brianachristine

[brianachristine]

We did it! 365 days of Airbnb!

Plus a new milestone, getting to dance with Chewbacca to an Irish jig!

[brianachristine]

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

[brianachristine]

Happy Birthday to me!

I put to paper 365 days of Airbnb last year with Anthony after a full year of canceled plans. Rather than putting off any more life fulfilling goals at the mercy of quarentine, I sought out my long held desire to live in different parts of the country. Given the world was turning to be completely online this couldn’t have come at a better time.

[brianachristine]

Reality VS how I see the world.

[brianachristine]

We've been traveling on Airbnb nonstop for 304 days. Our biggest surprise came at our last Airbnb.

I had been wondering what it would be like to live in a mountain town. So I consulted my brother, who has lived in many mountain towns, and he gave me a few criteria points to consider.

Distance from a major city

Distance from downtown

Distance from your neighbor

Basically, how far out was I trying to go to escape city life?

He had a few more criteria points based on climate:

Dry desert mountains

Mountains that get snow

Mountains that are always green

While these were all beneficial questions and criteria points - all he really made me want to do was try them all to know for sure.

So we've been to the snowy mountains of Denver in the winter, the Smoky Mountains as trees were in full bloom... then we came to the Poconos.

Or was it? Honestly, we didn't study our PA geography enough to call out our host on that one.

The town was called Lansford. And if you don't immediately know where that is, it's nowhere any type of downtown in mountains that get snow - right next to Katniss Everdeen.

How did we end up in District 12?

While I knew we were going to a small town to try it out, I wasn't expecting the run-down aspect of the area. In fact, for some reason, I thought we were going to a cabin in a small village - not a sprawling town that probably built all of America but then was evacuated in the 70s when the coal mine shut down.

While the people there were lovely and there wasn't any crime to note, it just looked abandoned. Forgotten. Lost in time.

And this wasn't just the one area we stayed. It was EVERY town in the surrounding area—all except one street in Jim Thorpe.

That's where we were led astray.

The listing said Poconos Mountains - Bike -Ski - Jim Thorpe. It sounded like a fun summer adventure for a short month before our final Airbnb destination.

Then there were the photos.

Anthony pulled up the listing and said, "Over 50% of the photos in the listing are of the surrounding area 15 minutes driving from here."

I looked at the photos and saw, cute house, nice room, good enough kitchen, then train, Jim Thorpe downtown, mountain, more mountains, river, kayak. Dear goodness... there were 30 photos on the listing, and only TWELVE photos were of the Airbnb.

To say we were blindsided is an understatement.

I fell in love with the idea of having this amazing summer adventure that I completely overlooked that the area we would spend our day to day in was more than a bit shabby.

The good news is, I can safely say that living too far from a downtown area is not the type of mountain town for me. Although, I haven't ruled out mountains that get covered in snow :D Thanks for the tips brother!

Safe travels!

[brianachristine]

This is the magical place I get to stay for the next 2 months ✨💕

[brianachristine]

Sometimes it only takes only beautiful moment to make the entire trip worth it.

[brianachristine]

Pro tip: If the Airbnb is titled “Downtown Boston”, it’s probably not actually downtown.

Airbnb’s that are actually downtown are usually titled with the burrow not the entire area.

Airbnb doesn’t have any rules for false advertising in headlines. They expect patrons to do the dirty work of calling the host out. Their fees are way too high to let that sh*t slide.

[brianachristine]

Exploring Manhattan with the bf. 40,000 steps on day one and 20,000 on day two. We didn’t get rained out until Saturday.

Because I almost never look at my phone except to take a picture I ended up leaving it at the hotel. I received it today but I’m considering leaving it off for the rest of the week because I didn’t miss it one bit.

[brianachristine]

I'll admit it. I'm a quitter. I quit when I feel my power being drained by the situation around me. Then I seek to renew my power with new people, new situations, and new adventures. Sometimes people disagree with my choices, usually the ones who lost their power over me. I see that now.

[brianachristine]

They say it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Nobody interprets this better than our current Airbnb host. After 2 weeks it seems to be a safe neighborhood. But we realized there was a reason more than 50% of the Airbnb listing photos are of places that are 20 miles from the location. Be careful reviewing listings, Airbnb has very lenient policies for headings and photos.

One good thing about a neighborhood like this is that you never get FOMO.

[brianachristine]

Just found this one on Google photos from the EPCOT food and wine festival. While many of the countries don’t offer vegetarian options and even fewer offer vegan options - the food is still so good!

[brianachristine]

Orlando: Dancing, Disney and a Dope Airbnb

From the friendly neighbors to the incredible dances in Orlando and Tampa to the magical (and sometimes not so magical) moments of Disney World - Florida was a surprisingly pleasant pit stop.

