Southern Spirits

It feels funny to actually call New York a »layover« instead of a destination this time. But the South was calling, and so we spent the little time we had in this eternally magnificent city with old friends, cold drinks and a few hours of sleep before moving our exhausted bodies through the stirring streets of Manhattan in order to catch our train at Penn Station at 5:51 am.

The plan: boarding the Amtrak’s Palmetto route all the way down to Charleston, and catching a glimpse of everything in-between along the way. While the sceneries rushed by, we passed the time planning the next steps of our trip, catching up on some work or simply listening to music while watching the vegetation slowly change.

What seemed like hours and hours, flew by like it was nothing, and suddenly we put our feet on Southern ground: Charleston, South Carolina. Surrounded by swaying palm trees and waving skeletons – Halloween was right around the corner after all – we spent our first jet-lagged days exploring the city and marvelling at all its rich scents and colours. Imposing old architecture shaped many of our walks, but it was the tiny side streets that revealed another side of the city, winking at us and inviting us to take a closer look at all the modern influences.

Long car rides are a pretty good way to dive deep into all the podcasts you’ve been saving up and never quite found the time to listen to closely at home. One that we really wanted to accompany us on these hours driving through the South – especially when we went to see Boone Hall Planation – was »1916« by the New York Times. It helped us examine the dark past of these states we were crossing and explained to us how deeply scarred the country still is by its history of slavery and violence.

We kept on eating our way through Austin – with gems like Pitchfork Pretty for late night drinks and Hillside Farmacy for a hearty breakfast, being followed by lazy strolls through East Austin and browsing all its delicate, tiny concept stores.

But with Halloween already behind us, Día de los Muertos was just waiting around the corner, and our curiosity took us right to the northern part of Austin, where we read about a parade we didn’t want to miss. Seeing how very different various cultures celebrate their dead, being swallowed by the colours and scents, the feathers and the masks, the music and the clapping, as opposed to the somber, black-wearing funeral party customary to Austrian traditions – what a great privilege to have been able to witness it all.

veracruz all natural
Authentic Mexican food like the world famous breakfast tacos. Enjoy your little wrapped treasures under fairy lights with some cold craft beers. The owners Reyna and Maritza Vazquez are probably the city’s most beloved taco providers.

On a roadtrip, there are some cities which are a charming surprise although you wouldn’t have visited them on purpose, there are some you casually travel through, and some you pass by altogether. And then, there is New Orleans.

I remember the feeling of a long day of driving leading up to this very moment, crossing the first streets through this magical city, eyes wide with wonder. It truly felt like stepping into a world of its own, so completely different than anything I’ve ever seen before and I couldn’t stop relishing the singular beauty of its Spanish-moss-covered trees and historic architecture. 

But as night fell and all the big & small lights started to come on, we got to see the beautifully dark side of New Orleans: ghostly voodoo stores invited us in to buy shamanic talismans, and flickering neon signs called to us for a tarot reading. We passed countless houses with »Haunted« signposts – as well as »For Sale«. There is a certain spooky atmosphere around New Orleans you can only feel in the dark – and we loved it.

okefenokee swamp park
Make sure to grin while greeting your first full flesh gator. 12 miles south of Waycross, Georgia, this gem of a wildlife refugee serves as a starting point for boat tours, hikes and other outdoorsy adventures.

But in a really, really good way – because the swamp possesses a unique magic of its own. Riding the boat along the silent canal, trees parting on both sides of it like they are allowing you entrance to the wild, Spanish moss hauntingly swaying in the wind, kept us in silent awe of the so very specific vegetation surrounding us. 

One could say, Katharina and I saved the best for last on our big tour through the South – and arrived in Savannah full of impressions and experiences from a long journey. We landed on Tybee Island, a beach community at the Eastern edge of Savannah, just to be close to the sea for a few days and let our minds ponder on everything we have seen like the waves. 

It might seem touristy at first, but we like to enjoy a mainstream tour now and then, and so we found ourselves on an eerie Ghost Walk through the somber streets of the city, because in the end it’s on those tours you casually learn so many hidden little things about the haunted earth we were walking on. Another stroll took us through the old Bonaventure cemetery, the Spanish moss around the many tombstones blazing in a golden light from the evening sun. 

Spirits, ghosts, history – whatever you might call it – seemed to be our constant companions on a roadtrip we won’t be able to forget quite so soon. A roadtrip that took us through South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and finally – Georgia. The South is a place marked with a brutal and dark history. But it is also a place of immense diversity, of striking natural beauty and a unique wildlife, of ancient spirituality and music and colours and life. What a privilege that we were able to learn so much more about it all with every step we took.