Cleveland: not so bad.

While I certainly am not necessarily interested in moving here permanently (or even more than a few months), partially due to the fact that their winters sound horrendous, Cleveland is not remotely as terrible as a lot of people told us it would be. Or in the case of one friend, who just laughed hysterically when we told her we’d be here for a month, it was not hilariously awful. It was in fact, perfectly pleasant. Perhaps a bit…vanilla at times, it was by no means an unpleasant stay. Which, I’m counting as a win.

Though there’s not a ton of great food, it does indeed exist. And we ate well. Plus there’s the market and a few Whole Foods. And excellent coffee. There’s good access to the outdoors. It’s relatively inexpensive. When looking to get a haircut I couldn’t find a salon who offered haircuts over $100, $45 was typical. Which made me feel like I was cheating (Dublin/SF haircuts run me with tip closer to $150), or that someone was playing a trick on me. Ohio City and Tremont offer a vibe that fits our personalities, though we spent most of our times in Cleveland Heights, which while pretty, is a bit boring (aka: the burbs). But does make an excellent location for running. It’s not an exciting city, but it’s not infuriating either (ahem…NYC). The only city I’ve lived in that was both a joy to live in as well as vibrant and interesting was Los Angeles (well, Pasadena), it’s tall order for a city. But I’m sure it exists in several places.

Downsides include the weather, which while pleasant during our stay, is apparently miserable much of the year. So there’s that. Having to drive. I rediscovered how much I hate driving, it makes me irrationally angry-I’m sure it stems from feeling like the US is an absurd place for not having adequate public transport, which means I get to spend (waste) my time in traffic and pay for expensive gas (p.s. dear Buick, why is your gas milage so terrible? It’s 2015). On the plus side, it’s helped me decide when eventually forced to lease/buy a car in the US I can just go as cheap/small with as good of gas milage as possible. And be only mildly irritated at my forced car existence. And then bike/walk as much as possible. It’s a bizarre revelation for sure. Thanks Cleveland?

Museum of Art

We spent our last weekend exploring the city. We visited breweries (Great Lakes and Platform), had a picnic and walk around Lakeshore, and visited the Museum of Art (which was free! And had some very decent exhibits). It was a perfectly pleasant stay-cation and we feel like we’ve seen a good portion of the city, sorry Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (not actually sorry).

Dan Flavin

And just like that our time in Ohio is over. Our experience was better than expected, if not terribly interesting. And now, we’re headed to a brand new-to-us destination: the south! We’re very excited to explore a part of the US we’ve never been, plus we’ve heard Atlanta is a pretty cool city, with excellent food and outdoors, which is all we need.

Next up: Charleston!