[Travels] Downtown Greenville, South Carolina

Snapshot taken from Mainstreet and Coffee Street.

What was I thinking?! 112 degrees in Fahrenheit!

It was a hot summer day. The air was sharp and hot. I've been told this has been one of the hottest August month they experienced. I had no idea, but I was sweating like an ox. 112 degrees in Fahrenheit, with peaks to 116-118. That's about 45 fucking degrees in Celsius. A hot summer-day in the Netherlands is about 28 degrees in Celsius. To make it, even more, funnier, I, of course, decided to only bring long-sleeves, thick denim jeans and no sunglasses. The look on the face of my uncle... "Hey, dumbfuck, you got any other clothes with you?", I was like, nope.. why? He took a snap-shot of my back and I can still hear him curse. "You're wearing BLACK clothes, did even use Google before going here?". He showed me the picture and there was an, even more, darker spot visible than the already dark clothes that I was wearing. Damn, I am still laughing at my own stupidity, and the robust mentorship my uncle gave me. What the fuck was I thinking? Going to play some curling with some yeti's?

Stuff where the magic happens man.

Water please, I'm dying.

Greenville has about 60.000 citizens, it's a small town that has a lot of charm. Because it's a small town, everything you need is accessible by foot. It's quite interesting to see how everything is distributed and geographically placed. It took me about 15 minutes to get to downtown, the first time I almost fainted because it was too hot and I didn't bring any water with me. I could hear the voice of my uncle in my head, echoing "You fucking idiot". Completely dried out as I was, I entered a bar and ordered some fucking liquid to pour down my throat. After the refreshment, I continued my journey with exploring Downtown. There was a shitton of stuff to see, with an exceptional park right in the middle of Greenville.

During the day this is a quite fancy restauraunt and during Weekends it is a place to get rekt.

I'm was so happy to find Dutch Beer here!

Falls Park (on the Reedy) - "Reedy River Falls"

The park is about 20 acres big and designed by landscape architect Andrea Mains of Washington, D.C. Falls Park is everyday open from 7 AM till 9 PM, there is no entrance fee. The park offers a lot to its visitors and many facilities are available to get the most out of your visit.

Although there is a 2-hour free parking spot around the streets, these are usually always taken and you should go to a (paid) parking garage a few blocks away. And in case you forgot to take a leak, don't you worry, there is a public restroom available and if you're lazy, there is even an elevator which you can use to calm those worn-out legs.

It has also free (crap) Wi-Fi available for visitors, and not only in the park but also in the entire Downtown area.

Overview of Falls Park, taken from the bridge.

Exploring Greenville.

Cocktail time!

My uncle has his own restaurant and café in Greenville, I'm so blessed because I love food and drinks. This gave me a place where I could go during opening times, and I could recharge myself right before checking out downtown afterwards. Since I was a bartender at that time I was looking forward to learning more about mixing and making Margarita's. Of course, I have been mixing shit together from the moment I turned 16, so I knew some dirty ways that would fuck people up for sure. It was fun to be the one teaching the bartenders about the weight of certain alcohol. For example, Baileys (Irish Cream, based on Whisky and Cream, with tones of coffee) is pretty light, creamy and has a fat/greasy texture. This makes it a no-brainer that it would float on top of almost any other liquor. The other fun thing with creamy liquor is to shake it with ice. The molecules of the Irish Cream will be chilled and expand because of this, and this will create a very creamy cocktail. You better drink fast, because Irish Whisky Cream (and any other Cream related alcoholic beverages for that matter)is a milk-product and it's going to ferment over time, making it look less charming to drink.

Amarula & Frangelico mixxed and shaked together.

A Scavenger hunt on Main Street

And like any other town, Greenville has its secrets. But this is a very fun secret! Well, at least if you're either a child or a fan of art that is! There are 9 (bronze) mice sculptures placed on Main Street, the idea came from Jim Ryan who proposed the installing of a family of these nine mice sculptures. He referred the idea to a bed-time story he and his mom used to read every night when he was little. He raised money and received the support of the mayor to make it actually happen. How cool is that, to have a scavenger hunt in your own home-town? When some of the locals told me this story I had to go check if I could find all of them. I'm not going to spoil the fun, so I'll just show you one example so you know what they look like.

A city that never sleeps, until 2 AM that is

In 2011, I was still working as a bartender and I am used to getting it going until 6-8 AM. Seeing bars getting closed for the first time around 1-2 AM was quite interesting. I was wondering why people would gather around 9 PM to go Downtown, or just having their own parties starting at 6 PM. Does make sense in a way, why party until late if you can party earlier? If you are a fan of beer, you might wanna check out "The Trappe Door", they have a variety of beers and their interior is cosy and inviting. I wish I had a picture of this bar, but I was probably too hammered to bring my camera with me, or take a picture with my phone. THE TRAPPE DOOR. Just remember the name and off you go, hammer time.

Greenville Downtown at night.

Addy's Dutch Café.

Well, someone got into crypto really early...

The Radio/TV Station of Greenville...aka "Mountains"

Downtown has quite a lot to offer to its visitors, but I thought it would be a good idea to visit the nearest mountains, so I asked my uncle if I could borrow his car or if we could go to the mountains. While I became more used to the warm weather and it looked as if it tempered a bit down, checking out some mountains would be a blast. My aunt got pissed at my uncle for showing me a 'mountain', which served as a Radio and TV station and wanted me to show -the real mountains-. Checking out this area gave me a cool overview of Greenville though.

Greenville overview from the Radio/TV Station.

I'm sure I've missed some spots in Greenville, but this should cover most of it! Greenville is a very friendly place to hang out and chill, and that without Netflix. I've met many people that showed me around a lot here. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the stories. In the next post I will be taking you into the "real" mountain area of Greenville, so stay tuned.

Cheers,

Ruben

*** Note, Even though the images date back from 2011, I haven't published most of these images before.