I’m in Louisville, Kentucky to attend the Idea Festival. Arrived here yesterday evening a bit dazed after the 11.5 hour journey (via Houston) from Trinidad, and so far have only ventured within a couple of blocks of the hotel to have dinner in Fourth Street, a pedestrianised entertainment hub lined with the likes of TGIF and the Hard Rock Café and where having a huge and blinding neon sign is evidently part of the zoning guidelines. My Global Voices colleague Amira Al Hussaini and I had a very good dinner, however, at an establishment specialising in bourbon, where I had my first ever mint julep. I suspect it won’t be my last either–they’re not as good as mojitos, but close.
On the way here I also had my second experience of being recognised as the person who does CFR, which was rather shocking, as I’ve begun to think that I barely qualify as a blogger any more, far less as a podcaster. The recogniser was Maurini Strub, a Trinidadian transplanted to Detroit who tells me she has a neglected blog on Vox (don’t we all) but didn’t offer the URL. Thanks, Maurini, for making me feel like I’m still part of the blogosphere.
I landed here around 8pm yesterday evening, so my impressions of the city are vague, but the feature of the landscape that made the strongest impression as we glided over the city were the bridges spanning the Ohio River. Hence the choice of the photo above, which was taken from my 17th-floor hotel room. I believe that’s the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge. (More photos will be posted here, though no need to rush there just yet, as I’ve only posted two so far).
Off now to see what the Idea Festival is all about, and to find some eye drops, as I’ve been plagued with hay fever ever since I landed on US soil. Could I be allergic to America?
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I had the same problem. It’s not America, but Kentucky you are alergic to. Something that grows in a quantity in Kentucky that nowhere else can match. Tobacco. It kills my hay fever.
Comment by Rogue Genius 09.13.07 @ 5:13 pmI hope that your allergy to America doesn’t extend to Americans. I have a difficult time believing that you had never before had a Mint Julep. There is no such thing as summer without them. Beautiful photo of the bridge.
Comment by oso 09.19.07 @ 5:06 amThe sneezing and red eyes were pretty much gone by the end of the first day – suspecting now that it was the residual effect of the bout I’d experienced on the plane (other people on the flight were sneezing too, so maybe there was just some serious allergen on board).
And imagine that – all those years in the South without ever having had a mint julep. Could possibly be because I always made a quick exit from Atlanta when summer hit. . .
Comment by Georgia 09.19.07 @ 8:58 amLeave a comment
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