San Francisco is one of my favourite cities in the world. I never tire of going, and whenever I get assigned a layover I am jumping off the walls with excitement. This time around with only 10 hours to play with, I had to stick close to San Francisco International Airport. What was I going to do?
Factoring in time to actually close my eyes for a little bit, I needed to figure out something I could explore in the SFO surrounding area. No matter how short the layover is I can never just stay in my hotel room. It is not me. Even if it’s just to run in circles outside for 10 minutes, I have to get out. After doing a little bit of research on my phone I noticed that near my airport hotel was a city called Burlingame. Nothing to loose I decided to check it out. This is the story of how I kind of fell in love with it.
Running clothes on, I jogged about 15 minutes from my hotel to the Burlingame main street. The streets on the way were lined with shops on one side, and tall beautiful trees on the other. I stopped at the beginning of the main road where the train station and shops meet and grabbed a drink. Coffee in hand I started to explore.
What I found was a friendly neighbourhood. People were saying hi and smiling at each other. There were name brand stores but also a lot of local boutiques. It also happened that I stumbled in on this place on a Sunday. A side street was closed down for a farmers market. I spent a couple of hours just weaving in and out of stores and enjoying the sun and atmosphere all around. Oh also spent about an hour and a half in a store called Francesca’s. You Americans are so lucky, I love this place.
It honestly felt like I was walking around a city that I personally created using only California stereotypes. Palm trees, sun, happy people, farmers markets, and a lot of coffee shops per square mile. It is not usually in my style to wish for short layovers, but if I do get one, I would be happy to come back here.