Oakland: Exploring Downtown
When we first started looking for places to stay in San Francisco, we were blown away by how expensive the lodging is. We knew we had to look into the suburbs, and because neither of us had ever been there, we didn’t know where to stay. We had heard that Oakland was great and found some cheap airbnbs there, so we decided on that. Once we got there, we realized we were right by Chinatown, where we visited almost every day. We loved the area we were in. It was close to everything!
Oakland, as well as SF, has a really high homeless population. We knew that going in, and we both have spent time in many cities, so it wasn’t a huge shocker to us. However, it was still heartbreaking to see the clusters of tents and tarps set up under overpasses.
We spent our entire first day exploring downtown Oakland. There were so many cute shops, art galleries, cafes and more. The next morning, there was a huge farmer’s market, taking up an entire street. It was so fun to walk through and see the locals buying their groceries. We ended up with a carton of the best strawberries we had ever tasted - no exaggeration!
As far as Oakland goes, we stayed within walking distance from our airbnb, but we know there was so much more to explore that we missed out on. Oakland was so cool, and we feel lucky to have chosen to stay there, especially since we chose so randomly.
- Nick + Jess
