discovering asheville, which is pretty much the way everyone says it is.

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.

 Combine these cool things plus all the other awesome stuff I mentioned above then factor in the potential negatives (no major league sports team within an hour, ~500 miles from Camden Yards) and you get a 27 out of 30 on the kg index. This is not a viable method of determining quality though; I just picked 27 because it sounds good. Regardless, yay Asheville.