Memphis

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So I´ve been pretty lazy with blogging the last couple of weeks but I am finally going to put together a blog about the week that Louise and I spent in Memphis. We hadn´t exactly planned to spend an entire week but we found it difficult to pull ourselves away. In Nashville we´d met a few people who had advised that Memphis isn´t a very exciting place to visit. I think those people must have just been unlucky in what they saw and who they met, because for us at least, Memphis was "a blast"!

We took the greyhound from Nashville which was... um... an experience. We´d heard that the characters you find on the greyhound can be a bit sketchy, and I would like to say that we found this not to be the case, but to be honest, "sketchy" doesn´t even cut it. I would also like to avoid using a phrase like "the dregs of society" but that probably fits the bill most accurately! But aside from that, the bus journey to Memphis was fine. Louise is able to sleep like a machine so she spent most of it hidden underneath her hoody fast asleep. When we arrived, one of our couchsurfing hosts very kindly picked us up from the greyhound station and we went out for food at one of his favourite restaurants. This was Friday the 31st of August which just so happened to be his birthday, so that evening we went out with him and his roommate (our other couchsurfing host) and their friends. We roamed around Beale St which was as colourful and lively as we had hoped it would be. There was a jazz band playing outside so we stuck around there for a while drinking some sort of vodka "punch" drink which just tasted like sweets. Good times.

On Saturday morning two other couchsurfers from Germany arrived who were staying for a couple of days. I don´t actually remember much about Saturday so I´m just going to skim over it for now... On Sunday we went to the Rock´n´Soul Museum which recounted the birth of rock music and soul music, and focused on how the birth of both kinds of music helped to overcome racial barriers. You start by watching a short video, and then you can wander through the exhibits at your own pace whilst listening to an audio tour on the free headphones that they provide, so it was a lot of fun. Then we had a couple of games of laser tag which was awesome! When I get back home I´m going to have to look into organising some laser tag events. That evening we went back to Beale St and saw some brilliant piano players in one of the bars, before heading to a place called ´Wet Willies´for what was, potentially, one of the tastiest Pina Coladas I have ever had. The evening culminated in dancing and posing by an Elvis statue which one of our hosts then accidentally set off when he went beyond the barrier, causing a loud announcement to start, advising us to back away immediately. We did what I think most people do in situations like that; we started by walking away slowly, then walking away really quickly, and then running, just as a police car came by, so we all looked slightly suspicious...

Over the next few days we saw as much of Memphis as we could and were not at all disappointed. Apart from the Rock´n´Soul Museum, we also went to the Pink Palace Museum which holds a huge and slightly bizarre collection from dinosaurs to fossils to Civil War exhibits and, finally, to a replica of the first self-service grocery store. We also went to the Civil Rights Museum which is located in the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. Needless to say the Museum was extremely moving and emotive, particularly as you can see the balcony where he was shot and killed which is a heartbreaking sight. But the wealth of information contained in the museum was unbelievable. It traced the Civil Rights movement from its earliest beginnings. Unfortunately we found that we had to leave before we´d seen everything we wanted to, because the place was closing. A couple of hours was definitely not enough time to experience the whole place! So I can say with some confidence that Memphis holds some of the best museums which I´ve ever been to. If I go back to Memphis (which I certainly intend to), I will happily visit them all again.

We did head over to Graceland with the girls from Germany and one of our hosts but as the entrance fee was a bit steep, we ended up just wandering around the outside, writing on the wall which guards the place (which seems to be something of a tradition for all visitors) and exploring the gift stores which sell the most absurd range of Elvis-related tat you could imagine. On one of the days we tried out some delicious Memphis BBQ and came away with souvenir cups to add to my growing souvenir cup collection. We went to a bunch of other cool restaurants with our hosts over the course of the week, although I was given the nickname ´Porridge´due to my habit of eating it at least once a day. I also adopted this as my Laser Tag nickname as, I´m not gonna lie, I am quite fond of it. Whilst the two girls from Germany were here (so I guess it must have either been on the Saturday or the Sunday) we visited a flea market which was really cool. I had a very nice (albeit long) conversation with one of the ladies there who had an epic collection of tins. I never knew there was that much to say about tins but apparently there is. One of our hosts also took us over to see the Mississippi River which was awesome as I'd really been looking forward to seeing it. The only slight downside was that I got attacked by a giant terrifying bug which I did not have time to identify in the few seconds I had between realising it was in my hair, and hitting it out and running away. Louise, meanwhile, was attacked by an army of ants. But regardless, it was exciting to see the Big River.

Louise and I also visited the Sun Studio and took the tour which I would absolutely recommend to anyone visiting Memphis (or Southern USA in general... if you´re in the vicinity, it is well worth going to Memphis just for this). The tour guide was great and took us through Sam Phillip´s journey with the Sun Studio and some of the incredible artists who have recorded at the studio and been signed to his label. Being inside the studio itself, listening to Elvis and being told all about the Million Dollar Quartet´s infamous jam session, was hands-down one of the highlights of the trip. On one evening (and I´ve forgotten which I´m afraid), we (me, Louise, our two hosts and one of their friends) piled into the car and drove to Holy Springs in Mississippi to see Graceland Too. Graceland Too is basically this crazy retired guy´s house which he has turned into a museum/shrine to Elvis. I'm not entirely sure how to describe the place or the owner who ran it, but what I will say is that the owner is utterly insane, and his collection of Elvis memorabilia, and his general attitude and vocabulary, were just... astounding. I couldn´t understand a whole lot of what he was saying due to his accent but this was perhaps a good thing as I've never heard such bizarre and vulgar things being said. I do recall that one of the first things he told us was that he had killed Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer, and one of the last things he said to us was that we shouldn´t get to close to him in case we get pregnant. I should point out though that this is not actually a criticism. The whole experience was absolutely hilarious and was another highlight of our trip.

There may well be things that I´ve missed out here but I think that covers most of the key things we did in Memphis. As always, thanks for reading and I will be back on again soon to write the New Orleans blog!

Hasta luego,

Laura P



** OK - I wrote this blog a few days ago but at the time that I wrote it, was not able to add any pictures as the computer I was using was too old/slow. Since then I have also written the New Orleans blog but had the same problem with regards to the photos. The computer I'm currently using is also too slow and old so, for the sake of posting the blog now rather than waiting for the miracle that is a decent internet connection, I am just going to post the link to the Facebook album which contains all of the photos from Memphis and New Orleans (and in fact, all of the USA). Enjoy! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151028320986801.412358.590966800&type=3 **

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