Last Friday, our good ole study abroad advisor Molly took us on a 5 hour bus journey to Nashvilleeeeeeee. We arrived at our insanely nice hotel at around 11pm and decided to head on out and see what downtown had to offer.
The inside of our hotel!
We decided a gay bar was exactly where we needed to be for and hailed a taxi from the hotel lobby. We were driving for a good 20 minutes before arriving but the taxis are insanely cheap, especially in comparison to Oxford's 10 bucks a person rides, no matter where you go. And fyi, no where in Oxford is far enough to cost $10 per person!
The bar was actually the closest thing we've come to being in a club, which we all appreciated as we have been missing mnq and union wednesdays a lot. However, after a while of throwing some serious shapes (ahem me and Heather) there was actually a drag show performance which lasted over an hour. And some of these queens were hot!!! Performance wise, it wasn't much of a talent fest, but they would strut around the stage for a while and onlookers would go up and offer them dollars in return for a peck on the cheek. A good first gay bar experience in my eyes!
The following day, we headed into Nashville town for a walking tour around all the main historical parts of the city.
This was the cowboy looking country musician who walked us around and showed us all sorts of cool places to check out later on. He also kept us out of the rain as best as possible.
After the tour, we headed back to Broadway street to find some food and explore some of the bars which each housed a different country musician/band at all hours of the day.
The atmosphere in these bars is so chilled, nothing like going out in Oxford, or Reading. It kind of felt like walking down the main strip of a city but like 50 years ago. Nobody had anywhere to be during the day and would just sit inside or wander in and out of these different venues all afternoon experiencing the music. This guy appreciated mine and Heather's dancing (along with many others since our arrival in the states) and permitted us a photo with a real Country musician from Nashville. Pretty surreal.
After some more exploring, we headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours where me and Heather had literally the most coupley afternoon wandering around the indoor jungle/European style village and even managed to find ourselves a gigantic slice of pizza each.
Afterwards, we headed out to the Grand Ole Opry country music show which featured an unreal number of musicians and bands that came on stage to play their sets of country jam! Mum, I think you would have enjoyed this!
- didn't know Wilson / Boulle played guitar
Then on Sunday before the journey home we had a few hours shopping at the Opry Mall to satisfy our need to spend money on things we don't need.
I'd recommend Nashville to anyone wanting to explore an authentic American city, I will have to go back next time I'm in the states.
Sorry it's been a while again, I am being assessed for my midterm grades in my classes atm so I've been studying (and drinking my troubles away) a lot!
Speak soon
Em x
No comments:
Post a Comment