#apparently my art 'has no variety' and its 'weird to ship myself with cool characters'

[iluvyoutxt-moved]

i loooove getting hate comments on youtube theyre soooo ridiculous

[kazlifeadventures]

Sweet Sweet Savannah...

You have stolen part of my heart...

I was only here two nights, but all I want is a little more of this place! Oh, and you knew you were in the South...when there's rocking chairs everywhere in the airport!!

Savannah was established in 1733, a coastal city in the state of Georgia. It is separated from South Carolina by the Savannah River. It’s historic district is filled with cobblestoned squares and parks such as the gorgeous Forsyth Park with its giant 3 tiered fountain, shaded by oak trees covered with Spanish moss. The district has residences and buildings from a variety of time periods all anchored by the landmark, Gothic-Revival Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist.

I literally had one full day here ( a decision I regretted immediately!) I also managed to book myself into (what I found out later) is the most haunted hotel in the state, the gorgeous Marshall House. The building is a rarity as it was never a house, as its name would indicate, it was built as a hotel in 1851. The building was occupied by the Union forces during the war, and used as a hospital. When the hotel was restored in 1999, workers were replacing some damaged floorboards downstairs when they found human remains. The area became a crime scene, but they soon learned that the area had once been the hospital's surgery room, leading historians to believe that they came from the amputated limbs of Civil War soldiers. One of the really cool things is all the artefacts uncovered during the restoration process were framed or placed in cabinets and are displayed in the hallways of all of the upper levels (2-4) its a lovely way to wander around the floors discovering its history. The history of haunting is very interesting and worth trolling through some of the sites to read. I can say I was in room 214, which when I researched it turns out was a room that they had had problems with in the past (prior to having it cleansed, blessed, exorcised or whatever they did to fix it). Anyway, no really weird stuff happened when I was there, its an old building, so there’s always going to be odd noises, right??? An amazing cool old building, with a fabulous past, any wonder I was in heaven... probably also helped that they have a very civilised wine and hors d'oeuvres time from 5 - 630pm, in the library each evening with a musical accompaniment like the cellist we had on Saturday evening... I am so fancy some times - this one was a real treat for myself and right in the middle of the historic area so a perfect location.

The people in Savannah are lovely. I went off to the Old pink house for dinner on my first night here (I didnt get to the hotel till after wine and cheese time gosh darn it!) The old pink house was highly recommended on multiple food sites. I took off, forgetting it was Friday night, but still got a table pretty quickly (Aussie charm wins again!) The food was expensive, but amazing. The building was incredible with a fabulous history. I was very lucky (or he felt sorry for the solo female - I’m gonna go with lucky...), that my waiter took some time to tell me the history of the house while I waited for my main course. It turns out sections of it were built after the original in order to house the bank manager when the building housed a bank later in its life. It also suffered a recent fire, that fortunately didn’t injure anyone and didn’t destroy the older part of the original structure ( just the extension, which has now been rebuilt.) One thing I didnt know was that apparently the reason these old places have such steep stairs is there used to be a “stair tax” so in order to reduce their tax they made the stairs as steep as they could in order to reduce the number installed.

My one day there I jumped on the local trolley tour company’s hop on off historic tour. It was fantastic. They not only engaging animated drivers who obviously love their city, they also had actors dressed in period costume who jumped on at some of the stops and told us in character who they were and what they did, etc. We took in all of the major highlights of the area places like the Sorrel weed house, Owens Thomas house, the founder of the Girl Scouts movement Juliet Gordon Low’s house, The Hamilton Turner inn, the first house to be fully powered by electricity (apparently the locals used to gather outside at dark and wait as they thought it would explode). The history and the stories I heard were amazing and made me want to explore even more. The weather, however, didnt come to the party. I was headed out to get to the church of John the Baptist when it literally bucketed down, and didnt stop... To that end I headed back to the hotel to grab my wet weather gear and head out again. I then decided I was hungry so went to the Pirate House for some lunch because it was yet another incredibly old haunted building with amazing history and amazing food. The gumbo I had was nice, but didn’t really float my boat, but it seems apparently the spicier ones are to be found in New Orleans (which is why I found it so different to the one I had had there!) Anyway I think it was the service more than the food, he wasn’t engaged in what he was doing and seemed to be on autopilot - maybe he was having a bad day... anyway the building was awesome, and I did a little exploring while I was there. The Pirates' House is home to some rare early edition pages of Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. They have them hanging on the walls of the Captain's room and the Treasure room. There are differing stories about the house and what went on there, but as Captain Flint was never proven to be anything more than a fictional character, you can safely say that one of the claims that he died in the room upstairs is false. Locals also claim the term shanghaied comes the pirate house, and the fact that they used to have lovely young ladies who offered young men a free drink, dropping poison or sleeping drafts in it when they were not looking. The next thing they knew they were spirited through a tunnel under the building out to the river, and woke up 20 miles out to sea being told they were now part of the crew on a pirate ship.

I then wandered along the riverfront heading back towards my initial goal ( the church), that’s when it bucketed down again. This was not rain, it was similar to monsoon rain that we get in Darwin, except it went on for hours at a time, not just a few minutes. The roads and gutters were awash with mini lakes and I gave up and headed back to my room (ps it also didn’t help that my body was in its ‘trying to kill me’ phase of the month) to be ready for wine and cheese night ... I met a couple of lovely locals who lived about 3 hours out of the city and had come in for the weekend, they were a heap of fun and we all survived the fancy hour together. I then headed out to locate a place that a lady at Nashville airport had told me to go to (yes, I have conversations with people everywhere!). Anyway I was on a mission to locate the she crab soup. I got distracted by a local burger place and had a bison burger instead. Amazing, free range Bison, so so tasty (sorry my vegan/vegetarian friends). My young server was studying at SCAD, the ‘Savannah College of Art and Design’, and filled me in on the huge film industry here in the local area, it was interesting as I had no idea it was so prolific here! Anyway SCAD is credited with rescuing and restoring so many of the historic buildings here, they are a fabulous institution, I loved them before I knew how much more they were doing for the arts industry here.

I have many many reasons to go back to Savannah, so for that I am truly grateful. I will be back to all these places, very soon. The ‘South’ has won my heart with its charm, history, storytelling, easy going way of life, and its people, places and food. I struggle a little with some of the really thick accents, but I think I do the same to some of the people here, so I guess we’re even...

I am headed to Miami now for a few days before jetting across to visit another wonderful friend in Trinidad. So many more adventures to be had!