This post covers the fly over stops of this Contiki. In reality the trip went Savannah, bus Charleston for lunch, bus to Raleigh where we crashed for the night, bus to Washington where we stayed for four nights, bus to New York stopping in Virginia for a quick morning tea and then a long lunch at Philadelphia before ending in New York. But for the sake of cohesiveness I am grouping these stops together and Washington will be the next blog post.
Raleigh, North Carolina was a very average stop over that basically consisted of us going to the greasiest all-you-can-eat and creating the most dirty delicious monstrosities we could plate up.
Our next pit stop was Virginia, Georgia. I didn't see much of Virginia other than their Facilities but I did learn that 'Virginia is for Lovers'.
We hung out in their very Parks and Rec vibe Community Area. For what I saw of Georgia from the window of the bus looked lovely though, I will have to come back for a longer stay next time!
Last, but certainly not least of the inbetweener stop overs was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We had just spent four nights in Washington and were exhausted but excited for what New York had to offer! But, before we could get to the 'Concrete Jungle where things are made of'...we needed lunch!
We went and ran the infamous Rocky steps. I must warn you that this was probably the worst I looked of the entire trip other than after Vegas. Washington got me good..
A hungover mess.
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Contiki took us to a spot with two famous Cheesesteak joints right across the road from eachother. Geno's Steaks and Pat's King of Steaks. We all got one each and split it with someone who got one from the other place so we could try both. In my personal opinion Geno's was far superior, but I also know that these two places are known tourist traps and that there are genuinely better Cheesesteaks in Philly. Hopefully I will be able to come back and try more soon! Please if you have any Philly Cheesesteak places that you would recommend, message me on instagram @yeswanderlust
We are now arriving at one of at a completely unexpected favourite stop of mine, Savannah Georgia. This charming city is the oldest in Georgia and is known for it's beautiful parks and Antebellum Architecture. Jones Street is known as the most beautiful street in the United States if that gives you any indication on how gorgeous this place is. Honestly pictures do not do this place justice.
We spent the morning wandering the parks and we strolled the infamous Jones Street. I wish I had time to get better photos but we were on our way to eat lunch at Mrs Wilkes Dining Room.
Mrs Wilkes Dining Room is a well known secret of Savannah. The restaurant has huge unreserved 10 seat family style tables and serves Traditional Southern Homestyle Cooking. This was without a doubt one of the best meals I had on my entire trip. As their website describes their offerings so well.."Tabletops are crowded with platters of fried chicken and cornbread dressing, sweet potato souffle, black eyed peas, okra gumbo, corn muffins and biscuits." As seen below.
Usually to attend this restaurant you have to line up at 11am and you will be seated where and when you can be. As we were travelling with Contiki, one of the perks was that they had established an arrangement where we could take over the whole restaurant for a late lunch sitting. This lovely lady helped arrange this for all of us. Thanks so much for allowing us to experience this in the short time we had in Savannah.
Jones Street
After our incredible lunch we went and rested our food comas in the park. This is where we met the most gorgeous golden retriever pup!
I then went wandering by myself for a bit so I could get the real vibe of this place. My first stop happened to be a huge basement level vintage store called Savannah Underground Market. It was full of knick knacks, bits and bobs, furniture, clothings, art, statues and everything in between.
Purchased some exotic sodas from the Savannah Candy Kitchen. They weren't bad, but I just will never really understand Americans obsession with soda. I also was not raised drinking soft drink so that could be a contributing factor.
I found a whole store dedicated to salt called The Salt Table. You could for real go around the store and sample SALT! It was a wild time I had, by myself.. To be fair they did also stock a whole range of seasonings and sauces which were pretty tasty.
Just some real GRL PWR vibes in these artworks I walked by.
ANOTHER candy store
After wandering by myself for a while I met back up with everyone and went back to the hotel. Unfortunately the weather predicted a huge storm so most of the crew stayed in this night. But not me. I decided to brave the storm for a ghost tour because you know priorities. I am so glad I didn't pull out, the ghost tour was fantastic! The guide was well rehearsed and a great storyteller. We were taken through all of Savannah's Historically Haunted Sites including a mansion where someone fell head first into a garden spike off the roof and a few super creepy cemeteries. Below are my attempts at 'Capturing a Ghost'. Let me know if you spot any ghosts!
Did you see anything? Despite the rain, this tour was great and the guide was a legend. If you are looking at going on a fun true crime ghost walking tour in Savannah check out 'Savannah Ghost Encounter'.
Strange horse statue I saw in a hotel lobby on my way back.
These photos look straight out of Riverdale or the Notebook.
Very confused about this display but yay for recycled clothing!
The little dogs are so damn cute! Well this is where my Savannah adventure ends, me running home in buckets of rain at 11pm at night, loving every minute of it. The next morning we were out at the crack of dawn, butts on the bus on our way to Raleigh.
Our lunch time stop was in the absolutely charming city of Charleston, South Carolina. You better believe I spent the day saying "Nothing could be finer than South Carolina". I would have loved to have spent longer and seen more of this darling place.
We had a bit of a wander through the city hall and were then taken on a bus ride tour through some of the bougee-est streets Charleston had to offer. It was rows upon rows of Barbie's Dream Home's mixed in with these dreamy white brick courthouse style Mansions with columns for DAYS!
Sleepy erica after lots of bus travel and not many zzzz's.
I was really appreciating seeing all the Graduation Merch that was sold over here. I wish Graduating was a bigger deal here. I still mean University though..
My forever obsession with American chopped salad chain stores continues..
After we had some lunch we all piled back into the bus for a 4 hour drive to Raleigh. A college town where we would just be crashing for the night. The weather was expected to be pretty crappy so we all planned to stay in after dinner.
We had a sickeningly lavish buffet at Golden Corral in Raleigh. I have an issue with buffets, I ALWAYS overpack my plates. I will only want to try a bit of everything, but I end up accidentally putting too much on my plate and then not eating it all. I swear I only do this at buffets. I know food waste is bad and I am trying to be better with this. Please feel free to shame by buffet plates.
Getting that quick bit of health and wealth in before we had to leave. I am pretty sure I took a LOT of food home in various parts of my handbag wrapped in serviettes..
