Trip to Nashville and Asheville with the crew (it was 3 of us – Katie, Maria and Annie). Katie’s graduation trip. Nashville was the place Katie wanted to see for a long time, and since we love road trips we were down to make it to Tennessee. We came up with the idea of doing a road trip ever since we got back for school in 2016, but really started planning a couple month before. Honestly, mainly we planned our trip and made a to-do list for each day once we reached our destination, but it’s definitely a great thing to do, and I think there’s no doubt we made most of it we possibly could. At the end of January, we started looking at hotels and air b and b’s to get an idea of price. After more research, we decided that an air b and b would be our best option price wise in Nashville. As more planning took place another location was discussed, Asheville, North Carolina. By adding this other destination, we would be able to break up the drive and we would also get to see another interesting city. A few weeks later the whole trip was booked.
So, it’s Sunday the 7th of May at 7am, well actually a little later than that, when we started off our road trip to Nashville. Before we left Greenville, had to get some coffee at Krispy Kreme and we were good to go. It’s a 9/10-hour drive, the road was all straight, but hilly and snaky in mountains (NC and TN border). A few bathroom breaks and food stops, and we’re in Nashville before 5pm. And what would be a road trip without getting lost? Well, we didn’t quite get lost, but we’re off the main road for a little bit before we got to Nashville. Rolled windows down and enjoyed a bit of countryside views, before entering the Music City. From there our first night in Nashville commenced. We took a Lyft to Broadway because that is where all of the bars and live music are. We ate dinner at a rooftop bar which overlooked the city and then we wandered around Broadway looking for places to go. We had a recommendation for a bar called tootsie. We went in and there was live music, we got drinks and listened to the band. Once they had finished their song we went to explore the rest of the place. There was another level and we took the stairs to see what was there. On the upper floor, there was another band playing. The place was packed to the brim, hardly any room to even turn around. Then at ten O’clock the band changes. This happens at almost every bar on Broadway. We found that out the hard way as we went back out onto the street and searched for more live music.
Next morning, we’re ready to explore the city. We drove downtown, parked for 20$, didn’t really look for other parking places since this one was close to Broadway and places we wanted to see. We didn’t really have a strict list to follow, but we knew what exactly we wanted to see, and so we walked around the city with a direction to Nissan Arena, court house and a place which we thought was The Parthenon (from pictures), but apparently, some buildings just look similar. Learned a bit of Nashville’s history. Thinking that we were strong enough to walk couple more km, we started our way to The Gulch, but soon realized that’s quite a walk, and returned to our car. Made our way to a BBQ place (‘cause it’s must do thing), and after a good lunch it didn’t take us long to finally get to The Gulch to see the ‘’wing’’ wall and a modern part of the city. Oh… and again we paid $20 for parking… but a little further there’s a parking place for free for an hour. After many pictures were taken we went home to get ready to go out. That evening we went to two bars one called Crazy Town and the other was Honky Tonk. Crazy town had three different levels with the first two levels having live music and the top level having a DJ and an outside patio. Honky Tonk had two levels with live music on both of them. I would recommend going to both.
The next day we started off with breakfast/lunch at Chipotle. I know it’s nothing like a food you should try in Nashville, haha, but it’s a call. Oh, and while we’re there, our car got towed, but thankfully Maria sorted it all out, so we didn’t have to pay. Grand Ole Opry was on our agenda next, but before it we went to do a little tour around Vanderbilt University, yep, it’s amazing, but nothing too wow as I would expect for a university like Vanderbilt. Oh, and guess what?! We accidentally found the Parthenon, a nice building. After that we made our way to Grand Ole Opry (country-music hall of fame and concert place). I would say it has its charm. It’s a simple and magical place at the same time, it’s like a Mecca for country-music lovers. Grand Ole Opry has stories to tell. Then from there we went home so we could get ready of another night on the town. That night for dinner we went to a restaurant called the Diner. This place was very interesting. Each floor of this restaurant had a different theme and there were six floors. We decided we would try two of the six floors. The first floor we tried was level six. This floor had only seafood which was good because we all wanted some sushi. It was good but we were still hungry so from there we tried level two which was more of a sports bar. We got spinach dip and some drinks. From there we went back to Crazy Town where we spent the rest of our night.
Wednesday morning. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts and the road trip continues to Asheville. Asheville is town in the mountains, a small, but pretty place. Very hippie and hipstery. Some cute little shops. Little quiet streets. It felt like we went back in time, to 60’s. A town, where you can see some unusual activities, things that make this place unique. Some people love that, some people aren’t fans of places like Asheville. Besides exploring Asheville, we went hiking to Crabtree Falls on Thursday. Left in the morning, went up the Blue Ridge Parkway, got lost, and almost ran out of gas. On the way down we found another waterfall, just a little smaller than the actual Crabtree. After seeing that we drove down to get some gas and some snacks since we’re already a little hungry, and returned to mountains. Now we found the real Crabtree Falls. To get to the waterfalls we had to walk down the mountain, which is a very easy thing to do, but the way back – it was a little challenge, although we did enjoy every mile and burnt calorie. It was a three-mile hike but in the middle, was the most majestic waterfall we have ever seen. The waterfall was 70 feet high and powerful.
Friday came, and it was time to get back, very upsetting after all the fun and adventures we had. We met new people almost every night, and as Katie says: ‘’New friends are the best friends!’’ And there is some kind of truth to that. We could not wish for better friends to travel to Nashville and Asheville. We never did get ice-cream, although it’s one of must get things in Nashville, and we would have loved to spend a little longer time there, but we can always go back. This trip was one of the many adventures that makes our 2017. Keep in mind for future references that GPS isn’t the best thing to follow when there’re other destinations be called the same as yours. Sometimes being lost isn’t a bad thing, it can lead you to other places that might amaze you. We can truly say we enjoyed and absolutely loved the time spent with our Nashville crew and memories we made. Oh and now we can also say that we should be pretty good spinach-artichoke dip tasters (got it every night). ‘’There are steel ships, and there are wood ships, but the best ships are friendships.’’
Katie & Annie
Katie's Travel Blog 
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