Sunday 15th June 2014
08.14
It turns out that everybody else in the world – and especially the States – and especially especially in this house – celebrates Fathers’ Day, so despite the whole thing being a manufactured concept to sell cards with a pint of beer or a fishing rod on them to be given along with a buy-one-get-one-free Toblerone from Morrisons, I should probs FaceTime home soon.
On…
Friday!
…evening I went to a country music concert. It was a big one too, by all accounts – maybe 20,000 folk, in a pretty huge open-air venue within an amusement park in Cincinnati OH called Coney Island. The Zak Brown Band are actually pretty famous in the country music scene, and apparently a good start to a n00b like me. Usually the most Country I get is using BBQ sauce.
Beforehand we went to a bar which brewed its own and had lots of craft beers – I had a coffee porter, and it was delicioso. And we had some noms as well, and I met a lot of Cincinnati’s friends. With the trendy drinks and venue and chat I felt very Boston Summer 2013, if you know what I mean.
Yayyyyy
Then we drove out to the concert venue. If I were to have tried to describe a huge country music concert in the Mid West of the US on a Friday night… Then it would have everything I imagined. There were Bud Light trucks selling beer in big plastic cups. There were mahoosive tattooed dudes everywhere. There was a ton of singing-along and a big party atmosphere. And yes, I saw about a gagillion pairs of cowboy boots. It was an open-air venue so we had a space for our group to hang out on these big sheets of fake grass, but we were up an incline so had a sweet view of the stage and the massive-ass crowds. And I had a really good time, what with the fun company, atmosphere and music. Fiddle big or go home.
Because all these 20,000 people had driven here (many in pick-up trucks – yeeehaaaa) it took a ton of time to get out of the place. And then there’s the social minefield of who gets dropped off where/with whom etc. that I never have to think about at home out with my friends because buses exist, unlike here. The driving culture here is very different – you really can’t go anywhere without a car because of the vast distances. It made me think that over the last year, what with two trips to the States and hardly ever getting in a car at home, I am way more used to driving on the right than the left. Which is going to be hilarious when I learn (not).
Monday 16th June 2014
10.13
Sitting having a very ‘Murrican breakfast of coffee and chocolate-chip pancakes with fruit at Cincinnati’s house before I stuff everything into my rucksack and head to the airport later this afternoon for my flight – mhm, I should check in for that…
10.20
Anyway. Where did I get to? So the country music concert was Friday. On…
Saturday!
…I got up, and Cincinnati and I drove to a place to have brunch nearby. It was very yuppie and trendy, with a big focus on organic vegetables, non-GMO milk and ‘harmoniously-raised’ fish (lol) and suchlike… We had a seat in the sun (this weekend has been beautifully sunny non-stop!) and I had an almond milk iced latte (haha, away hame!) and a big stack of buttermilk pancakes with cream, granola and caramelized apples. The sense of self-satisfaction at being so bougie and knowing I wasn’t consuming anything from unhappy creatures or plants with little sad faces definitely made it all the more delicious.
Land of the freeeee and home of the braaaave
We then headed to Washington Square Park in downtown Cincinnati OH, by the Music Hall, in an area called Over-the-Rhine. It’s a very cool district which apparently used to be a bit sketch but is going through a revitalization effort, so there are a lot of hipster bars and coffee shops and interesting architecture. There was a market on selling lots of homeware, jewellery, antiques and general bougie trinkets. I picked up a few gifts and was enjoying feeling the heat of the sun on my skin in a huge way. We grabbed another iced coffee and drove back to her place to relax until the evening. Meanwhile we’re basically filling each other in about everything that’s happened over the past two years – which it turns out, is a lot.
That evening we drove back across the border to Kentucky to have dinner with her parents. Before that we stopped by at a festival celebrating what is apparently a famous Greater Cincinnati OH food – goetta.
What is goetta?
So there’s a big German influence in Cincinnati OH(Over-the-Rhine, right?) – and goetta is a very popular food derived from good old-fashioned Teutonic goodness, aka sausage meat and oats and spices and whatnot. It’s eaten in patties or made into anything else like fried balls, nachos, whatever.
