The South

the colours seemed to change as we got further south from washington. the greens got greener and even the light seemed to change to a more kind of husky tone, if that's possible. arriving in atlanta, we knew we were in a different place both physically and mentally when, sitting on a bench in piedmont park, a passerby said hello to us out of the blue. amazing.

so midtown in atlanta is absolutely gorgeous. our moods were already high when we found that the veranda type balcony outside our room had a hammock and an oversized rocking chair on it. laying on that hammock, looking up at the sun shining through the branches of the giant tree just outside, you could really picture being scarlett o'hara, wearing a bonnet (if you forgot the roar of the traffic..). it was the same on the nearby streets. the trees and houses were much more 'southern' - massive detached places with verandas and american flags hanging outside. the park had a lake with wooden walkways and overhanging trees. again, bonnet-wearing type of scenery. the park also had a free outdoor pool which came in v handy in the searing heat.

atlanta really demonstrates the contradictions of the south. it was gorgeous where we were but downtown was a completely different story. we attempted to go to the martin luther king visitor centre etc (he was born in atlanta, preached there and is buried there) but we got off the train and found ourselves in the most aggressively black area we've come across. crazy people were shouting and everyone was looking at these three white girls wondering what the hell we were doing there. we turned straight around, which was really disappointing, but we all found it a little scary. i think it's a pretty damning indictment of race relations here that we couldn't visit the major centre on human rights because of our colour. i've never felt or really thought anything about my colour before but i've never felt so white here. it seems to me that there are these two black and white worlds that exist side by side but try and pretend that the other doesn't exist.

and america in general seems really fucked up about the whole poverty thing. there are so many people wandering about with physical and mental problems, it seems, and with no-one who cares or at least has somewhere to look after them. most people in the street seem actually proper crazy. which makes it more confusing in the south as you don't know whether they're just being friendly or they are actually nuts and talking to the voices in their head and not you. it's a minefield out there. one guy in washington told us he was jewish and german and adolf hitler's grandchild (he was black) and that he was sat there watching the fbi... if you're tired, it does get really draining dealing with all these people in your face all day.

but we had a great time in atlanta. we met mark and frank, the ambassadors of atlanta, who showed us where all the cool bars are. we went to buckhead, which apparently is the beverley hills of atlanta. we felt really trampy in our flat sandals and backpacker non-straightened hair. this is a problem.

and then, in a change to the planned itinerary, we headed on to memphis for rach's dad. we thought it was going to be really shit when greyhound lost dever's bag. we spent 10 minutes in the hotel room before needing to head out for beer to cope with the situation. and thank god we did because we had the most random night we've experienced yet. we found the nearest bar and sank a couple of bevvies. we started composing blues songs and singing them loudly, all the lyrics of which were based around the complete shiteness of the greyhound. dever was actually in reasonable spirits, considering all she had was the clothes she had on. we discovered we're actual musical genii and that we should be given a recording deal immediately. anyway, as the night wore on we met some random blokes and were explaining our plight of how we were poor backpackers, all sweaty and clothesless. they said they would find us a swimming pool. and they did. but first, when the bar closed, we went to 'doctor bob's' which is a small art gallery round the corner. we thought we were hallucinating when we saw this guy riding round the gallery on a bicycle. quite quite strange. but more beers were produced and we all chatted merrily. then we moved on to some random apartment which had a swimming pool but we didn't have time for that cos there was a party going on on the roof. this was fab. we had a fantastic view of the bridge over the river that forms an 'm' for memphis. we saw all the lights and the traffic below and felt the warm breeze on our faces. it was exactly what we needed after a whole day on the greyhound and then having your bags lost.

so it has been one helluva past week. greyhound actually returned dev's bag to her, which was some kind of miracle (possibly brought on by a man in pyjamas, no doubt). and then we've just spent each night going to rooftop parties in various apartments across memphis, listening to people play live saxophone and whatnot. it was really bizarre to have people calling for us, asking us if we wanted to play out. it just felt really normal and it was nice not to be surrounded by strangers, for a change. we could just be normal and talk bollox with people. it was great. (we also went to graceland to see if elvis was playing out, but all this seems incidental to all the rooftop shenanigans that was going on. all i can say is that the guy had a bizarre sense of interior design).

and so now we're in new orleans and the lads are on about coming down at the weekend to continue the party here, though it is a bit of a drive so we'll see. new orleans is almost tropical and v swampy. the road into the place is on stilts over swamps and rivers and stuff. we're staying in an area that still looks like a bomb has hit it. there's rubble in the streets and lots of knackered closed buildings. we'll see what the french quarter is like tomorrow. that escaped most of the flooding, i think. this is a complete change from memphis, anyway.