Neon Sign in the Car Museum
Graceland!
Well there seems to be a few problems with Blogger today, for instance I can't type in the title field. But as today is the first day in a while I've decided to take it easy and want to catch up here, so I'm pressing ahead. I'm posting this from Austin, Texas having arrived here from a wonderful few days with my friends Pennie and Amanda in Oklahoma, but let me tell you about that later.
Okay so where to begin? I took the Greyhound from New Orleans to Memphis, this took me through America's poorest state, Mississippi. Well if poverty is judged by the number of people over 200lbs, 20 churches per square mile and black folk, then yes Mississippi is poor. Arriving in New Orleans I had prepared myself for all the images we came to know when Katrina was televised. But I've been astounded by how poor huge area's of the South seem to be. Is this really the most powerful nation in the world?
I stayed in a great hostel in Memphis, the Pilgrim House Hostel. I was concerned when I first booked a bed online, but all my doubts disappeared when I walked into Pilgrim House. The hostel is part of First Congressional Church in the South Cooper area of Memphis. The church is quite different to how I imagined churches to be in the South. They have many community projects, from daycare to bankrupcy advice. There is a fair trade shop on site, selling clothing, crafts, food, coffee and stop the war pins. They also have a theatre on site, the complex is huge.
Inside the hostel, teh staff consists mostly of students who live on site for free and earn a small amount of money from running the hostel. Everyone is extremely friendly and the notice board has photographs of all the employees. This is such a simple thing to do, but I can't tell you the amount of hostels I've stayed in where you can't tell employee from guest and invariably get it wrong. Guests are encouraged to do a chore a day (nothing too heavy) and receive their $10 deposit back. They also offer guests free wifi and a great kitchen. It was here I met Emily (a native of Mississippi) she is an intern for the summer at a local chuch day centre and had friends visiting from out of town. When they learned I was also going to Gracland they gave me a lift. Frustratingly since leaving New York I've found a car is invaluable. Public transport in Memphis was pretty poor. Considering Graceland is an obvious tourist destination it's near impossible to reach by public transport.
Graceland itself was very different to what I had in mind. The "mansion" is actually quite small, this is probably because I've seen too many episodes of Cribs and expect every celebrity to have a 20 bed mansion, 12ft fish tank, jacuzzi/suana and gold plated swimming pools.

Elvis' Study

Graceland has it's opulence, Elvis had a thing for planes and cars, but the house itself is cosy and seems like a home. Well a home with thousands of tourists traipsing through each day and a jungle themed room.
I was surprised to see Elvis's kitchen only had a four hob oven and was quite small. I'm not a huge Elvis fan and wanted to visit out of curiosity more than anything. But I was surprised to learn Elvis liked to read (he had Herman Hesse's Siddharta on his bedside table) and held two black belts in different martial arts. I left Graceland feeling sad that his life ended prematurely. It seemed as if he was searching for something all his life, different to how he is often percieved. It is also odd to come across Elvis' grave alongside those of his beloved parents, in the backyard. It's understandable he's buried at Graceland (he never wanted to move), but for this to be next to a walkway guiding tourists with there sweaty headphones, broadcasting an audio tour and a suggested quiet moment seems unfortunate.

The suit.

Graceland is on the Elvis Presley Boulevard and the hub of the tourist "Graceland" is across the road, here there are 12 gift shops, a handful of Elvis exhibits and surprisingly only two restuarants. There is a chance to board the Lisa Marie (that's Elvis beloved plane,not his daughter) and take a look at the gold plated seat belts close up. I found it to be interesting experience, but not the kitsch one I was expecting, Graceland afterall was once a home.

The Lisa-Marie