My reaction to tasting a ‘goetta ball’: “wuttt, this tastes exactly like haggis!” Cue explaining to everybody what haggis is, which is always something I try to avoid when making a good impression about Scotland.
Gotta getta goetta
In the bourbon bar
So after this little excitement, plus a quick stop off at a Bourbon Bar (yeeehaw Kentucky!), we had dinner at a little Bistro place down the road. We had great food, and her parents are really good chat (haha, I’ve had to explain these expressions to Cincinnati so many times now, “he’s good chat”/”what’s the chat?”), and the restaurant had big open windows and it was super relaxed in the warm weather. Almost like being on holiday…
After that Cincinnati and I went to a bar with a beer garden to have a drink. It was still so warm and light, even at night time. Then we went to another bar called ‘Japps’ (is that ok? Probably not…) which was very cool and with a bit of a speakeasy set-up and a jazz quartet. We sat outside and had a couple of cocktails, joined by one of Cincinnati’s friends. I’ve met a lot of interesting people this trip, and I think that after a good ten minutes people around me stop ogling when I speak trying to work out where I come from (mentally all “she sounds British but keeps using loads of weird words like “gash” and “dreich”!”).
‘MURICA!
16.10
After some walking around the airport (walking, quite the novelty), I stopped off for my habitual pre-afternoon flight glass of wine and the lady in the bar said that I was traveling exactly the way she would – with wine, a journal, a book and a giant hat. She was asking all about the UK and then tried to explain the significance all of the geographical state line differences within the US to me, like what the difference is meant to be culturally between the Mid West and the South, and then all those crazy tumbleweed states in the very middle. But I haven’t a leg to stand on when I’m walking around the airport with a midriff-tied top and a big-ass rucksack full of nonsense and a huge straw hat, because in one weekend in the Mid West I seem to have gone all white trash.
Now, on…
Sunday!
… I had already said it was Fathers’ Day in a big way in the Cincinnati household. We had a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs, fruit, biscuits, toast, hummus – and even some goetta balls bought from the festival on Saturday, haha. Mr Cincinnati was given some gifts and it was all very sweet.
Cincinnati and I went to an art gallery (wish I could remember which one…) where they had some nice pieces – one was a huge colourful Miró which spread across the wall a similar size to Guernica by Picasso, but about one hundred times less depressing, natch.
After that we got a ice cream at Graeters, another Cincinnati OH staple, and then had a drink in a bar overlooking the river. Apparently when slaves were freed they would cross the Ohio River and that would be them moving from slavery in the Southern States to liberty in the the Northern ones. And we ended the afternoon with a Spanish throwback – a glass of wine and olives and a cheeseboard in a patio bar in the sunshine, which was how we both spent all our time on Granada, with the very occasional foray to university.
Borrowed beautiful shoes
Viva Espana
That evening the Family Cincinnati took me with them to Mr Cincinnati’s parents home for Fathers’ Day dinner and drinks. Their house was perfect, like an advert in Country Life magazine or something, with absolutely everything clean and ordered and ornamental. I felt like a character in a play, maybe Tennessee Williams or something, where a foreigner comes into this perfect world and causes all kinds of trouble. But they were all so welcoming and I even got a mention during grace (always appreciated).
There was a lot of chat about Scottish Independence (or, Scotland ‘seceding from the Union’, which sounds way more exciting) – I’m positive I’ve talked more about it this weekend than I ever have at home. I’m kind of like an ambassador who knows very little about their own country and its political situation. But Cincinnati’s grandmother got out a big colourful map of Scotland for me, one of those funky ones with all the olde clan names and their flags and whatnot. After that Cincinnati and I had a final glass of wine at a bar nearby, then some tea at home.
00.49
This blog post is going to seem extremely disjointed, but I am back in Virginia with ShortButSweet. I was going to finish this post on the plane ride back, but I got talking instead to the guy in the seat next to me who had a very interesting career (cool), but then ended what I thought was a nice ‘making friends on a plane’ conversation with giving me his digits and saying to let him know if I was ever in Boston in the near future (not so cool – don’t ruin Boston for me, man). I also somehow managed to bring my glasses case all the way back from Cincinnati’s house – and leave my glasses somewhere in her room. But all in all – amazing weekend.
12 Weeks a Maeve 