Fancy a shag?

In Charleston we encountered our first - and probably most hilarity-causing - cultural difference.

For my American readers, shag to us in England is a rather often-used slang word for sexual intercourse (anyone who has watched Austin Powers will know). In South Carolina, shag is the state dance with a somewhat long history. (State dance?!? Those things exists?! Honestly...) The book "Shagging through the Ages" had us in stitches for about twenty minutes. It included old newspaper articles such as "Shagging world-record broken in Charleston", "Famous artist breaks leg during shag" and "Shag contest draws record audience".

That aside, we had a fantastic time in Charleston. This was definitely one of the absolute highlights of the holiday for both of us. We arrived quite early having left Savannah behind, the drive was only about an hour through some non-descript country roads playing "I Spy" (telephone pole anyone?! It was shocking how hard we found it to guess correctly when there really wasn't that much to see).

We stayed in the Holiday Inn in the historic disctrict and were very pleased to find the hotel had a concierge. Once we met him, I remembered having read about this guy on TripAdvisor as being legendary and I would agree. We waited a while to get to see him but it was well worth it. This guy is magic. He organised our entire visit (he got SO EXCITED when he realised we were from England and about our accents. When I said "brilliant" he nearly fell off his chair as it was his favourite British word!) and got us reservations for dinner and a walking tour the next day. He gave us a map and drew on it where to go that afternoon and we had an absolutely fantastic time!

The weather was lovely once again thankfully and we headed on down King Street which has all the shops. It was SO PRETTY! Everything is old, everything. We strolled down towards the riverside walking through what we were told are the most beautiful streets in Charleston and this wasn't a lie! The houses are all straight from Gone with the Wind - complete with window shutters. I could live there so happily! We saw the house rented previously by Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow, dubbed the Grandest House in Charleston. It was pretty cool! We walked all the way down to the Battery and back up again (so called as during the Civil War and others that's where the guns were). It was like going back in time. I know I've said this before but it really was. I knew Charleston was going to be pretty but I didn't genuinely expect to be quite this impressed!

For dinner we got a bit dressed up and headed on to Hank's Seafood Restaurant as recommended and booked by Kevin the concierge. It was lovely, of course. I had traditional Charleston Prawn Curry, which wasn't really anything special as it really tasted like curry sauce from Tesco's... but the atmosphere etc was great. We proceeded on to enjoy the balmy summer night at the rooftop bar of the Market Pavilion Hotel.

The views again - gorgeous!!! Clear night, red moon, a cascading pool and two hot girls with short skirts and a long drink. What more could you ask for? Well perhaps some gorgeous men to buy the drinks for us but you can't have everything... (Please note it must be included in here that Miss S, my partner-in-crime, actually got a free drink from the barman!)

In the morning we trotted off to take part in the guided walk that Kevin the Concierge had booked for us. This would make our trip, he claimed, and he wasn't lying. The guide was so knowledgeable about all things Charleston and although we only walked for about a mile it took two hours and was packed full of facts.

Now those who don't know me very well will not know about my history obsession. I love museums, period dramas (the ones on TV, not the ones of the female variety), old houses, history books and historical adaptations etc. This tour and Charleston in general was full of stuff about history and from the Southern perspective for that matter, not the Northern one, which the one you always read about. Here are some facts we learned and stuff we saw:

*Boring history geek alert*

Charleston, originally Charles Town after the contemporary regent, was built as only 4 blocks by 8, so it was TINY and the location was chosen due to the peninsula being easily accessible by boat and thus amenable to trade. Most of the original town is still there!

The Civil War started in Charleston both politically and physically. Politically when the democratic party at their annual conference couldn't pick just one presidential candidate (due to booing by hired thugs) and put forward too many. Thus the vote was diluted and Abraham Lincoln was elected president with only 39% of the votes! Thus all the stragglers got upset about the new president and agreed to sign the secession agreement (to sever the Confederate from the Union). The secession was also signed in Charleston, in the building we were in, although it's been knocked down and rebuilt and is now a law firm. And thus the war was pretty much a certainty.

The cemetery we went to see houses some 4000 inhabitants, many in mass graves due to illnesses and suchlike. The pirates' flag with skull and crossbones came from the style of gravestones used there as the skull with wings is in fact the angel of death and was used to make people afraid and associate pirates with death. There was also a really cute little cat living under the church!!! (A live one).

The Charleston Single House was built in order to protect the inhabitants from the heat and humidity which was unseen to colonists coming from the cold and rainy England. The houses in Charleston all face in the same direction depending on whether they are on north/south or east/west roads - so that they get the minimum amount of sunlight! The houses are all one room wide, not because of frontage tax (we'll come to that in Georgetown) but to be more opulent, and the front door leads to the patio to avoid having to build a corridor through the whole house.

The current state of Charleston is quite different from the historical Charleston, as a lot of landfill was developed to grow the peninsula, from rock (there is no natural rock in Charleston, or Savannah for that matter!) and debris that was transported to the country on boats bringing lighter stuff to the country. So a lot of times we were standing on places that started off as river.

Almost all the houses on the Battery are original antebellum houses. Hardly any have been destroyed. There was a huge fire that swept across the city and a few hurricanes but apart from small corrections the houses have survived.

One of only three(?) surviving buildings where the declaration of Independence was signed is in Charleston. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit.

There was SO MUCH else that we heard and I wish I could remember it all. The tour was really fantastic and packed with information and we enjoyed it muchly. We liked Charleston so much, we just didn't want to leave. But we had to, alas I will be back one day to catch up on all the stuff we didnt get to see.

From Charleston our journey took us up the coast through Myrtle Beach and Wilmington to Raleigh, NC. Looooooong drive. Boring drive. Raleigh we didn't see much of. Only the Days Inn and the highly authentic Waffle House complete with trailer trash waitress missing all of her front teeth. Lovely.