Savannah, Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina

Despite once again foregoing our previous night’s promises to one another of going running (I was not too devastated as I seem to have lost my runners), we woke relatively early (for us), and were checked out by 9:30. We proceeded to cruise around downtown Savannah, stopping at a local café to eat a proper breakfast for the first time in a long time. Cleland was the most adventurous opting for the eggs Benedict with grits (which appeared to be some sort of wheat porridge), while the rest of us settled for the continental.

Following this and after a quick stop at the Visitors’ Centre, we embarked on a walking tour around Savannah. It was not hard to see the remnants of the plantation wealth that once flowed through Savannah with huge mansions lining shady, tree-lined streets and numerous squares and parks, all of which seemed to have statues and fountains. It was completely different to any other place we had been so far and it was not hard to imagine how things might have been in the pre-Civil War years. One sight that we were particularly keen to see was the park bench that Tom Hanks sits on throughout the movie Forrest Gump. Despite knowing which square the bench was in, debate raged amongst the boys as to which bench was actually used in the movie. Given none of us had any real idea, this was a largely futile argument and after taking photos of every bench in the park we were soon ready to move on to get lunch.

After a bit of wild-goose chase around the city (it should come as no real surprise to our loyal readers that Mac was on decree duties), we eventually found some BBQ in an alley and had some delicious, though not exactly nutritious sandwiches. We then pushed on for Charleston, hoping to get there in time to buy groceries and have a look around the town before checking into the hostel.

We managed to get this done, got ourselves checked in and after a couple more games of BB and some delicious salads ala Wonderboy, we decided that it would be rude not to go and see what the Charleston nightlife had to offer. Given that all of the uni students are still on their Christmas break, there was not much doing and after a few quiet beers, a couple of games of pool and buck-hunter and chatting to some of the locals we turned in, hoping to get another early start the following morning.

Hope you’re all well,

Jez