Down south

I slept like a baby and got up knowing that we’d have breakfast in the hotel. Which is always a great thing because you can always come back the room and brush your teeth and get ready without any pressure.
The plan today was simple: walk to Downtown Nashville.
It was a nice car break since we’ve been driving for 2 days.
The hotel was in front of Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans (the team I hate the most with the Pittsburgh Steelers) and you have to cross the The John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge  get to this amazing city.

First stop: Country Music Hall of Fame.

Now, country music is a beautiful thing, it uses amazing instruments like the banjo and has over the top artists like Jerry Lee Lewis or Elvis. Now, these personalities with money really went all in, and you can see it when you’re standing in front of the clothes they used to wear on stage, or the crazy cars they bought.
It’s something I just had to see for myself and I’m glad I went. So many great songs that I still haven’t heard, imagine that, there’s always something more to learn. This is what being alive is all about.

The coolest part of the museum is the last part, where you enter a sort of temple, called a rotunda, where all the plaques of the inductees are. And although he resemblance of the plaques is a bit dodgy, the place is peaceful and has a magnificent vibe to it.

Dani had a bit of a rash that was suddenly acting up, we didn’t know if it was a bed bug attack or some kind of allergy, but after the Hall of Fame we needed to do 2 things: eat and go to a Walgreens.

As we were walking we got stopped by a woman that wanted to sell us a subscription to an NGO, and it turned out she was Spanish. She gave us suggestions on where to eat and where to listen to some music, so it was a very useful conversation.

Nashville is all about spicy chicken, and there’s tons of options to check this meal off your bucket list. Our pick was Prince’s Hot Chicken located at the Fifth and Broadway mall that had amazing downtown views.

Now, how to order spicy chicken? As a Mexican human, I’ll always believe that I can handle more spicy food than I can really handle, it’s just Mexican ego I guess. Dani made up her mind fast, NO SPICEY CHICKEN.
I didn’t know what to get, because there were several spice “hotness” levels. Luckily for me, the cashier was from El Salvador, and I quickly used my Latin-American connection to ask her.. what do I get?
Stay away from the last 2, you won’t be able to take them, they are not natural, she said.
Glad I listened.
I’ll never understand the pleasure of feeling like your tongue is going to fall off, it just ruins your meal, and I almost did but the level of spice I picked wasn’t that bad, although it wasn’t great either. Just enough for me.

Something really cool about Nashville and the South in general is that you suddenly see plaques that contain info about different civil rights moment that happened right there. It turns out that the Walgreens where Dani bought itch cream was one of the first places in Nashville that got boycotted by black people because of segregation, and one of the first places to accept black people as well.

After getting the cream Dani suggested we should chill in the hotel before heading back downtown to listen to some music and I agreed, I was kind of tired and wanted to take a nap. When you have a nice hotel room, you have to seize the opportunity, you never know when you’re gonna sleep on a comfortable bed again!

When I woke up we decided to go back and listen hit some Honky Tonks!
Nashville completely changes at night. All the neon lights are on and there’s amazing signs everywhere, I felt like a bug going towards the light, I was mesmerised.
First stop: Tootsies Orchid Lounge.

We ordered some drinks and listened to the band, which is what you’re supposed to do, the problem was that, drinks are expensive and you have to tip the band. So, each time you entered a bar you spent at least 20 bucks just to chill and listen to some music. It doesn’t sound as much but imagine if you switch bars every hour or so? Suddenly being patient sounds like a great plan, right?

We were looking for a band that played the classics, some Dolly Parton or Johnny Cash, and the band at Tootsies wasn’t like that.
So we decided to switch places.

The cool thing is, that as you walk you listened to the bands inside the bars and if you like one, you just walk inside and get a beer.

Suddenly, I spotted a band that had a violin and a classical bass on stage, and I told Dani, this is the place.

We ordered another round of drinks and just chilled there until we had enough. You could say that we got what we wanted from this beautiful city. Happy and tired we walked back to the hotel, what else can you ask for?Read more