Charleston
Trip Start
Apr 15, 2008
1
11
59
Trip End
Apr 01, 2010
Charleston,
South Carolina,
United States
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Positioned on a coastal peninsular, Charleston overflows with charming streets and historic districts and is one of the oldest cities in America. The city grew on the back of slavery. Despite fires, being hit by several hurricanes and an earthquake it has continued to hold its head high.
It has embraced its history and today it really is a wonderful place to visit with some spectacular architecture, huge homes with large balconies and lovely shaded gardens crammed full of exotic plants and big oak trees.
We had a fantastic time wandering the streets, often accompanied by horse drawn carriages of the numerous tour companies
Carriage Tours
. Several of the houses along with the slave quarters are open to the public and you can get a good understanding and feeling of how life used to be. The southern hospitality can be found all over the city, the locals are very friendly and always on hand for any advice. The cuisine is good too, we treated ourselves to blackened shrimps, served in a Cajun sauce with salad washed down with a cold glass of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, perfect! Seafood is on most menus' being on the seafront it is in ample supply and comes in varying options and levels of spiciness.
On the pathways black women make and sell intricate baskets and serving vessels from the local sweet grass. These skills are a fine art which have were brought over from Africa with the slaves and are still handed down throughout the generations. We were amazed to see street vendors with signs up advertising they take all major credit cards, only in America!
This is a fantastic city, we really would recommend a visit to this part of America, it is even better than we had expected.
Comments
sweet potato
Andrew and Julie,
I'm glad you enjoyed our southern hospitality. After seeing your photos and comments about Savannah and Charleston, I realized how much you would have enjoyed seeing downtown Milledgeville and Macon. They both have similar historic areas. Too bad Teresa had to get back to cook those sweet potatoes!
Chris
Brings back memories
Glad to hear that you enjoyed Charleston - I remember it as a great place just as you described when I was in Charlotte a few years ago. Very envious but am off to Greece at the weekend so feeling better!
Really enjoy hearing about your travels...
Sally
hello there
andrew,
don't you get indigestion from swallowing all those guide books?
still suppose it sounds quite nice, not a patch on hunstanton at the week end, funnily enough chris had a Sierra Nevada pale ale in a pub at Old Hunstanton £3.95 and £1.80 for a soda and lime, thieving b.....s!
love you both long time!
tracy