I wake up with an extremely sore head today and I’m feeling a little bit sorry for myself; not least of all because I have to leave the wonder of New Orleans behind me today.

Breakfast is a pleasure of plantain, eggs, avocado and salsa but I still can’t shake my hesitancy or my hangover.It’s a quick one hour flight to Nashville although breakfast nearly resurfaces with the turbulence.

I arrive in Music City and its clear how proud Nashville is of this fact. There’s even live country music being performed in the airport bars. I head downtown to my hostel after the nice lady at the ticket desk gives me a discount on my shuttle (now you enjoy your stay here in Nashville!!) arriving by early evening.

It’s pleasant enough but I’m bummed out still about leaving Louisiana. My British accent is back (although thankfully I sound like myself again rather than some corruption of a Dickensian street urchin) but I miss my Southern twang.

I make friends with the girls in my room who are off out and ask me to join them. Since the alternative involves going to bed and being in a child-like strop I left NOLA, I venture out with them to meet the city which will be my home for the next 5 days.

We start by heading onto 2nd avenue and it’s pretty gaudy. Tourists pack the streets and country singers sing out of their window spots in restaurants and bars. Even performers on the street are pretty decent-and there’s one guy plucking away on his banjo like there’s no tomorrow. This road is like Bourbon Street meets the Wild West.

We grab some mediocre food, and the plan is to hit up the bars. My hangover from last night isn’t too keen on this plan though, and so I politely decline. I wander the busy streets back to the hostel thinking I’m going to have to plan and seek out the best spots here in town that don’t involve trashy touristy gimmicks.

I’ve been looking forward to this part of my trip being a massive country music fan, so I’m feeling a little reticent being faced with all the grandeur shovelled down my neck in this way.

Pondering this, I head to bed and hope the magic of music city looks better in the daylight of tomorrow.

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