Way Down…in Memphis, TN
The only thing I knew about Memphis before I showed up was that Elvis had something to do with the city, and there was a pretty big music scene. Both tidbits of information was enough for me to be excited about Memphis. I left Nashville, feeling that Tennessee was actually pretty cool, and I was making my way further from New York. Every day I make sure that I’m giving myself enough time to get back to NY in no more than 2 days in case of an emergency, so when I start moving away from NY I get a little anxious because I’m further from home, and in case anything serious actually happened and I had to return home it’s much easier if I’m closer to NY. So knowing that I was moving further away from NY made me a little hesitant.
I had already driven so many miles on my trip and it seemed like there was no end or limit for mileage now that I was heading further south. I found a hostel called Pilgrim’s Hostel which was referred to me by some German guy I met in Nashville and I made my way with a peace of mind that I had a bed to sleep in while I was in Memphis.
My hostel wasn’t located in downtown Memphis, but that was ok because I was paying $15 for a bed, my best deal on the trip. I was told by the woman at the front desk that a hostel policy was that everyone had to make a $10 deposit because everyone was required to do a chore. This was extremely confusing to me because I haven’t had to do any organized chore since I was like eight, and since they were threatening to take my money away instead of rewarding me I was totally confused by the logic of the plan. I didn’t have $10 cash on me but let them know I’d do one of the chores immediately. (I ended up completing my chore at the last minute before I left…)
I then jumped back into my car and headed towards downtown Memphis. I think I was told by someone at the hostel that downtown was walking distance from the hostel, but whoever told me this was either lying or was some marathon walker. We were located around 6 miles away from downtown and I had to take so many curvy roads and detours that had I not had my GPS system in my car I may have never found downtown Memphis even though I was only a few miles away. I parked my car somewhat near Beale Street…Memphis’ most popular tourist destination, and probably the most bustling street in the entire city.
It was actually a cool street to walk down with live music blaring from the open windows. I was actually really enjoying Tennessee because of its live music scene. Wherever I went in Nashville music always seemed to be played at very high volumes, and the same trend continued into Memphis. It was just a fun scene to be in since things never seemed to really die down. I decided not to check out any of the museum’s in Memphis, which was something I had basically done in all the cities I had visited except the Art Institute in Chicago, when I went on it’s free night with a bunch of people from my hostel. I guess I’m just not that interested in paying money to go see crazy museums like the Country Music Hall of Fame.
After walking along Beale Street I decided to walk towards Sun Recording Studios where Elvis recorded and where the first rock albums were recorded. The studio was closed but it was cool to see the building, but it took around 25 minutes to get to the Studio and then I turned around and made my way back to downtown. I was starving and wanted to eat some Memphis-style food so I walked to a few restaurants my LP suggested that were affordable but they were either closed or didn’t exist, so I decided to go to Hooters and get some Buffalo Shrimp and watch the All-Star Baseball game. I walked back to Beale Street and looked for some music and entered a bar where some blues were being played but couldn’t find a seat so I went to this other bar, paid a $2 cover and watched a seven-man band play rock and blues for the rest of the evening. After a few hours of listening to music and sippin on my water I was ready to head back to my car. I hoped my car was still located where I left it, and fortunately it was. I made my way back to the hostel before crashing for the night.
Tags: Travel
