Nashville Adventures

It’s Sunday, spring break is almost over. Tomorrow I will have to go back to my regular everyday life – but I will go back with some new experiences and adventures!

I visited Nashville, Tennessee, the “Music City”. I enjoyed it a lot: I liked the streetscape, the various architectural styles ranging from neoclassical splendor over old brick warehouses along the river to a very modern-looking skyline of glass skyscrapers. But what brought me – and all the other tourists, of course – there, was the music: I tried to go to as many bars playing live music as possible and also experienced a lot of variety: There is the colorful broadway, where (very expensive) alcohol makes tourists dance (a little too enthusiastically) to the classics of country music, and neon signs make you feel dizzy (even if you cannot afford the alcohol). I also got to listen to a classic rock band, as well as to some songwriter rounds, where a lot of hopeful young musicians played songs about heartbreak and booze (and about

the relationship of both). Somehow, my second evening ended in a karaoke bar (don’t judge me). But my two favorite places were the “Bourbon Street Blues”, where two elderly Southern Gentlemen played music that made it impossible to keep my head and feet from moving, and the “Alley Taps”, where I listened to some awesome hour-long funk improvisation. So it was not only the nice weather that made me wish I could stay for a little longer!

But the real adventure was actually not the city of Nashville, but my way down there: I hitchhiked there, came through four different states (Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee), met a lot of people (cooks, state troopers, workers, homeless, entrepreneurs, immigrants, Trump fanatics, missionaries, truck drivers, musicians, gun owners, retirees) and spent one night at the truck stop. Getting to talk to a lot of different people, many from rural areas, made some of the cultural distinctiveness of the American South visible to me. First of all, I began doubting my English skills, because I was confronted with very thick accents as soon as I crossed the Ohio border. Besides, I got to realize where a lot of the “American” stereotypes might come from: I met a lot of very generous and hospitable people (some drove further than their actual destination to bring me a little closer to Nashville, some offered me a place to stay for the night, some even wanted to give me money), I heard some very conservative political views (for example on immigration, terrorism, and on the

need to restrict the “excessive socialist policies” in the US) and I got to hold a gun for the first time (I told this guy I had never seen one from close up before, and he opened the glove box, handed me his revolver and said: “There you go.”). An elderly couple dropped me off at the gas station, got out of the car with me, took my hands and said a prayer for my safety, but also thanked God that they got to know me. And a lot of other people – old and young – promised to include me in their prayers when I got off their cars (and I made it to Nashville safely – so it seems like God listened to all of them). It was also interesting to hear about and see some more of the economically run-down regions of this country: a state trooper in West Virginia told me about the lack of perspectives for young people in his state, and how this relates to the active heroin trafficking in Huntington. He told me that almost all the crimes he has to deal with during his shifts are somehow drug-related. Another guy told me about his losses during the recession and his struggle since.

I should also mention that I also had a lot of experiences on the other hand, that contradicted my stereotypes, had conversations and heard opinions differing from those above: for example this guy who seemed to fit into the “redneck”-stereotype at first, but then told me how proud he was that he had had the chance to vote for a non-white man as well as for a woman in presidential elections during his life time. And I met atheists and people shaking their heads about Tennessee gun laws, too. But telling all these stories would go to far for this blog post! So why don’t you just take a look at a few of my lovely rides (and ignore my dorky selfie smile!):