July: During my last stay in San Francisco, Sarah and Derek invited me to stay at their house, a nice two storey building in Bernal Heights that they shared with five other adults and a baby.
Bernal Heights is a cozy neighbourhood with small one family houses just south of the Mission District.
The front yards were mostly just grass and maybe a couple of flowers, but some houses were a little more imaginative.
The hills are not as high here as further north on the San Francisco headland, but they’re still there, giving the neighbourhoods more perspective.
Mission street, the same as the one that runs through the Mission District, but still so very different. In Bernal Heights, everything is quiet.
St. Mary’s Pub. This hill used to be a convent. Now, what remains of the religious past is a couple of names, the streets forming a bell down the hill, and this pub. I never went there, but even from the outside it looks kind of dim and smokey.
And in Glen Park, the closest BART station, you can buy Viking’s giant subs. I wonder what a viking sandwich might contain? A dried fish on hard rye bread?
In Bernal Heights, Sarah and Derek taught me to play Settlers of Catan. When I left, I promised them that I would buy a game of my own once I got back home and introduce it to my friends – and then practice and practice until I could call myself a master player. And then, the next time we met, be it in the US or Sweden or somewhere else entirely, I would beat them. They just laughed at my threat.
But, except for putting me through a couple of humiliating losses by the Settlers of Catan board, Sarah and Derek were such generous and kind hosts that I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Just their patience with my chaotic traveler’s schedule and last minute outings amazed me.
But what else could I have expected? They met while studying on Iceland, and have traveled in Europe and Asia together. Couchsurfers, just like me. Travelers stick together, it’s as if we’re a special kind of breed. I just hope that they’ll come to Sweden one day, so that I may return the favour.
Katja Malmborg 