Savannah, Georgia

We wanted to break up the long journey from Orlando to Boston, so checked out the route guide for the Amtrak and saw that the train stopped in a little place called Savannah in the great state of Georgia.  It took us a little less than 6 hours to get there, and the train ticket cost $US60 each.  It was a great way to see a lot of the Florida and Georgia landscape as opposed to simply flying over it all.

It was so hot in Savannah, both my sister and I had to dig into our backpacks and find what little summer gear we brought with us straight away.  Everyone we had told that we were stopping in Savannah always asked us what reason we were going there for, as in, what was there to see or do in Savannah.  My answer was always, "There's Savannah to see and do there."  And that's pretty much how you could sum up how our time was spent, wandering around, eating, drinking and generally taking in what a cool little township Savannah is.

We went to a cafe for brunch the first morning we got there and tried our first beignets, which are pretty much a version of a donut.  To be honest, they weren't my favourite thing to eat - relatively insignificant and needed a pile of powdered sugar to be even slightly interesting.  We would try them again in the world renowned Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, but again, failed it be wowed. 

We stayed at this great hotel a 10-minute walk from the main town centre.  It was a '50's themed building, which played music over a loudspeaker during the day and had Krispy Kreme donuts available for breakfast.

We also found out that butter-loving chef Paula Dean has a restaurant there, so of course we booked and went along.  You can chose a menu item or for $US18 you can do buffet.  We went with the buffet and were served cornbread and a pancake as an appetizer, then packed our plates full of the buffet items.  As you can see below, I tried the cabbage/bean dish, the bbq ribs, fried chicken, mashed potato and candied yams (with a side salad).  The whole meal was so rich that we walked a few extra blocks on the way back to the hotel just trying to feel better!