BAFTFT 7: Discovering a City: An Attempt at a 'How to' Guide

Written by Jessica George

(Disclaimer: This list might change depending on the size of your city. The city I am taking on today is RALEIGH, in North Carolina, a city with an estimated 392,083 people. So, let’s be honest here, it’s not that big of a city when compared to other cities I’ve visited or lived in.)

I attempted ‘discovering’ Raleigh about a month ago. I took a trip by myself on a Saturday, parked up in a parking garage and wandered through the streets to a mammoth vintage store called Father & Son. Walking to the shop, I was disappointed by the lack of people in the streets. Being a city and all... with tall buildings and all... I had thought there would be at least more than the handful of strangers who passed me by on the five minute walk to the storefront. Despite disappointment in the lack of people I did fall head over heels for Father & Son. I spent nearly three hours poking around all the treasures and came out with a sewing table, magazine rack and a new frilly 80’s secretary style shirt (sounds hideous doesn’t it?!). North Carolina is a great place for finding antiques. They hold regular antique fairs, which I think may be one of the state’s few redeeming qualities. Father & Son is a multi-level vintage shop with furniture, clothes, old radios, knick-knacks - it’s brilliant!

I somehow forgot I had to lug all the loot I had purchased back to my car, which meant the five minute walk became a much more excruciatingly long walk back. As I was heading to the parking garage at the pace of a limping elderly man (which I probably looked as well), I noticed a striking lack of street art; the streets were squeaky clean! I was compelled to go back home, grab some stickers or make up some glue and go on a mission, but perhaps there was a reason no one else had attempted to put any art around... big brother are you watching?

This initial look at the city left me feeling a bit unenthusiastic but I decided to give it another chance. For the second excursion into Raleigh, I did some research first. So, here is my list of things to do to prepare you for a successful jaunt into a city when you have a very limited amount of time:

1.) Online research. Check out user review websites like yelp.com. Typing “Raleigh + Things To Do” into Google gave me a broad and pretty useless amount of information, so make a list of what you’d like to see specifically... art galleries, venues, bars, boutiques, then use the handy internet to check it out. In NZ websites like dineout.com would be a good resource for eateries.

2.) Map it out! Even if you have a GPS, it’s a good idea to find a parking lot/garage that is centrally located to all of the places you are hoping to see.

3.) Bring snacks. Enough said.

4.) Find a friend to go with you. Bribe them with snacks if you have to.

5.) Bring a camera for documentation, especially if you have a poor memory.

6.) If all else fails, just find a bar. Bartenders are sometimes helpful folk.

Now, I did prepare by following steps 1-5 on this list, but as my friend Kacy and I were running behind our planned schedule, most of the shops and galleries I wanted to go to were closed (6pm on a Monday) when we arrived. Therefore the most logical decision was to follow Step 6.

We found ourselves at a bar called the Busy Bee. The bartender, named Frank, had a vaudevillian style handle-bar moustache and was a friendly young chap. So friendly in fact, that he even made us a little map on receipt paper to navigate Raleigh. We obviously had resigned ourselves to the fact this was now more of a Raleigh pub crawl than anything else, but what better way to see a city on a Monday night than to observe its colourful nightlife?!

So, thanking Frank the bartender and with one beer in our bellies, we took to the streets. We followed Frank’s map carefully, and then carefully we became a bit lost. The streets were peppered with a few interesting looking characters. One man, shabbily dressed and holding a yellow notepad came up to us with a big smile. He began telling us a story about how his daughter had been taken away from him and the judge who was responsible for this, and for his future interaction with her, was making him ask people questions around town. I was almost positive this was going to end in him asking us for money but he was quite pleasant, so I played along. He asked what our occupations were and what our first impression was of him. I wrote something like ‘pleasant with a lovely smile’. Later Kacy told me his fly was down.

We reoriented ourselves with our handy map and wandered into a bar called The Landmark. It was all pretty standard-looking and we nearly ducked out again, but then I reminded myself that trying things out even when you are a bit hesitant can be rewarding (Note: This is not true for a lot of things). We ordered a beer each and when we were halfway finished, some creepy man tried to make us do Jäger Bombs (Jägermeister and Red Bull), which I politely declined while Kacy guarded herself from any advances by talking to her boyfriend on her cellphone. The bartender was most definitely not Frank; he didn’t even ask us if he could draw anything for us. We left the bar unimpressed.

Continuing on, we went to The Raleigh Times, a bar and eatery. It was bustling with people and the menu offered tasty beers, sandwiches and homemade chips (the crispy kind). I felt exhilarated walking into a bar where no one stared you down simply because they did not recognize you. I mistakenly chose an $8 beer and when the waitress told me it was expensive I was clearly riding the high of being in a new town, so I simply shrugged it off, assuring her it was fine.

After our meal at The Raleigh Times, we headed to Foundations. The atmosphere was superb. It’s at basement level with little stairs leading down and a neon red sign baring its name in the window. Inside it was cosy and we took our seats up at the bar. The bartenders were keeping to themselves, texting and milling about. At this point in the night we were offended if bartenders didn’t talk to us, but admittedly we might have had one too many. When I started yelling at Kacy to explain what ‘sangria’ was in Spanish (something I already knew), we both agreed it was time to move on.

Realising we had only seen bars in Raleigh, we decided it was the right decision to gain some culture points, so we walked/ran/skipped and generally ran amuck as we headed to the capitol building. Knowing we couldn’t get inside we made sure to take numerous blurry photos outside the well-lit and fenced-in building. Not that I learned much from our photo shoot, but I did find out later that the building was completed in 1840 and the architecture is Greek revival style (thanks, Google).

Topping off the evening, we returned triumphantly to The Busy Bee’s upstairs bar, The Hive (oh, the wit!) to discuss our bar hop around Raleigh with the friendly bartenders. We did just that and in return for our delightful conversation, we were given a beer tasting, not that we needed to drink any more at this point. After a couple of hours of meeting some locals and discussing the nightlife in Raleigh, it was time for us to depart.

Leaving Raleigh, I felt a twinge of excitement to come back, which is at least better than my last experience. To what do I credit this change of heart? Friendly bartenders? Enchanting bar atmosphere? Delicious beer? An architecturally attractive capitol? Let’s just say it is a mix of all of these things. Ultimately, the piece of advice I’ll leave with you when discovering a new city: find a good bar and there you’ll probably also find knowledgeable bartenders and kind locals.

Addendum: After writing this column I was able to go and see The Ruby Suns play a gig at a local club in Chapel Hill. I was elated when I found out they were coming and even more elated when I recognised a friend of mine up onstage. Hanging with Kiwi folk made me miss NZ so much! It also gave me some perspective on just how special the New Zealand art and music scene is - I shall elaborate more on this in the next installment.