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Published: April 21st 2013
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Richmond.
That name brings back memories of being in my Uncle Wal's pool a little hour away from Sydney, nestled in the Blue Mountains.
This Richmond is a little different.
After our Megabus did a sweeping turn around a bend, me and my companions had finally arrived at our first stop of Spring Break - Richmond V.A. Situated under layers upon layers of railway tracks, we dragged our luggage into a Victorian inspired railway station, complete with memorabilia of Richmond's most famous resident, George Washington (maybe you've heard of him).
Then we made a realisation, our motel was 20 minutes from the downtown area of Richmond. This meant getting a taxi. A lovely Taxi Driver pulled up by the name of Millard. Millard, a single father who runs the Gold Crown Taxi service on his own, had promised to take his daughter to lunch but took us to our motel instead. She happily waited at central station for him.
Millard became a savoir of sorts for us and I regret not taking a photo of him for this blog. While the ride wasn't cheap, he did tell us about himself, why he came to Richmond and
what to do while we were here. We arrived at the Holiday Inn but we didn't have the room. Turns out the booking hadn't worked and it had in part something to do with Kate's (the Czech amidst Aussies) online booking. At first, we thought it was that her computer had switched dates around (unlike the rest of the world, 'Murica does month/day/year, which forces foreigners to learn to write the date all over again), but we found it simply didn't work. After an embarrassing mix up we booked the Holiday Inn and called on Millard to get us back to the downtown area. Thankfully, he came and got us where we needed to be.
We were standing on a deserted trip after checking into the Holiday Inn. Ok, Richmond, where is your people?
We decided to head to the area around VCU. A mixture of Gothic inspired architecture and 1960's brick designs, VCU towered over us. A church looking building caught the eye of Rachel and I - Matchbox Twenty were playing there tonight. It is these spontaneous, last minute decisions that I live for. We ate sushi in some rocker, punk bar towards Carytown
and rocked out to Matchbox Twenty in the evening. That night, for the first time in a long time, I had a bath and double bed. Blisssssssssss.
The next day, we walked towards the War Memorial, just a few minutes away from the motel. The tour guide there tried to justify America's conflicts, which fell on my deaf ears. On the beautiful wall outside, names of the casualties in war were carved into the stone. I couldn't help but think they did not have to be there.
Next was the Civil War museum. After taking selfies with Lincoln (it did attract attention), we explored the museum and then walked along the river. This is where things got confusing - we were attempting to get to the Hollywood Cemetery without having to head back up the hill to the road. My advice - go back up the hill to the road and that way you won't get lost. (but on the other hand, you won't get to play a game of hide and seek next to the river, or "how far into private property can we get without the cops sitting nearby catching us" game).
We then... skipped
the cemetery.. Personally, not my thing cemeteries, especially as tourist locations.
We then strolled down Monument Avenue, where anybody whose anybody in American colonization has a a larger than life representation of themselves, like old mate Jeffo (American translation: Thomas Jefferson). The street itself was larger than life, with multicoloured, bright Terrance houses encompassing each side and I couldn't help but think how wonderful it would be to wake up in this neighbourhood every morning.
A wonderful dinner at a Spanish restaurant ended our second day and I returned to my bathtub and double bed.
Our bus was not coming until 6:30pm that night... awkward.
Unfortunately, Richmond is not a "touristy" city and finding things to do became a pain in the Democrat (Good lord I'm funny sometimes). The holocaust museum was our first option. It was quite the collection of things and extremely interactive... and of course depressing. If you're a history nut, go for it but it can be graphic.
Next, nestled away under the railway tracks, was the Edgar Allen Poe museum. Old Poe did have his shortcomings, seriously though he married his cousin, but he was an incredible writer.
And the garden is super cute and of course Raven memorabilia everywhere.
A trip to a real fancy house was next and yeah you guessed it I've forgotten the name of said house. Fancy though.
Then came something very interesting : The Museum of the Confederacy. If you don't know anything about the Confederacy, let me break it down for you. Mid 1800's, North America: The Southern states were tobacco-chewin', whisky-drinkin' and cotton-pickin'. Not much different to today, right? Except, they had slaves. Yep, the slave-owning South, which separated into it's own country before being whipped by Abey baby (translation: Abraham Lincoln), was being celebrated in a museum. Morally, I didn't understand (especially when I read "Justification for slavery") why I even stepped foot in the place. But it's well put together, even if it tends to ignore that spot on their history.
After that, a tour of Jefferson Davis' (President of the Confederacy) was in order. Much to my surprise, the tour guide, Thomas, was African-American. He led us through the house with all the charisma in the world, yet I still wonder why he would allow himself to do so. Upon learning where we were from (Australia and Czech Republic), he gasped, looked awe-struck and questioned us about our trip.
Sitting outside afterwards, an older gentleman by the name of John approached us. He was curious as to where we from (saying you're from Australia by the way will result in "oooooh's" and "aaah's" and "OH MY GOD!" every single time - they love us) and invited us up into the inner workings of the Confederacy museum. I'd say don't talk to strangers, but I learnt my TA in my history class interned at the museum under John. It's a goddam small world.
Subway in the hospital (yeah I dunno why either) and we caught the Megabus from where we started.
Next stop: D.C.
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