Yesterday was kind of a weird day since we woke up early after staying up late packing, went to the airport, took a flight north to Minneapolis where it was apparently about 30 degrees out (very glad we didn’t get stuck there with the clothes we packed) and then another flight south to Charlotte where it was already well past dusk by the time we landed. At 9:00 p.m. when we checked into the hotel we felt like we had barely done anything but still were not exactly energetic after our travels.
Fortunately, our hotel, perched on the 5th floor and above of Charlotte’s Epicentre, was clearly a party hotel in the middle of what seemed to be the liveliest place in the city. I’m not joking — the Epicentre was basically an urban mall filled with bars and clubs. A little artificial, but probably the best way to have a Saturday night on the town when you’ve just arrived (it’s also not clear that there was anything particularly “authentic” to experience elsewhere).
We ate some not particularly authentic but decent 2-for-1 Asian tapas at IndoChine Grill, where I also had a pretty terrible glass of wine. The California selections looked unimpressive so I went for a Chilean one which was equally unimpressive which was probably why I was served an overflowing glass. I clearly should have gone for the blood orange margarita that Dan ordered after his $4 special vodka Red Bull. I learned from this lesson tonight, and when the wine bar we wanted to try was not open, I passed on wine entirely in lieu of attempting to trick myself into thinking I still like the Beringer White Zin I used to buy in packs of six for $18 at Costco in college. We moved on to the fancy Asian restaurant, Enso, for dessert and after dinner drinks. It got us in the mood for dancing, so we walked around all the long lines to pay cover at the clubs, but when were solicited for a bribe at the back door of one of them we mutually decided that the experience was worth no more than about $2 each since there was not much inside that we couldn’t get elsewhere (each other) so we’d rather go back to our well-designed hotel bar.
This morning, we hurried out of Charlotte in hopes of making it in time to Boone Hall Plantation for Taste of Charleston, a once-a-year event we were fortunate enough to overlap. Apparently Boone Hall was the location of some scenes from the delightfully almost porny film version of The Notebook. Along the way, I wanted some caffeine so we went to the drive through at Bojangles, a ubiquitous local “chicken ‘n biscuits” chain. My coke was served in a styrofoam cup which made me die a little inside and the sweet potato pie didn’t really taste bad but the way it looked reminded me of why I never eat true fast food anymore now that I am able to avoid it.
Taste of Charleston was a great introduction to the city’s restaurants and a creative use of what would seem like lost space other than for tourism/preservation. While the food was tasty, it left me with what I am sure is the incorrect impression that Charleston mainly serves not-so-different varieties of sliders. My favorite parts were beautiful wooden shoring being used for restoration of one of the old buildings and the swamp we had to walk through (on a boardwalk of sorts) to get to the event. Getting in and out of the plantation was a total nightmare.
We checked into Notso Hostel this evening which so far has been… interesting. We struggled for a while to get the sheets on our bed until we realized they were the wrong size. On the bright side, we don’t have to pay $20 for parking like at the other hotels and it seems that the little shared kitchen outside our room is basically ours. Over dinner, we examined a bunch of tour brochures we picked up, ultimately concluding that the City Slicker iPhone application looked by far the most promising. Even on the internet, there was an overwhelming number of ghost tours and carriage rides leaving both of us with the fear that every tour would be perhaps unbearably kitschy. Fortunately, the app turned out to be on special for $0.99 instead of the usual $9.99 meaning there was nothing to lose. Since Charleston seems like more of a daytime kind of place, we turned in after dinner and downloaded the app which looks great so far.
Filed under: Other Cities Tagged: | travel
