DATELINE: memphis, tn                                                    

Author: Ilteris

Wow. This has been the craziest south experience for me so far. Last night at beale st. We walked from our hotel through empty streets until we found this street full of people emerged out of nowhere. This experience totally reminded me of what I lived in Santander, a northern spanish city, in my europe trip back in 2005. People were drinking on the streets, booing cops if they show up and having fun. This time was not different. It was like a carnaval. I have found a chance to speak to some people and learned some stories. It was great until the cops showed up on their horses around 3 and started to clean the streets. Later, I have learned it is a temporary thing to lessen the crowd. One kid told me to wait for 20 mins and the police is going to open the street again. He was right about that. In the end I can tell that memphis was an interesting spot to visit. The people were interested in tourists(this is the impression that I got anyway), probably because we added a small flavor to their routine lifes. But I also need to say that the people are not the happiest people on earth and there is still a tension going on in all these carnivalesque lifes. Finally, today, we just visited elvis' graceland and now I have a better understanding of what he means to these people as a figure. Now we are on our way to New Orleans.