When I first proposed living 1-year Airbnb style, I only included four stops spending three months at each location. But because we decided two months was quite enough time to feel out one area, we now had a hole in our itinerary.

Because we had come so far east and it would be summer, Anthony and I both thought that Disney World would be a great place to visit.

Much to our surprise, Florida is not a place to spend most of the summer. Apparently, it is very hot, humid, and full of thunderstorms. Who knew?!

Not us who never turn on the news for any reason.

But pretty much everyone else knew...

It was a bit of an adjustment going from our quiet Asheville cabin to Orlando's sprawling and noisy city of Winter Park. However, it took no time at all to adjust to what was to be our most comfortable and convenient Airbnb.

The spot is a dream for long-term Airbnb residents. The apartment had all of the kitchen amenities, a beautiful sunroom, a large working area, the most comfortable bed ever, and fabulous decor.

Decor obviously won't make the stay outstanding, but it is a nice cherry on top. Every candid photo became IG-worthy.

Plus, there was direct lake access with an actual kayak available, provided by the host, not a local business down the street.

Tangent: Airbnb made our Austin host a Superhost (the one who let us freeze to death), and I retract my statement about needing to check the Airbnb Superhost badge before booking a long-term stay. Clearly, the Superhost badge means nothing.

Back to the good stuff.

Hooray, things were open again, which meant we could go out dancing! We spent quite a few hours driving to Tampa to watch Hugo Miguez and Stacy Kay make dance magic. Of course, I couldn't leave without taking a few lessons.

When we weren't dancing in Tampa or the gorgeous ballroom 12 minutes down the road from our house, we saw the farmer's market, visited Diagon Alley at Harry Potter World, and spent seven days at Disney World!

But dare I say, seven days at Disney World for anyone that's not an employee is way too many days. Especially in the Florida heat, even if you don't have children. I love Disney, the man, and the brand, but trying to go seven days in a row left us with aching legs and a desire to vacation away from the sun.

Speaking of that, I guess going for seven days is a great way to convince yourself to self-quarantine.

My unsolicited advice is to stick to 5 days (one for each park and an extra day for EPCOT - especially when the food and wine festival is happening). Unless maybe you are into water parks, then perhaps getting an extra day is worth it.

Probably the best part of Florida was how many friends we made.

I'm not sure if this is because everything was open again and everyone was so excited or because everyone in Florida is just friendly. Either way, it made the stay feel as warm as the Florida air.

The thunderstorms were pretty cool too. Everyone in Florida talks about them like they are so horrible, but it's likely they have never lived in a state where it's illegal to water your lawn.

The weather did keep us from going to Tampa once, but overall, it certainly didn't ruin our stay.

Will we return to Florida? It's hard to with my much-anticipated stay in the North East to watch the leaves change.

I spoke with one of my friends who reads Tarot about where this trip was taking us. I felt that my sense of where we were supposed to end up was becoming less clear, not more. As a world traveler, she understood and read my cards.

She read that I should go where the dancing is established rather than "building a dance scene" with Anthony. Also, art would be part of my life but shouldn't determine where I move.

And finally, she suggested trying out Chicago.

Plans to continue our year-long Airbnb adventure have ensued.

[brianachristine]

Highlights of our recent 2 month stay in Orlando, FL.

Trip details coming soon!

[brianachristine]

So it turns out people in Florida are pretty friendly and welcoming. On a day at the pool a neighbor of ours suggested we hold a dance class when we told her we were traveling dancers who previously taught dance in San Diego.

The problem was that we didn’t know anyone in Orlando with a studio. So the universe promptly sent a sign via a friend request from an Orlando dancer we had never met but had about 200 mutual friends. He gladly shared where we could dance.

As soon as we went dancing at the studio there was immediate interest in us teaching. We are excited to share that Rhythm and Smooth has invited us as guest teachers Sunday July 11 for our West Coast Swing Improv workshop.

We are structuring the workshop to be geared toward beginner to intermediate level social dancers that want to learn how to have more fun on a night out.

[brianachristine]

Asheville Airbnb in Review: 61 days in NC

When first proposing the idea of a year long Airbnb trip to Anthony, I originally wanted to fulfill this bizarre desire that started a few months into quarantine to move deep into the mountains far away from the city. To add some magic to this idea, since being a hermit who needed to learn how to chop her own wood was a little out of reach for me, something like a space vaguely close to a resort near the Tennessee Smokey mountains was ideal.

