(Sign in a cemetery frequented by ghost tours..hilarious)
This past weekend Ryan and I drove the 4 hours from
Jacksonville to Charleston, SC to begin our celebration of 3 years of marriage.
Our trip was to be 2/3 adventure and 1/3
luxury and relaxation. It was a beautiful and peaceful drive and we arrived at
Charleston’s Notso Hostel ready for a weekend of history,
good food and live music.
We stayed for 2 nights in the Hemingway room of the Notso
Hostel’s annex building just a few blocks away from their main building. Having
stayed at The Beehive’s annex building in Rome, we remembered
that this was the best way to take advantage of the price of a hostel without
having to put up with the sometimes frat house atmosphere J Both the hostel and
the annex were beautiful old Southern houses in an eclectic neighborhood near King Street and they were clean and decorated
with modern touches. Our room was on the small side (room only for a bed,
bookshelf and closet) but this turned out to be a blessing as it kept us out of
our bedroom and out and about in the city. I would recommend this hostel to
anyone looking to spend about ¼ of what you’d spend on a hotel this close to
the main downtown area. (Tip: You can feel the springs through the thin
mattress but if you put the down comforter under the fitted sheet, it is
perfectly comfortable for a few nights if you’re not too particular. We meant
to bring our own pillows and forgot…you may want to remember as their pillows
are quite flat…but for $70/night, who’s complaining?)
There are two people who live at the annex and care for it,
both were extremely hospitable and kind and their little dog, Saatchi, was the
sweetest, most friendly dog! She greeted us at the door like the little
ambassador of the Notso Hostel and showed us to our room to make sure we were
comfortable. The other guests of the hostel were considerate and quiet…I have
yet to have a bad hostel experience and part of this might be research but
mostly I think that hostel people are generally good people.
(Closed for Business by the "fireplace")
After changing clothes, we made our way over to King Street
to explore Charleston. There are several very expensive restaurants catering to
a wealthy clientele, but if you’re looking to make your vacation budget
stretch, there are several options for that as well. We started at Closed for Business restaurant/bar for a drink and some fried potato
skins. It has a quirky atmosphere similar to The Lodge in downtown Orlando and
filled to the brim with hipsters. Ryan tried a new gluten-free beer called “Omission” that he loved and I had a Crispin cider on the rocks…never
tried it on ice before but that’s how they served it and it was very
refreshing.
(Salut!)
We then wandered all the way down King Street and over to
Market Street for dinner and drinks at the bar of Mad River Bar and Grille. They had live music and while the food wasn’t
amazing, it was decent and inexpensive for the area. The bartenders were
friendly and one in particular befriended us and made a number of tasty shots
for us in honor of our anniversary. I wasn’t appreciating those shots the next
day but at the time it made our night special.
(Biking in Charleston)
The next day we rented bikes from the Notso Hostel for
$15/bike/day plus a $5/bike deposit for the bike lock. If you rent a bike from
Notso, don’t be turned off by the rust and general un-prettiness of these
bikes…they work just fine and for $15/day, right by your lodging….it is a
pretty good deal! There are other options for bicycle rental in Charleston if
you’d rather but these ones worked just fine.
On our bikes we were able to visit the Saturday Farmer’s
Market, which is HUGE and has vendors selling everything from local produce to
gluten free gnocchi to local brie and handcrafted items. From there it was a short
bike ride to the Historic City Market,
which is filled with vendors selling benne wafers and sweetgrass baskets in
addition to the usual artsy items. Since we weren’t interested in paying $50-500 for a
sweetgrass basket, it wasn’t long before we made our way through the City
Market and on to The Battery, a seawall and walking area that overlooks the
Charleston harbor and is bordered by “stately antebellum homes” (according to
Wikipedia).
Adjacent to The Battery is Waterfront Park, which has a
lovely pier and several benches and gardens that provide the perfect background
for a picnic or some gelato from Belgian Gelato. Try the pistachio!
(Sugar+Brandy= JOY)
If you have rented bikes from the main house of the Notso
Hostel, on the walk back to the Annex, there is a really cool restaurant with a
courtyard area, live music and delicious food called Fuel.
The musician they had while we were there sounded like the guy from Blues
Traveler and the service was great.
If you bring a bottle of champagne (our tradition is a
bottle of Veuve Cliquot, since that is what Ryan brought when he proposed to me
on the beach), you can enjoy a glass of it on the front porch swing of the
Annex and enjoy people watching as you watch college students, families and
couples strolling by on their way to the busy King Street.
Later on, if you’re looking for live music, it’s a pleasant
walk to The Brick, which usually has live music
starting at 10:30 pm. We saw the Swingin Richards and
were singing along with them as they covered everything from Adele to Johnny
Cash.
The next day, we enjoyed a cup of coffee in the living room
before checking out and hitting the road…..that will be in the next post!
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