Charleston Part 1: 28th September

Time to hit the open road and drive three hours south, crossing the state boarder of North Carolina into the magical town of Charleston, South Carolina. About an hour and a half in we took the costal path through Myrtle Beach, a famous seaside town to see what it was like. It was uh, interesting to say the least, reminding me of a cross between Bolton and a budget package deal to the parts of Spain that consists of more English teenagers than it does Spanish. As we drove through on each side were ludicrously oversized attractions with life-size dinosaurs looming down over the high-way along with oversize restaurants in the shape of a shark, all seeming so ridiculously out of place in the early morning sunshine on the beautiful Eastern Coast. Happy to be passing though we drove on another couple of hours south, passing over a spectacular bridge and entering Charleston.

After checking into the hotel and into our room, which had a fridge, microwave and two king sized beds which each would have fit Henry V111 and all of his wives, we headed into town. Walking in we were struck by the magnitude of the houses. They were quite a way away from the one story southern homes in Wilmington with their porches and rocking chairs. Here they were spectacular! In some places it felt like being in the richest parts of London with beautiful red brick buildings towering high with great grandeur. The difference here being that instead of lampposts there are palm trees and instead of the sound of cars whizzing past there was the sound of crickets humming in the mid-day sun. We took in the sights like this for the rest of the afternoon and as the evening approached and the sun began to set we wandered along a promenade with the sea on one side. Private boats passed by with well-dressed people chinking their glasses of champagne on the decks. On the other side of the promenade were beautiful mansions where you could envisage beautiful people of “high-cotton” (upper-class) in the 1920s milling around or dancing the town’s name-sake. The Charleston.

Deciding to give the champagne a miss tonight (hah!) we headed into something more our style. A fantastic diner with an exciting atmosphere which made me wish I could upgrade my diet coke to a beer to go with my fries and the American Football on the wide-screen TV overhead. There were a group of marines in full attire leaning confidently on the bar whilst groups of girls giggled and gawped over them, clearly making the most of their time on leave. The people watching, my favourite hobby, was about as good is gets so I watched on happily, making it matter little that I had no idea what was going on in the football overhead. After food we headed back to the hotel making the most of the feeling of being able to walk around streets and not having to get an expensive taxi the rest of the way home.