Day six: Breakfast in America

[Gordon0]

Travel is, for the most, a relatively joyous thing. I’m not talking the means of getting from A to B - like schlepping to work (and back again) - but the nicer aspect, like a train journey north of the (English) border to rekindle a faded love affair with a sparkling, granite-built city. A picnic-in-bag coach-trip to a freshly-cut-lawn-perfumed Oxford on a sunny summer’s day. Or flying across the Atlantic - as I did a few days ago - for a short stay in a favourite city.

Just as the ‘journey’ part of a trip has changed (‘dinners’ are no longer glamorous at that end of the aircraft, especially when served in tin-foil), so too has the place many of us lay our heads at our destination. After all, until a few years ago (well, maybe a little more) overnight travel might have meant a hotel/motel, or more traditional B&B (if you were short on funds and didn’t mind the occasional ear-chewing from a hardened, curler-adorned landlady).

Fast-forward to today, and most cities (with the exception of New York, from where I pen this note) welcome weary Airbnb travellers with open arms.

For the most, the 16 Airbnb properties we’ve stayed in across eleven countries, have hit the spot every time. The current property I’m staying at (legally, for the record) in isn’t any different. Clean, modern, stylish furnishings, freshly-ironed sheets (if only there was a filter for this, a must-have in my book) and a brilliantly comfortable bed in a Bed-Stuy, up-and-coming neighbourhood.

Airbnb has been good to me, it can’t be denied. I’ve hosted some lovely people, a number of whom I now count as friends. And it’s financed some ace holidays during which - somewhat bizarrely (like this one) - I’ve often ploughed cash back into the company that made it all possible.

I see my Airbnb income as a gift, and a better one than the Christmas or birthday variety, because it keeps on giving, year-round. I’m celebrating my birthday here today (where I’ve traveled every year at the same time for 20+ years), and my gift from Airbnb was the ticket price (plus LOTS of taxes) that got me across the Atlantic, and for that I’m very grateful. 

And so I sit here, contemplating today's breakfast in America (sans the Supertramp floor-filler) mulling what life might have been without Airbnb.

Christmas greetings, and a perfectly peaceful new year to each and every one of you.

So, tell me, and assuming you’ve been a good boy or girl, what gift has Airbnb given you?

Breakfast in America!

[Helen427]

Happy belated Birthday @Gordon0 
I hope you had pancakes with fresh blueberries or raspberries and strawberries on.

I see you are visiting Australia in January, are you also coming to New Zealand on your travels?

When you are in Australia remember you must have some Bundaberg products!
They are the best.

We won't go down the Cadbury chocolate path because they simply are not the same as when we had them based and made in New Zealand...