Today I pack up and leave Asheville, heading west into Tennessee.
I’m a little bummed to leave this wonderful city but I am lucky enough to be en
route to one of my favourite places, Nashville, TN, where I get to see one of
my favourite people and a fellow yule log, TJ. Asheville has been amazing and I
can’t wait to come back this direction, although preferably with some friends
(so far the hardest part of this trip is often being alone and motivating
myself beyond my anxiety to go explore).
I am
infatuated with everything about Asheville. It’s a manageable size and easy to
navigate and, despite being a city, it’s surrounded by glorious mountains and
lots of trees. Even the sky is consistently stunning. There is so much to do
here- good food, good beer, good spaces, shopping and art and really just about
anything you want to do outdoors, all within easy reach. In many ways, Asheville
resists the societal norms. It veers off from the mainstream and is much
crunchier. There are more people with funky styles than those in suits. So often
things that effuse this out-there, unusual quality have a terrible habit of
trying too hard to be different which results in seeming pretentious and fake. Asheville
amazes me because it is so genuine and true and beautiful. It is wonderfully refreshing
to be surrounded by an authentic vibe.
If I were to
personify Asheville, I’d probably have to get married to him. Asheville eats
good food and drinks fabulous beer and has great music taste. He owns a dog and
a kayak and spends his free time outdoors. The amount of tie dye he wears is
just a little over the normal ratio and his hair is a little too long. Asheville
drives a Subaru, and even if it’s a newer model, it already has at least two bumper
stickers. He plays a musical instrument, he composts, he buys locally, and he
wakes up in the morning to drink coffee in his hammock. And, best of all, he
somehow does all of this without annoying everyone else.
 |
| my favourite street sound (to all my dear friends) |
I should probably
do some rating of the places I go, so, without further ado, I present to you a listing of my favourite things about Asheville and how it ranks on the absolutely
arbitrary kg index:
·
Music: lots of it. Buskers play on the street
corners which is highly desirable. There is at least one quality record store
in town.
·
Dog friendly: dudes, everyone here has dogs
(including aforementioned buskers!) and that earns lot of arbitrary kg
points! Some stores have water and dog biscuits by their doors.
·
Quality bookstore: yes.
·
Wanderers who look like half yeti half hippie:
yes.
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