Nashville

It took us a couple of hours to get from Memphis to Nashville. We had a travel coupon booklet with discounts for hotels, so Zoran picked a hotel near the Titans Stadium, not very far from Downtown Nashville. We arrived early in the evening and upon seeing how totally desolate this area was, we changed our minds. Finally we found a good, cheap room with breakfast at the Drury Hotel in the airport area, which was very close to downtown, and only 8 minutes to Opry Mills, a huge shopping mall, multiplex cinemas and restaurants, where we immediately headed. We wanted to buy swimsuits, since there was a nice indoor pool and a whirlpool at the Drury. But all we could find was one pair of swimsuits - they don't sell swimwear in winter.

Opry Mills is a new mall, opened only in 2000. Before that, for many years there stood a theme park, known as Opryland, a hotel, and Grand Ole Opry, that first started as a radio show back in 1925 and where country music artists have performed over the years.

Downtown Nashville is really cute, with its old preserved historic district, and some new sky rise buildings and stadiums, that fit in not very badly. It made me feel as in a western movie, with country music blaring from shops and restaurants (or saloons.

Another landmark worth seeing in Nashville is The Parthenon, built for the Centennial Exposition 110 years ago, that now serves as Nashville's art museum.

On this lazy Sunday morning in Downtown Nashville, I was kind of taken aback to see how many bums and panhandlers live on its streets, people who are not old, yet, time has taken its toll on them.