Our historical walking tour concluded at the Ryman Auditorium! Patrick and I decided to purchase (wi

Obviously being a poor grad student, I had to do this trip on a very tight budget. Throughout this posting, I'll share with you some of our penny-saving tips!! We got awesome flight deals, through Southwest where we only paid $60 or so each way (what a DEAL!), and met out in Tennessee with him flying in from Baltimore and me flying in from Raleigh. This trip was incredible for so many reasons from the friendly people to the generous hard rock hotel orlando drink specials to the fun places we saw and the historical hard rock hotel orlando facts we picked hard rock hotel orlando up along the way; Nashville is most definitely one of our favorite hard rock hotel orlando cities and I will happily go back for another visit any time!!
As we walked the several blocks from the bus station (we had taken a bus from the airport for under $2!!) to our hostel (this was the first time we were staying in one), we saw some pretty cool sights/sites. This is Printers Alley. More on that later in this posting. :)
Just around the corner from our hostel, we stumbled upon an awesome candy shop. From floor to ceiling there were all sorts of candy, soda, and old time memorabilia you could think of...don't forget to go upstairs for some neat vintage concert posters and lunch boxes. There were even life-size cutouts of Disney princesses. Yes, this store was very eclectic from candy bars that tried to kill me to yummy soda pop fizz candy from my childhood that I immediately scooped up and sucked on while in Nashville. If you go, be sure to check in on Foursquare so you can obtain some free taffy!
After a quick pit stop in the candy shop, we continued walking the block and a half to our "home away from home" while in Nashville: " Nashville Downtown Hostel ". Neither Patrick nor I had stayed in a hostel before and we were curious as to what we were in for but the price was certainly hard rock hotel orlando right and we figured we would rather spend less on our sleeping quarters if it meant we would have more to explore the city with so on to the hostel we walked.
After dropping our things off in our room and meeting hard rock hotel orlando our roommates from Australia, we decided to go explore hard rock hotel orlando since it was early and we have a few hours to kill before our dinner reservations at a restaurant called, Aura, that was about 1.5 miles away on foot. This was a view of the Titans Stadium outside the hostel along the Cumberland hard rock hotel orlando River. Our hostel advertised itself as being in the "Heart of the District" and they weren't kidding! hard rock hotel orlando Everything was within walking hard rock hotel orlando distance, which was great since we were without hard rock hotel orlando a car for the next several days.
We walked to the end of our street then turned right onto Broadway and what a sight that was with the lights and posters. I also loved the sounds of Broadway for every bar we walked by had a live performer (it was the middle of the afternoon on a work day!) and each one was as good as the next...as Patrick said, "Even the homeless people hard rock hotel orlando are ridiculously talented in this city". :)
Not only did we get to stand outside the legendary Ryman Auditorium but look over yonder to your left. This was our first glimpse of one of our favorite buildings, one we dubbed the "Batman Building".
The architecture we saw was amazing. This is Nashville's first public school with Patrick's head in the bottom of the picture (haha). Teacher friends, could you imagine teaching in such a cool looking building?!
Here is the restaurant we ate at on our first night! We had a restaurant.com certificate so got a good deal on our drinks and food during our first night in Nashville. I highly recommend, when traveling, using restaurant.com certificates! It worked out well in San Francisco for my friends and me and in Nashville for Patrick and me.
Hands down, this was our favorite place in Nashville! It's really hard rock hotel orlando a shame I can't post videos on here! If you've been to Howl at the Moon in Baltimore or other cities, then you know what this place is like. Basically super duper talented musicians play any style and genre of music using mainly just the piano!! hard rock hotel orlando They play by request and can go from performing "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen to Miley Cyrus to the classic "Piano Man" by Billy Joel to 80s songs. They ROCKED!!!
After enjoying the music at Big Bang and stopping in a few more places on the way home, we rolled into bed around 2am. The next morning was a cool and drizzly one but that did not deter us from doing our historical walking scavenger hunt tour. Using Patrick's phone, we deciphered clues to figure out where we had to go next as we collected tidbits of information and history about some of the city's famous and not so famous places. We had gotten this fun deal through a Groupon after I learned that there were scavenger hunts in most major cities!
The red doors led to the hostel. We had planned to go to the corner hard rock hotel orlando bar with a friend from back home but we never did connect her and never did make it into the bar...how ironic when it was just steps away from our "home away from home".
