Savannah, Georgia

The Lonely Planet describes Savannah as more “gritty” than Charleston.  We didn’t know quite what that meant, - until we got there.  It is a bit more gritty than Charleston.  Still very lovely but a bit more down to earth, and less chic.  Still nice though.

Savannah is the only city where we have seen anything much in the way of busking, and I’ve blogged about that in another post, “Street entertainment”.

Parking Harvey was simplicity itself here.  The visitor’s centre had a car park that had spaces reserved for RVs.  And reasonably priced at 1 dollar per hour.  That was better than Charleston.

We walked our little boots off all afternoon, through small park areas, into the RC Cathedral,  and a drink in a bar by the Savannah River.

Then some shopping.

The free town bus transport, although very grotty, took us back to the visitor’s centre and we drove out of town.

Well worth the visit!

Street entertainment

In all of our travels in USA we have not seen people busking.  In fact, a lot of people don't know what the word "Busk" means.  We saw one person busking in Washington, and that was about it until now.
Today in Savannah, Georgia, we saw several buskers.
The first was a guy on guitar in Forsyth Square, singing and playing.  He was ok.
Then we saw another guy on violin, at another square.
The third was an old black guy playing flute.  He was playing "Old McDonald Had A Farm" on flute. We stopped to have a chat to him once he had exhausted that tune.  He was happy to chat.  His name was Marion May.  Busking is allowed here, but you have to have a permit to do so.  It doesn't cost, but they want to do background checks before you play.  Fair enough, it seemed to us.
He was happy enough if he got money for his dinner.
We gave him a small donation for the pleasure of talking to him, and allowing us to take a photo.
He assured me that he already had got enough for his dinner!  Good man, Marion!
As we left Marion, he treated us (?) to a rendition of "My Favourite Things" from the Sound of Music on saxophone!  Arrw, thanks Marion.

Marion May, busker

Next we found a guy singing solo, unaccompanied by the Savannah River side.  He was singing "Down By The Riverside" as it happened.  An appropriate song for the location.

Singer, singing

Lastly was the best.  Ruth spotted a guy sitting on a bollard.  One of those blasted still-life statue things that don't move until you put some money in his collecting tin.  He was dressed all in the same colour, from head to toe, and even his face was the same colour.  Some ladies moved up to him, with their arms around him, and posed for a picture.
Ruth got her purse out to give him a donation.  She was sure he moved his lips!
She was feeling really compassionate today.  She had just seen a guy sitting on a step, by the side of the road, with a sign saying,
"Homeless vet"
"Desert Storm"
She felt really sorry for the poor vet and wondered how all the animals would manage without a vet.  She was also worried to think that it proved how ANYONE can be made homeless these days, - until I explained that the word "vet" may just have referred to being a VETERAN from the Desert Storm war mission.

One of those still-life statues!!

I wandered up to the statue, not quite so sure about him, and discovered to Ruth's surprise that it was indeed a statue and NOT a street artist painted up to look like a statue.  He was made of bronze and sounded well hollow when I tapped him on the shoulder!

How we both laughed!