My evening in Oakland

This week I went to Oakland for the first time.* If pop culture is to be believed, I was going to a hell dimension where I'd be mugged the moment I stepped off of BART. Obviously pop culture was exaggerating. I was meeting a new friend for dinner at a mac and cheese restaurant (let me say that again, a MAC AND CHEESE RESTAURANT!) and I could certainly handle a 5-10 minute walk from BART to the restaurant in daylight.

After all, true hell demons don't come out until the evening.
I watch a lot of Buffy

My directions were simple. The restaurant is on the same street as BART. Certainly even I couldn't screw this up. I turned right, walked a block, then noticed everything was pretty much residential. Doh! I walked back to BART, and found a map of the area. Foolish me, I should have gone left. No harm done, I walked left, smiling at the restaurants that I could see in front of me.

I walked. And walked. And walked. Okay, I knew this was a 5-10 minute walk, but certainly it'd been fifteen minutes by now. Everything was residential, but I could see something ahead. A restaurant. I wasn't wearing my glasses (I need a glasses case to keep in my purse) so I couldn't see the name, but it kind of looked like the pictures I'd seen online. It was about five minutes away. I was near what I'd remembered the address to be. I'd get there before dark.

I got to the restaurant right at dark. It wasn't the right place. Not at all. I stood in the light of this new restaurant and texted for the address of the mac and cheese restaurant. It was 400. I was at 1000.

It was dark. I was alone. I was about twenty minutes from my destination, and wandering a strange street in a strange neighborhood. At least I didn't have to worry about vampires.
right?

I may have seen a prostitute, but I think she was just a girl who had poor taste in clothing. She didn't appear to be street walking, just walking. I walked past BART. Double doh! I was supposed to go right.

Long story short, I didn't get mugged, didn't meet any villains, and didn't find Oakland any scarier than some Orange County neighborhoods.**

As for the important part of the story, I did in fact get my mac and cheese.

With Goat Cheese!



*As I was writing this, I recalled that I've been to the Oakland airport, but immediately took a taxi to/from the city, so I don't really count that.

**Newport is scary in a completely different way.