The red brick building in the center was where Allison Krauss and Brad Paisley filmed some of their "Whiskey Lullaby" hard rock hotel orlando music video . Rick Schroeder, of Silver Spoons fame, was the lead actor in the video.
Our historical walking tour concluded at the Ryman Auditorium! Patrick and I decided to purchase (with military discount) tickets to see the inside of the Ryman Auditorium. Oh, if you go shopping in the gift shop, be sure to check in on Foursquare so you can get a 10% discount.
We watched an information movie before the self guided hard rock hotel orlando tour using the map below...if you want your picture taken on stage by the microphone and even holding a guitar if you want, then you'll have to pay. Patrick and I opted to just take a photo from afar instead.
After finishing our Ryman Auditorium Tour and realizing we had a couple of hours until our dinner reservations, Patrick asked if I wanted to go to the American Pickers store. I had no idea what he was talking about so he filled me in on the show and the fact that they have a store in Nashville. I figured when else would we be here so why not?
We looked up the store location and figured it wasn't terribly far away so we set out on foot...just hard rock hotel orlando in time for the drizzling rain to pick up again. By the time we got to the warehouse, we were soaked, tired, hungry, but curious about what was in this store. We got to the Marathon Car Works Warehouse with an hour to spare before the store closed...I was shocked at the price tags on some of these old items and fun with some of the others. ;)
This was SUCH a welcome sight as we made our way closer and closer to the American Pickers store after walking through puddles, rain, and MUCH further than we expected when we first set out from the Ryman Auditorium.
Look how far away we were from "home". The Batman Building can be seen to the right of the center, see the ears? That was how far we had walked and I admit, I was a bit grumpy at the thought of having to walk back to the middle hard rock hotel orlando of it all. I mean I was in wet pointy hard cowboy boots y'all.
Since we were so tired, hungry, and wet, Patrick and I opted to call for a taxi after we were done browsing the antiques. We went in this cute little candy shoppe next door called, The Big Bang Candy shop . Fortunately, I was able to order a yummy cookie and coffee that took the edge off the hunger as we waited for not one but two taxis. Then the candy shop had to close and make us leave so we stood out on the porch area for another 45 minutes to an hour. The problem was, at this point it was after work rush hour time and the taxis supposedly could not get out of the city area to come get us on the outskirts at a reasonable time, or so they said. I recommend planning a visit to this cool area by taking the hop on hop off bus or renting a car so you don't get yourselves into our situation.
The girls who worked at The Big Bang Candy shop were SO nice and let us stay in as long as they could before they had to lock the doors. An hour after they had us leave, and an hour of waiting for the invisible taxis as night fell, Lydia, one of the super friendly workers there, saw us as she walked to her car. She asked about our ride to which we explained we had called for two different taxis with no luck. She offered to drive us to our dinner reservations after she got gas. What a sweet gesture! Plus, she drove the same exact kind of car I did.
So, thanks to the kindness of Lydia, who after a long day of working and getting some gas, offered to drive us to our next location, we made it to BB King's House of Blues Restaurant in time. We learned that Lydia had been born and raised in Nashville but she doesn't like country music all that much and she had just returned from living in Mississippi. She's now a pastry chef at that awesome candy shop (go check out their Facebook page to see some of her creative culinary creations!).
Once we arrived for our dinner reservations, we walked into a lively robust hard rock hotel orlando atmosphere as a BB King lookalike was already performing. After I presented hard rock hotel orlando our restaurant.com certificate, I checked in on Foursquare and discovered we could have a free appetizer of fried pickles. Neither Patrick nor I had eaten these (other than the time I had them at a Super Bowl party in Jan. 2013) so we shrugged and opted to get the appetizer. It was free after all! We both also ordered drinks in which we were able to keep the fun glasses. It sure felt good to sit down and listen to the blues!
After dinner and the music, Patrick and I walked back to the hostel since we were only about two blocks hard rock hotel orlando from it. After talking with our roommates, we all fell into bed and were asleep by midnight. What a day of WALKING but fun it had been!!
Our third day in Nashville was set aside to be our informational historical hard rock hotel orlando museum and government buildings day before embarking on a walking Pub Crawl Tour (more on that later). All of the places we visited were free yet also shared a lot of history of Music City. Fortunately, it was sunny and breezy so no rain on this day! We took a shortcut through the Arcade and stopped briefly at the C