I heart Berkeley

The more places I stay, the more I am unwraveling a common thread linking the Airbnb hosts – a certain underlying bohemia. Andy was no exception. He’s a New Yorker who has been living in Berkeley for the last six years. According to Andy, it’s not so much Berkeley as the house that’s kept him there that long.

The house was cool, I’ll give you that, a shingled cottage with a loft and skylights it was pretty unique in suburban Berkeley and combined with the laid back University town atmos, a bit like Cambridge, there’s a lot to like. On Andy’s advice I headed straight downtown on foot to check out the University campus and spent a great afternoon in the warm sun watching students kick footballs and throw Frisbees to the eachother in grassy courts surrounded by Hearst this and Guggenhiem that hall. The longer I’m hear the more I realize Americans with cash like to get their names on things. It was hard to stifle the giggles when the passing professors were wearing Birkenstocks with socks. Yep, this is Berkeley alright. It may be 40 years since the university made a name for it’s freewheelin’ and freethinking academics, but even now they’re still decidedly left of center.

Berkeley campus is visually really beautiful. They’re building a new extension of the Naval Architecture wing, in a style sympathetic to the building’s original simple wood structure. I also love a university that has or has had a whole wing devoted to naval architecture. Continuing my zig zag I pass a big grove of Eucalypts which I keep encountering in the US and each time provides a reassuring whiff of home as I walk past. According to the historian Laura in LA, California grew a whole lot of Australian Eucalypts as they were planning to mill the timber for railroad sleepers but that didn’t really work out, so instead there are just clumps of gum trees sans the Koalas dotted about the state.

After another afternoon of zig-zagging and some time on the grassy knoll (not The Grassy Knoll, just a grassy knoll) I headed over to Berkeley’s hip new restaurant Gather. I had a fantastic meal of roasted eggplant. I like eating food, but I’ve just tried to describe the flavours of the meal and I just can’t interpret the tastes in a way that captures the unexpectedly unique flavours. The concept of the restaurant is local organic produce which is the big thing in northern California. I later find out Andy has a very small financial interest in the restaurant and his friends own it. They’re on a winner, do yourself a favour and stop by if you’re ever in town.

If only I could find a way to work in Berkeley I can see that it’s the kind of place you could easily find yourself for six years.