Today's trip was around 350 miles long and I entered 4 states: Illinois - Missouri - Kentucky and finally we scratched Tennessee where our final destination was: Nashville (or how I also saw today: Nash Vegas, because especially at night the advertisement are like at the strip in Vegas :-))
Due to a small mistake we took the wrong freeway southbound but this was a nice opportunity to leave the freeway in Cape Girardeau and to stroll around the small roads (in the middle of nowhere) to find the other highway heading to Nashville.
In Cape Girardeau I had the first time 'south-states-feeling'. The town lies directly at the Mississippi and the tiny old town is really beautiful with much atmosphere - the only dramatical mistake in the set-up: most of the shops are closed and are searching for new owners. It seems that we left the main tourist-path! Sad.
After crossing the Mississippi again and some mistakes in finding the way - this part of Illinois is poorer than expected - people are living mainly in RVs or very old desolate houses, no signs show the way, no 'real life on the streets' - we reached a town called VIENNA!!!!! Hurra - I am at home but: this town changed dramatically, e.g. the house of the Lord Mayor is now only a building with few rooms and not the proud building I knew from the past!! Where is the Ringstrasse and and and. The conclusion (for our Austrian readers): Wenn die keinen Steffl habn, gemma wieder ham :-) So we continued the trip and whenever you have the chance to chose between Vienna, Austria and Vienna, Illinois - take Austria, it's more lively and funnier!
Finally we reached Nashville with high expectations - and until now these expectations didn't fulfill. The reasons are simple. I had a picture of Nashville in mind, like: old western town, concentrated on country music with a very intensive atmosphere in downtown. The fact is: a normal 'big city' of the USA and only a small part - around two streets, called THE DISTRICT - offer something what I expected: full of bars, every 20 meters street musicians try their best, country boot shops everywhere and in the evening almost every place offers some live music. Forget Viennas Bermuda triangle - here you have more to listen and to look. I visited three places: BB Kings Blues Club, Nashville Legends and The Stage and the summary is depressing. In the Blues club the All Star Band played Pop/Blues/Souls standards without any soul or any own interpretation (OK, the horn section reminded in some way on Blood, Sweat and Tears) but at the end it was only routine blabla for tourists but nothing for real listeners! The other bars handled the topic music similar: different styles, maybe slightly oriented to Country but mainly mainstream pop. So where can I find the real 'country feeling'??
We will see tomorrow - I will try to find the 'real Country music'. I'll keep you informed.
One topic on top was surprising me: in the Blues club they announced (like somewhere else birthdays are celebrated) that three guys came back from the army, returned from Afghanistan, and the whole club spent standing ovations for these guys ... like 'our heros are back' ... I don't know - in Austria this would not be possible. Maybe in Turkey???
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