On my last free day before starting work, I spent most of the day walking around the city going from one viewing to another. It was a Monday, but we had the day off because it was Martin Luther King day, which is a national holiday. Lucky me! As for the viewings, I had an online viewing, followed by viewings on Castro St., Oak St., and finally Fell St.

My first viewing was online this morning with a man who looked to be 50 of 60. He did not disclose this in the Craigslist ad, which I found a bit odd. In hindsight, I’m really happy I didn’t have to travel all the way to Mission to be greeted by a relatively old man, who also talked quite slowly. Not the best match, even though the room was insanely cheap and had a good location.

The first house, was as you can guess in Castro, the gay neighborhood, with two other women. I’m not sure if it was actually in the heart of Castro, as it was a bit more uphill and in a more residential area. The house was with two women, Lalla, who I met, and her roommate Sam, who both work in hair salons. Lalla seemed great and has a really cute cat called Mimi and the house was also pretty nice.

The second house was with 4 guys around my age, all really fun, energetic and came across as pretty goofy (in a good way). Oak St is in Lower Haight, not too far from Mission. The location was actually really nice, as it was around a lot of cute cafes, bars and shops. I had lunch at Cafe Reveille and decided to order a salad due to the absence of veggies in my diet the last few days, but it ended up being so spicy my mouth was on fire the whole time.

Afterward, I walked towards the Panhandle for my last viewing. I think they call it the Panhandle because it’s a narrow park linked to Golden Gate Park, which would be the pan? I’d actually been here on Sunday when I was looking for a place to have breakfast, but the sun was shining today and people were out walking their dogs, playing basketball and running around the park.

I got introduced to Grace via Collin, an American guy I met on my first surf trip to Hossegor. Grace was really nice and is actually the one leaving the house to travel the world as a digital nomad, starting in Nicaragua. The house was really large and the room was great but I still wasn’t really convinced because it wasn’t really a match with the other roommates.

On the upside, I accidentally stumbled onto Haight St, which, unbeknownst to me at the time, is a very famous and touristy street where the Summer of Love, in other words, the hippie movement, began in the 1960’s. The street was full of brightly decorated second-hand clothing shops, a Thai restaurant that was literally called “Hippie Thai Streetfood” and an ice cream place covered in peace and heart logos.