Nashville, TN…Day 2…then Memphis
The next morning I woke up and still had things to see in Nashville. I had spent all of the previous day walking around downtown, but I hadn’t seen Vanderbilt and apparently there was a Parthenon-like building in a park nearby my hostel. I walked around the “West End” of Nashville and got food at this place called Elliston Place Soda Shop. It was a really cool diner. I got the Nashville delicacy “meat-and-three” which included chicken and three side orders. I was expecting the biggest meal of my life, but it was reasonable, but I was also starving, so for a “normal” human, the meal was probably somewhat intimidating. I also got myself a root beer float, and continued walking towards Centennial Park, this Park in the west end where this Parthenon building had been erected.
It didn’t take long for me to find a sign for the Parthenon once I entered the park which was a nice park, but there seemed to be too many dry areas, but I was glad to be in a different environment. For some reason, green leaves and grass ease my mind when I’m traveling and creates an inner peace which I yearn for after I’ve been stressed out or if I’m a little road-weary. After thinking similar thoughts to myself this humongous Parthenon-like building appeared out of nowhere. For some reason Nashville had decided that they were equivalent to Ancient Greece in their belief of democracy and decided to rebuild the Parthenon.
I quickly learned that the Parthenon was built in preparation for a gathering of world leaders who met in Nashville in the recent past, and it was a good excuse for Nashville to do something crazy like build a Parthenon-like building. I actually paid the $2.50 to see the inside of the Parthenon and to experience its wackiness. I still didn’t understand why they had this building, and thought that it’d be interesting to see what was inside. I walked past the exhibit passing a few people and saw the “prize” of the exhibit, a 42-foot statue of Athena. It reminded me of this humongous Buddha Matt and I had seen in this one Wat in Bangkok, but just as I thought of the humongous Budha, I thought the Athena statue was ridiculous and left the Parthenon and made my way to Vanderbilt University.
One of my closest friends from back home had actually been to Nashville, TN, and was at one time considering attending Vanderbilt so he shared his thoughts of Nashville with me and both of us thought that Nashville wasn’t that bad of a place. Vanderbilt was a pretty big University. I did a quick check for total student population and it seems to have 10,000 students attending the university during the school year, which is MUCH larger than Kenyon.
I remember thinking to myself…”wow, this college world is so much different than the real world.” But then I thought to myself, I’m not even living in the REAL world. I’m driving around the US acting like some tourist in his own country seeing all these new places, but is definitely not living the REAL world experience. I just remember thinking for most of my senior year that I couldn’t wait to be done with Kenyon, and I still feel that way. I’m very glad to be done with college, and I really wouldn’t want to be going back to school, or Kenyon if I didn’t meet Suz. I was ready for a new challenge in life, and Kenyon seemed to be providing the same challenges it always had been. The girls confused the hell out of me, the classes gave me enough work to keep me busy, my extra curricular activities were my release from the “real” college world, and I ran every day to stay in shape, look good, and get my mind off of everything. I guess there’s a big part of me that wishes that I could return to Kenyon and hang out with Suz next fall. That’d be a lot of fun and I’d really enjoy that, but for most of my senior year I thought that it was time for a new challenge in life, and I was looking very forward to finishing school.
After exploring Vanderbilt I headed back to my hostel and got ready to go. Before taking off for Memphis, I drove to this area outside Nashville called Music City. I was expecting to see some cool buildings or something b/c my LP suggested checking out the area. It was only 10 miles away from downtown, but I didn’t really know what I was looking for and decided that I should start heading towards Memphis, even though Memphis was only 200 miles away.
I ended up enjoying my time in Nashville, and seeing what I saw. Things were sometimes difficult because I had just left St. Louis, but I was back on the move again, and on my way down to New Orleans…
Tags: Travel
