The Scattergun Approach: Music City

22nd May

Nashville, also known as Music City, has been described as the Athens of the South, and is a major centre of the Music Industry. This would make it a fabulous place for any country fan to visit. Which may lead you to ask – what on earth was I doing there?

While it is true that I'm not a fan of country music, I do enjoy things that are deep fried, and the South is the place to be for all things golden and delightful. So over about 9 days some friends and I are pursuing Southern cuisine through Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, and possibly learning a bit more about America while we do it.

So Nashville was our first stop, and the cultural difference was immediately apparent. Nashville people personify Southern Hospitality, everyone was quick with a smile and a helping hand! We were wandering around and people kept on asking if "Y'all are ok now?" and "Can I take a picture of y'all?". After spending a few days in NYC feeling like my very incompetence existence was a burden to all around me (my metro card just would *not* cooperate), it was so nice to be somewhere where foreigners were appreciated. But I digress from the food.

So we woke up (relatively) early and decided to go for a wander to find an authentic Southern breakfast, and our wanderings took us to The Arcade, a shopping mall type establishment, chock full of restaurants selling the classic Tennessee breakfast, Meat and 3. Yes, Meat and 3 veg. Thoroughly confused (and running from a string of restaurateurs calling me "Ma'am"), we tried to find something a bit less... dinnerish.

The Arcade

Resplendent with breakfast options.
Nb. That are actually the size of your hand.

Also a breakfast food. Who knew?

So we finally decided on a place for breakfast (which was next door to another diner, boasting that the cast of "Swamp People" were coming next week), where we were served by a sassy older black woman who recited the breakfast special 3 times in a single breath. Being the adventurous type, I ordered the "breakfast bowl" and was greeted with...

Grits.
Looks and tastes like dirt.

And....

My Breakfast bowl. You can't see it because it is being drowned in "milk gravy", but underneath the greyish brain-like colloidal substance, are biscuits (scones), hashed potatoes, sausage and scrambled eggs.
The breakfast of champions.
With clogged arteries.

After a ~~nutritious~~ start to the day, we were eager to discover all that Nashville has to offer. The first thing that really hit me was how many hotels there were. I mean, obviously, we were Downtown which is tourist-ville, but still, Nashville seems to be made up solely of live music venues, hotels to hold guests for said music venues and novelty oversized pick-up trucks in a rainbow of unconventional colours.

Honky Tonk makes the baby Jesus cry.

Some of Nashville's tall buildings.
Not hotels, surprisingly.

It was funny, because while we were in Nashville nothing much was going on and there was almost no-one about, so it was a little eerie walking the streets, but the CMA Music Festival is happening in a few weeks, and I can see that the city is going to go completely nuts when that happens. But also, the city will be *so* prepared for it. Nashville is signposted within an inch of its life. Every thing that anyone could ever possibly want to visit has been marked on a map, including Vanderbilt University, the children's hospital, the normal hospital, various statues as well as numerous bars. You would need to be trying just so incredibly hard to get lost in Nashville.

Looking down 2nd Ave - a street packed with bars, and the Wildhorse Saloon that offers free line dancing lessons every night at 8pm.
Yes, I did line dance.
Yes, reluctantly.
And yes, reluctantly, I'll admit that it was fun.

Music is everywhere.

So you can't really see it, but this is the Tennessee Bar Exam Centre.
With a sign outside saying "no soliciting"
#lawjokes.

This is my favourite part of Nashville, hands down. There are these music boxes on the street corners that blare out county hits. Perfect for spontaneous line-dance parties.

Our first touristy stop for the day was the Ryman Auditorium, which is famous because a bunch of famous country artists I've never heard of have recorded there. But their gift shop really brought their A-game.

I can only imagine that this is 101 ways to throw them out

You know the lucky man wearing this gets *all* the girls.
This is probably not even a joke in Nashville. Just a fact.

So after that, we went for a mosey down the main drag towards the Country Music Hall of Fame, "the best part of town".

Looking down Broadway

Inside the Country Music Hall of Fame.
We walked in, were awed, realised that we don't actually know any famous country music artists and decided to skip the celebrity-guided audio tour.

I love the epitaph:
"Some are honored to fill this hall, others to raise the roof"

All of the awards.

Better than Barbie

The brand new (only opened last week) Nashville Convention Centre

So having knocked off the two major tourist attractions within about 40mins of finishing breakfast, we were free to roam where ever our feet (and the 3 free shuttle buses operated by the city) could take us. So we went out to one of the new developments, The Gulch, to check it out.

A fabulous mish-mash shop, although I might be biased because....

they have an adorable dog (called Tilly) who lives there too!

And then we just moseyed, checking out the uncharted back-streets of Nashville

Until we got to Centennial Park. Built in 1897 to celebrate 100 years of Nashville bein' Nashville.

It is also home to a full-size replica of the Parthenon. Because Nashville is the "Athens of the South".

Let's just let that one marinade for a second.

The Athens of the South.

After this we went for an ill-fated wander to find a pancake place that had been recommended to us by a local Nashvillean woman we'd met while our plane had been delayed. We walked for easily half an hour in search of the best pancakes we'd ever have in our lives, finally arriving at the doors at 2:50pm. Yes, they close at 3. But it actually ended up being one of those travel "disasters" that leads to something better. Instead, we hopped across the road to Province Coffee and Cakes and had a delightful hot (non-alcoholic) apple cider and then found the Mr & Mrs Book shop next door - an amazing used book store which was a wonderful way to lose an afternoon.

With luggage considerably heavier from our acquisitions, we once again returned to Downtown for further wanderings. Which led us to Printer's Alley - a small alley that has existed since the 1940's peddling entertainment. As the name suggests, it did start out with the most innocent of intentions, but it has eventually become a, ahem... more adult entertainment venue.