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Frankly, we don’t have the appetite for rambling on about Chicago. But we also have this uneasy feeling about leaving it undone. So here is a quick one…

After the bizarre feeling we had in Huckleberry Finn, we rushed into the streets of Chicago in a positive state of mind. Even the silhouette of the city says: “Come my darlings. I want your money. And you’ll get its worth.” We did what it said.

Until here, we had a series of culture shocks. In New York, we were impressed with the Bohemian, intellectual life style. Then we fell right into touristic New Orleans where there was jazz music in every corner. After that, we found our fortunes in the so-called provincial Delta. People call them peasants because they don’t know the meaning of bon vivant. Everybody had a good taste of living in there. They didn’t like working. They weren’t racing against time. It was different from everywhere else, in every sense (More …)

It seems cities radiate their souls. Something moved inside us, as soon as we saw Chicago from far away. For instance, I updated my Facebook status saying it looked delicious, even before we got into the city. Then we walked the streets for hours, and we were right: it is delightful. Chicago and we liked each other a lot. Exquisite architecture, wonderful people, marvelous music, classy streets… And no one is obese. Really. Girls are beautiful, people are having fun, the streets are alive… What else can you expect from a city of this size? Especially after seeing ‘ain’t-saint-at-all’ Louis and Memphis…

But don’t expect anymore of Chicago in this entry. You will have wait for tomorrow or the day after.

Where were we?

On our last day in Memphis, we left the hotel early. Of course, everywhere was closed. So Fikret and I took some photos, chatted, and wandered around. Then we went to the Sun Studios – Sam Philips’s studio. The place where a bunch of blues, rhythm and blues musicians became famous, and on top of them all, where Elvis came up from underground… (More …)

Yes, here is our first conclusion at the end of the two days spent in here: Memphis is a very touristic place!

Wherever we went, whatever we did, we just couldn’t avoid encountering a touristic activity. We jumped on our roadie Atılgan and drove around touring in Memphis, we kept searching for interesting things in our guides, asked Teresa, our beloved GPS, her advice, memorized the booklets we got from the tourism office… And yet, none of them helped us to escape from this feeling of being in a ‘touristic’ place. New Orleans was touristic, too, but we somehow managed to discover the Frenchman Street where the locals hanged out, with the help of our friend Fatma who lived in there. In here, there are either no places like that or we haven’t managed to find any. We don’t know. The memories of Natchez, Greenville, Clarksdale linger on. We are almost tempted with the idea of going back, but the time to set off for Chicago is approaching. (More …)

Well, that was it, or so it seems. This is the end of our sauciness. They spoiled us so much in Greenville and Clarksdale that now we are falling down into a whirlpool of disappointment. This is legendary Memphis and we are the dummy brothers.

Memphis is a big city. We got so used to the small towns that now we feel like immigrants from a rural area. No one hugs us. No one wonders if we are the two journalists from Turkey. Besides, we are tourists in a touristic ‘universe’. In the evening, Fikret even thought about leaving our cameras in the room while went out.

Yesterday we were celebrities. Today we are tourists. One wonders what will come next.

There is a Beale Street in here. It is similar to the Bourbon Street in New Orleans, but better in some ways. There are bars and so-called juke points in a row. The musicians don’t play with their slippers on like it used to be in ‘our’ Delta. They are ‘cool’. (More …)

We promised we would write about Clarksdale nights. Here we go. But before we begin, we’d like to share some photos from the Riverside Hotel and give you some more information about it.

Metin already told you about Rat, the owner and the manager of the Riverside Hotel.

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While attaching the photos to Metin’s previous message – unfortunately we were sitting in a McDonalds’ at the moment – our batteries ran out. After going back to the hotel (this time we don’t have internet in our famous sloppy Riverside Hotel) and charging the computers, we went out, hanged around a bit, and found internet somewhere. And here are the photos that couldn’t make it to the previous entry.

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I have always been lucky about women. But in here, it is something else. I can’t find enough words to tell you about the attention Fikret and I get. I think what we do is considered as something pretty sexy in here. You know, we didn’t just come all the way from Turkey, but we are going all the way to Chicago. Yeah, that must be the reason. We enter a bar casually, order “two Jacks on the rocks”, a “Haw ya doin” comes before our second sip. And before we find time to even think “My God, how come this angel bothers to talk to me”, there comes a second one. Of course, in the name of representing our country well (and in the name of avoiding the interrogations back home!), we keep our cool. On the other hand, I keep looking for a t-shirt saying “I’m not gay”, as seeing me going in and out of juke joints with Fikret all the time understandably confuses some people. (More …)

I think this has been the most enjoyable journey I have ever had. First of all, Fikret is a wonderful companion. He is not only hilarious and smart, but also wonderfully compatible.

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Hello, this is Fikret… You have been reading the amusing stuff Metin kept writing for the last few days. You know my profession is script writing and I had been writing continuously for the last two years. So I am a little bit reluctant to write anything while I am travelling. And now I am writing only because I want to share the load Metin has been carrying since our venture began.

This morning (US calendar, June 10^th, Wednesday) we set off on our journey, driving our rental car. You already know we had this dream of renting an old convertible American car since leaving İstanbul, but unfortunately that didn’t come true. It is not possible to rent those kinds of old cars. As a matter of fact, it is not possible even to find them. Eventually, we ended up renting a giant SUV – or so we thought, until we saw the bigger monsters on the road, which made our car look like a “Mini Cooper.” (More …)