here are super slow. But the view was beautiful this time too, with the light from the setting sun on the hills.
The kitchen.
After more than six hours on the train I arrived to Oakland where I took a Lyft (wish it existed in Sweden!) to the Mission district in San Fransisco, where my accommodation for the night was. Again the neighbourhood didn't look great. I've been surprised this trip of how many homeless people there are in these Californian cities.
It was supposed to be a Victorian house, but on the street it's mostly warehouse types of buildings so like the place in LA there were not really any open bars or stores at 10 pm, which made it look less nice. But once my host opened and I got in everything felt good.
The house is really charming on the inside and my host Jason was super professional. He rents out four rooms in the house and has 765! reviews on Airbnb. Wow!
What I especially like is that it, even though there are so many people staying here, still feels very homey. Jason showed me around - the two bathrooms, my bedroom, the kitchen with espresso machine and things for breakfast - and spent a lot of time to tell me what to do and see in San Fransisco.
When I told him I'd go to a potluck dinner the next day he gave me a few recommendations for nice places to buy food too.
I tried the Coffee Bar for "working from home" today. Yes, MacBooks everywhere.
It was fun to meet another dedicated host. Some of the things here are very similar to my own home. Jason showed me where the tea, coffee, mugs and glasses are in the kitchen; that's what I usually do to. He also told me his mum helps him with the guests when he travels. It's the same for me - thanks a million mum!!!
Other things are different but seem like good ideas that I should implement at home. 1) eggs, milk and cereal for the guests. That doesn't cost a lot, but it's a nice gesture for guests who don't feel like going out to buy breakfast. 2) a map of the city on the wall, lots of tourist brochures and even guide books. There is also a little post on the fridge with the address to the nearest food stores. And when I arrived Jason sent me a message with a long list of cafés, bars, restaurants and shopping streets. In short, he provides a lot more information for the guests about things they might need. 3) shampoo etc in the bathroom for guests. Again, it doesn't cost much, but is convenient for the guests that might have forgotten some at home.
So all in all a positive experience. My room is really nice with interesting furniture and a great bed. Although I must say I find San Fransisco rather expensive to stay in. One reason could be that it was very booked when I started looking, only 2 % of all listings left. Wow, on a regular week in November.
All the listings I looked at added cleaning fees and taxes which made the a lot more expensive than they seemed at first. Now I pay about 170 dollars for two nights. In comparison I paid about 60 dollars for one night in Paris, in a nicer neighbourhood. And this was almost the cheapest place I could find. I could have saved about 50 dollars for both nights if I had chosen a bunk bed in a "420 friendly" place but I just felt like finding some calmer place to start with.
For the last two nights I've sent out some Couchsurfing requests, but if I don't get any answers, I might have to take the bunk bed anyway.