Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee is an amazing place, and it had to be up there near New York as one of my favourite places, but of course New York tops the list no contest. Memphis is a lot smaller than New York and that goes without saying, but I found plenty to do at day and night. As Memphis is a substantial little hub, during the day there's a decent number of shops to poke your head into and from the amount of walking I did, by the late afternoon, I was the one giving directions to other travellers, even some Americans who were visiting. Memphis has trams that you can jump on and off around the place, and the city feels reasonably safe, I only had a couple of guys beg for cash or do the strange following act, but they give up when you're clearly walking with purpose and going from place to place, it becomes too much effort for them. After a little shopping and updating my music collection with some Nelly, 50 Cent and Lloyd Bank$ to play on my discman I scored for $30 USD at the convenience store up the street, I was all set.

The Peabody hotel was located right across from my Best Western, and every afternoon at 5pm they have the walking of the ducks and crowds gather to see this. The Peabody Hotel is a rich hotel that charges exorbitant prices and it's very nice inside. There's a big fountain in the lobby and there are 5 ducks which swim in there all day and at 5pm, a bellman comes and rings the bell, and the ducks respond (Pavlov's dog syndrome perhaps?). He walks to the elevator and the doors open and the ducks hop out of the fountain and walk down little red stairs leading to the floor and down a red carpet into the elevator to travel to the roof to sleep for the night and people gather around (I could hardly see anything) and take pictures, they love it simply. I stopped back at my room and had a few minutes chill time and put on Nelly, Da Derty Versions and to hear some good tunes after having nearly 3 weeks with nothing, I felt like a reformed smoking taking that puff once again.

I met Agnes and Anne downstairs and we went to dinner to this awesome Rib restaurant with was tucked down an alley just next to the Best Western, and man it was loads nicer than the crappy TGI Friday's the made us eat at the night before, I had people claim they saw the chef serve up a steak he's dropped on the floor. This ribs place served up so much meat I thought I was going to overdose, Agnes seemed to like it, but I don't think Anne was terribly keen on the quantity of meat, so she just had a salad, but the beer just kept comin, in fact I think we got a pitcher free somewhere in the mix. All was done for dinner and it was time to go and hit Beale St with the crew who we ran into on the way there.

Beale St is the party street of Memphis and it's a stretch of street where everything fun to do is located. They've got BB Kings bar there which I didn't go into, and down the street there's a Wet Willy's (just like in Savannah) and a Hard Rock Café, amongst a tonne of other places. I was still a little shy after my harrowing but fun experience from New Orleans's and was taking the drink slowly, I wasn't planning on revisiting my previous drunken nightmares so soon. Wet Willy's is a daiquiri Karaoke bar and the daiquiris they serve are lethal that creep up on you, and best taken slowly. As I walked into the Memphis Wet Willy's, they were playing 'Work it' by Missy Elliot until I looked up and saw that it was some lady singing it on karaoke and she was phenomenal, I've never since heard someone sing so close to the original artist before. As we hung around, these American's came up and asked all the boys to join in on their song 'Cowboy' by Kidrock and these guys were having a great time.

As we left Wet Willy's we saw some live Blue's playing in a park and it was awesome just to sit there and feel the mood of such a great crowd, the beats were happening and getting us in the mood to really enjoy the night, thus these guys had no trouble getting a few bucks out of me when they passed the bucket around. Agnes, Anne and I then made out way up the street and this guy stops me and says with the girls waiting "Hey, hey mane (in a thick accent). You've got two girlfriends brother, how how, how much for one of em gals?" He acted like the ladies were a commodity to him, and I couldn't believe this guy was serious! He could never afford one of the ladies for what I charged! :-) But, really I think my face gave him the answer and he took a sudden step back, put his hands up in a sorry motion and says "Oh, oh mane, I'm sorry mane." and walks off, only in America ey, or should I say Memphis? Up the street and across from BB King's bar is a fantastic little place called the Blues City Café, and I like blues music, but I'm not a fan of it, but I walked out of this place a fan. I've never before or since heard live music of such a high quality, and played with such passion. The room was hot and we were sweatin and these guys on stage were glistening all night, but they just kept playing on and on, needless to say I tipped the band generously as a reflection of their performance. I've heard and seen some quality live music acts in my quick stay in New Orleans (although I didn't manage to check out Preservation Hall), but Beale St just left it for dead that night, if you're ever there, hit the Blues City Café and you won't regret it.