I had first heard about this resort on a podcast hosted by a big time entrepreneur. Then again in a magazine Anthony receives from his credit card company as I was clipping photos for my mood board. In case those weren’t enough hints, this particular resort would be a stretch for us on a holiday budget, let alone a 2 month long budget.

I guess I will be chopping my own wood!

While looking along the Airbnb map of who was hosting in that area - it was a no go. The closest place I could find on the Tennessee side was Pigeon Forge, which to a Californian who has spent about 24 hours in Tennessee for a drum corps competition, sounded pretty good.

I called my mom to let her know that we were considering Pigeon Forge. Which is when she reminded me that she in fact had a house in the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. And going to Pigeon Forge to escape the city was like going to Vegas to escape gambling.

Back to square one.

Mom’s house was booked, sort of, but now we had a whole new state to consider and still get to enjoy the Smokey Mountains.

About a week later a friend told us about Asheville, and although that’s not exactly away from the city it looked like the perfect city in the mountains combo for us. We found one of the most beautiful and secluded cabins in Asheville. It was our most expensive rental yet (about $2800 as I write this), but worth every penny.

Now you are reading this in retrospect and know what happens, but here’s where the plot twist happens for us.

We book our Airbnbs 1 month before we arrive - so for us that was while we were in Texas just ONE week before the insane snow storm. This caused some major dilemmas of the heart.

Do we ditch the cabin of our dreams to flee the insanity that was a disaster of the century? Or do we stick it out in what was our least favorite Airbnb to make sure we can get our reservation at Sam’s cabin?

Well you know how it went.

When we arrived in Asheville it was the end of Winter, and it sure felt like it at 41 degrees as we unpacked the car. The tall windows surrounding the house made us feel a bit like fish and took us about a week to get used to realizing the only people “looking in” were our own reflections.

Just a few weeks in, we got to watch everything bloom. Don’t blink though, it doesn’t last very long. One day a tree would bloom the most gorgeous pink flowers, then one week later would be barren again. The grass grew so tall it grew over our small river leading the the house.

And the animals! Absolutely breath taking in more ways than one! We found turkey vultures in the trees, regular ol’ turkeys wandering the yard, lots of bunnies and birds of all colors. And of course, black bears. We didn’t see too many around our house, although one did leave some paw prints on our car.

One day I was walking alone down this hill to a house that could basically be the house I live in forever - the only thing missing is the lake. I loved walking by this house with the greenhouse and amazing landscaping. And I wasn’t the only one!

As I was taking some photos with my phone assuming this may be the last time I would see this house before we left Asheville, I turned to walk back up the steep hill. From the corner of my eye I saw one of the bears often seen on that road running into the yard I was just photographing. I could feel it’s strong energy from where I was standing and see it’s silhouette moving through the thick trees.

While this did trigger a lot of thoughts and emotions, I realized running was not the best option and the bear wasn’t following me as I trotted up the road. I love animals so I figured this, along with the fact that black bears don’t typically attack people, was how I “got away”. I did learn what to do if approached by a black bear as soon as I got back to the cabin. Plus, I learned black bears occasionally bluff rush people, a strategy sort of like chicken where they run toward you to see who will veer off first. I suppose it really only works when you aren’t actively using your phone 😅

As for getting out of the city, the amazing thing is while we got to experience all of this beautiful nature, we were also 15 minutes from downtown Asheville. So all of our basics amenities were easily available with no wood chopping required. That 15 minutes combined with the narrow roads it took to get to the cabin meant our spot was nearly silent, save for Mother Nature.

As far as things to explore, we did not dance like we did in Texas or like we are now in Florida but we found and made LOTS of art. Anthony painted for the first time. I frequently visited this amazing local art shop, Horse and Hero, with prints of all kinds.

Plus there was a vibe there that Anthony and I both really flowed with. Maybe you could call it a boho, artsy vibe. From the chill and knowledgeable staff at High Climate Tea, to the many crystal stores, sound healing with Billy, Joy’s Airbnb tea experience and the many galleries and glass blowers in the river arts district. It’s a place where to you feel you can endlessly explore.

Surprisingly, there weren’t too many vegan spots BUT there was one, Plant (yes, that’s the full name), that was written somewhere on the internet as one of the best in the WORLD. And I will say, it is a pretty high contender with my other most favorite vegan spot in Vegas. It certainly is the most fancy AND delicious. Very hard to get a reservation at as well.

Of course, we did also get to visit and hike along the Smokey Mountains, it really is an amazing sight.

If we don’t move there permanently, you will probably find Anthony and I there for at least 1 month every spring.

Thanks for hosting us Asheville!

[brianachristine]

Here’s to the many adventures we had outside of the cabin. With the exception of the video of us dancing, which was a practice round for what we actually did in Charlotte.