Savannah, GA
Based off the pictures, or picture, I had seen of Savannah in my LP guidebook I was really excited to see Savannah. I imagined large plantations, and streets with filled with large oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from the branches, and I wasn’t disappointed, at least with the tree part. I arrived in Savannah and the weather was hotter than hell, but the “city” looked really gorgeous. The oak trees with their Spanish moss hung from all the trees and made each road picturesque. I drove really slowly along the roads and admired the beauty of the trees and the city, and thought that this was one of the coolest places I had been to on my road trip. My next thought was, “Where the hell am I going to sleep?” I checked my LP and they suggested a hostel so I drove there immediately and found it after a few minutes of driving. I parked my car, and the began sweating like crazy the second I exited my car. It wasn’t even noon and the temperatures must have been in the mid 90’s and extremely humid.
I knocked on the door of the HI Savannah Hostel, and was somewhat surprised to see someone open the door. I asked the man at the door if they had any rooms available for the night and was told they had rooms available for $50. This price seemed absurd to me and I asked why the price was so high for a hostel, which led to a brief lecture on the increase of prices in Savannah due to increasing real estate values and taxes, which put me to sleep and I left the hostel thinking that there had to be some other cheap accommodation for the night. I made my way towards the library to check my email and to try to find another hostel. I found another hostel, gave a call to the place and learned that that hostel had closed due to the hike in real estate costs. I was somewhat confused but not totally upset because I wasn’t sure how much time I necessarily wanted to spend in Savannah anyway.
Yes, it was beautiful, but the weather was ridiculously hot, and humid, and there didn’t seem like that much to do. I got in my car, plugged in some address I thought was near the Riverfront, drove out to the address which was about 6 miles away from the hostel and found myself in this abandoned area near the water. I parked my car, saw a restaurant, and started walking along the water assuming that the area I was looking for was right down the road, but the entire area seemed dead. I was getting really hungry as my attitude started to get worse with no bed and no food, so I hopped back into my car, looked at my LP and realized that I wasn’t near the correct waterfront. I drove to the other side of Savannah, which took no more than 10 minutes and finally saw signs of life again. After driving around a few streets for 20 minutes I found parking for my car, and paid a dollar or so for parking for three hours. I ate at this place I had wanted to eat for the past few hours - The Moon River Brewing Company - where I got a coke, shrimp and sweet potato fries. After filling up on food and drink, I left my car in the lot and started walking towards the correct Riverfront which required me to go down a few flights of stairs.
Once I arrived on the riverfront I walked along its entirety admiring the little shops and stores and the boardwalk, but the weather continued to be uncomfortable as the heat got worse, the humidity became unbearable, and I found myself searching for shade the entire time I was near the water. I had decided by this point that I’d probably have to leave Savannah before the evening and make my way towards Charleston, but I still wanted to see a few historic homes as well as walk along some of the beautiful city squares with their elm trees and Spanish moss. I walked through four or five of these squares being blown away by their beauty, and how I wish more cities had these remarkable trees within their downtown, but after an hour or so of this and driving along the elm tree lined Victory Lane I decided it was time for me to head towards Charleston. Savannah was nice for the day, but I had seen everything I had desired to see, and it was time to move on to another city where I could find more affordable accommodations.
Tags: Summer 2007 Road Trip, Travel
