FIFTY STATES AWAYDriving to Nashville last nignt meant gaining back the hour we previously lost. It’s really strange how Tennessee has two timezones, depending on which side of the state that you’re on, I bet it’s baffling to live here.
This morning we’ve had a lay in and managed to catch up with our families, it was really lovely to hear from them and it gave us a boost! We are enjoying a chill out day before tonight, I am really excited as we have planned to go out later and live the Nashville nightlife!
Our hotel is opposite the Nissan Stadium, home to the Tennessee Titans and we’ve had a wander over to it this evening, on our way into town. We’ve had quite a walk up an epic hill which gave us a great view of the city.
Walking around the town is awesome it’s busy and lively! There’s so much to see! There are so many boot and western clothing shops (wohoo! Shoes!) Each street is crammed with bars and saloons, all with different live bands playing and the streets are abundant with life and sound.
After a little bit of navigation we arrived at a place called the wildhorse saloon (as you do!) we read some great reviews about this place and I was eager to give it a go. They provide live country music, food & drink and line dancing sessions!
They had a fabulous young lady called Diamond Marie performing, which we greatly enjoyed, she got some really good songs. The food & drink was nice and we both even had a go at the line dancing. Ben did particularly well with the line dancing, I was having issue with co-ordination (very unlike me but I blame my friend Pinot Grigio)! We both had a fabulous evening!
I don’t want to focus on the negative here because we did have such a great night but as this relates to American culture I will mention it! We really felt that the table service left a lot to desired.
After being seated and given drinks, our waitress proceeded to seat a large group, give them drinks and take their food orders, I managed to catch her attention but she just walked off and then seemingly disappeared!
She did not come back to take our food order and so we were left waiting at least 20mins before finally asking another employee if they could take our order. This person refused but offered to go get her, it took a further 10-15 mins or so before she actually appeared, with no apology, it wasn’t a busy night either! In addition to this, as we were leaving she ran after us to ask where her tip was! (we paid by card and left the tip on the table), what a cheek!
I was so shocked (even Ben was a little taken aback)! The service itself wasn’t worthy of a tip in my opinion! I understand that most people in the service industry here are not paid well and so every little helps, but you do expect a certain amount of attention to detail. Sometimes the obligation to leave a tip when it really isn’t justifiable is quite annoying.
