The San Francisco Apartment

 my old apartment on Filbert St. in North Beach. I can still smell the garlic...

In August of 2011, I moved cross country from D.C. to San Francisco for a six month stint with the company that I was working for at the time.

I was fortunate enough to have a good friend (and fellow Pi Phi) living near SF at the time, who also happened to be looking for a place in the city. After a few weeks on the hunt for the perfect apartment, our humble abode was found in the North Beach neighborhood (also known as San Francisco's Little Italy)-- a classic three story turn-of-the-century building with its sun drenched bay windows and narrow, decoratively plastered hallways.

Looking back on it, we could not have landed in a more perfect location. The area, known as the Barbary Coast, connects some the city's most famous historic sites. Chinatown, where we'd often go to get lost in search of fresh (and cheap) produce and interesting, foreign trinkets, Fisherman's Wharf, where the sea lions lay basking in the sun and barking at the tourists, and The Financial District, where my office was located. Every morning I took in the crisp air and walked past the Transamerica Building, with epic views of the Bay Bridge. Up the block was the beautiful Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral, where Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio in 1954.

Despite the challenging topography, difficulty catching cabs, and obnoxiously high cost of living, I really did enjoy my time there. It is a beautifully cultured city with a never-ending list of things to do on any given day. The weather, though fickle, was always enjoyable. And the proximity to Napa Valley was... well, rather dangerous for my addiction to red wine.

I adore this post from one of my favorite blogs- A CUP OF JO. In it, she gives a photographic tour of her blogger friend's perfectly petite San Francisco apartment. The light, the lack of storage space, the hallway... totally brings me right back.