Savannah — Van was right
by Ross Catrow
This weekend RMSzero, fetzer and I traveled to Jacksonville by way of Savannah to see our Hokies lose yet again to a mediocre Florida State team. That’s the only thing I am going to say about football. The trip still rocked mostly because we elected to stay the night in Savannah (awesome) instead of Jacksonville (lame).
It took seven hours for us to drive down to Savannah, including a stop at glorious Taco Bell. Everywhere we went we saw Hokies. Hokie at the gas station, Hokies at the Taco Bell, Hokies in the bathroom and plenty of Hokies in Savannah. We arrived in Savannah and checked into our hotel on the wrong side of Martin Luther King Blvd. HOW CRAZY WERE WE!? Not very actually, the hotel wasn’t sketch at all — and we didn’t get shot.
We wandered around DT for awhile before finding Churchill’s. Churchill’s had something like 30 beers on tap, mostly darker British beers. We sampled two overly malty beers — I thought — and then bounced next door to the Moon River Brewing Company. Their Captain’s Porter tasted great and really hit the spot for a winterish night. We actually all three ordered the sampler (36oz. of beer) and drank everything that was on tap. Then we walked over to Bar Bar.
Let me stress: Bar Bar is not a place to go to enjoy beer. Bar Bar is a place to go to dance and be a loud college kid. That is not to say it has no redeeming qualities: you can play connect four while drinking 1$ draft PBR’s. That said, if you want to party Bar Bar seems to be the place, if you want to find great and local beer — go somewhere else.
Finally we got a PBR to go, and walked back to our hotel DRINKING A BEER. WTF? Savannah has no open container laws so you can wander about with your beer all you want. Definitely insane for someone from Virginia where our alcohol laws are as strict as a 18th century corset. Seriously it blows my mind.
Anyway we were pretty tanked so we went to sleep and awoke to a beautiful day in Savannah. First things first: breakfast. We wandered down Bull St. and its beautiful squares filled with trees, spanish moss, and monuments until we found some cyclers to ask where we could find some grits and eggs. They pointed us over to Clary’s which was EXACTLY what I was looking for.
After breakfast we walked down to the big park in town and saw — literally — a thousand plus motorcycle motorcade headed by Santa. We also saw tons of amazing old Southern architecture. Really an amazing place. I wouldn’t want to live there unless I could (and I can’t) afford the old historic district. But worth a visit for sure.
dude i need to visit that place. i mean besides hearing it is awesome i have this story.
i have a friend, alli who goes to SCAD. and one day she told me this…
she was walking to a party with some friends and they walked by a fairly nice looking sports car with a spoiler. nothing really unusual. they satyed at the party a couple hours a finally started their walk home. when they go to the sports car, there were bullet holes all over, blood all over teh street and the spoiler was broken in 2 pieces in the middle of the street. AWESOME!
moon river is haunted! you should have asked for a tour of the upstairs, which they will give to anyone. people keep trying to put something up there (like more seating for the restaurant or retail space) and then they get freaked out by a ghost and stop their project.
I’m glad you liked my old town!
every time i hear savannah mentioned or discussed, i feel like its an old girlfriend i don’t get to see anymore. i love it down there. i miss you savannah. :[
i suppose richmond is the capital of the confederacy and all, but savannah, boy, its the Souths coy mistress.
Hey all you Savannah-loving folks: How many of you have been to Charleston? I’m just curious. I love Savannah for true, but I would say, as I said to Ross before, that Charleston is a better southern city.
Charleston is larger and more expensive to live in and visit. It is nicer, has better shopping, and less crime. Savannah is charming in a quirky way and intends to stay just like it is.
I need to go to Charleston. I didn’t see any bad parts of town while I was in Savannah. Where do I go for a ghetto there?
37th street area is notoriously bad for drive by shootings
4 armed robberies happened in 35 min (by the same people) last week in east savannah.
there are some dicey parts of midtown
as with most communities, the crime problems stem from poverty, poor public education, and drugs. the city really needs to clean it up if they want to continue to move forward with tourism. they are pretty good are patrolling the historic district where most tourist stay however.
Charleston is awesome for southern carm, if you love beaches its a much better vacation spot then murtle beach and all the surrounding beachs
charleston is a beautiful place to visit. i would prefer to live of the 2 cities in question–in savannah for reasons stephanie stated…and the feeling that is still a city concerned more with itself than pleasing tourists.
hilton head is a good place to go for a summer vacation. from there, both southern towns are in easy striking distance. and you have the beach. myrtle is becoming as bad as va beach with its tiki-99cent stores, etc. hilton remains free of that largely. and geostrategically, between both cities.
on stephanie’s side note of drugs, poverty, poor education leading to crime; i will add, most importantly, without a strong family unit, including an involved father.
As 50 cent said, “Daddy won’t around, prolly out committing felonies. My favorite rapper said check, check out my melodies.”
PS–Havoc you would have friends at SCAD–haha.
what does that mean you ask?
well, you’re just a cool guy. for instance, i, do not have friends at SCAD. You do. I will let those among us to draw their own conclusions.
i also like wilmington as i’ve said before. smaller town than sav or charlseton. as much charm/block. beaches. the nice thing is that it’s so much closer to richmond if you’re trying to do like a long weekend- like half the time to savannah.? much much cheaper than either. less crime than either. mainly, similar feel, but much smaller. it also has some fun film history. anyway, something to consider.
yes, wilmington is on the to-do list–I mean it was the site for DAWSON’s creek.
dude. charlseton is amazing. like so amazing. i love that place. i know peeps at college of charleston too.
i know people everywhere. i’m so cool.
I lived in downtown Savannah for almost 7 years (attending SCAD for 4) before moving to Richmond. Savannah has a whole lot of positives but also has a whole lot of negatives. A high level of violence is one big negative. It also isnt very racially progressive. These are two of the reasons my wife and I left.
But it is VERY beautiful and has a lot to offer………………………. for visitors :)
Peace,
Eric
Hahah dude.
You left Savannah for Richmond because Savannah wasn’t racially progressive and too violent.
Thats hilarious!
Havoc – any time you want to do a long weekend to CoC, I’m in.
why wasnt bill bevans of lite 98 on the list?
this is a secret, don’t tell anyone: bill bevans is *actually* not very nice despite his radio personality. he also owns goats. once, a pack of dogs ate his goats. he also has roosters. and go-carts and dirtbikes. he built half an ugly ghetto treehouse with a tarp roof that is an eyesore and never gets used.
i know where you live, Billy!!!
aren’t we in the wrong thread?
that trip was awesome.
too bad i only remember santa on the motorcycle. totally worth the 14 hours of driving (riding in a car while rms(0) drove)
In 2004, Savannah’s murder rate was two-and-a-half times that of New York City. Savannah’s was 17.5 per 100,000 residents, while New York City’s was only 6.9 per 100,000.
From a Savannah article a friend just sent me – crazy and sad.
I’m actually visiting Savannah this weekend to possibly move, but the crime rate does concern me. We might end up in a nearby town and be able to drive into savannah when we want to enjoy its beauty any suggestions on affordable cities or towns surrounding savannah?
Richmond?
richmond would be cool if maybe it had grown some since ‘the war.’ you know, like Winston-Salem for instance.
haha yeah i read winstonsalem and i was like “what the mess is winstonsalem?” i thought it was a kind of cigarette, but it is apparently also a city in nc? which is apparently a state somewhere to the south of here?