Spanish Moss and Ghost Stories: A Weekend Exploring Historic Savannah
Living in Statesboro is comfortable and familiar, but one of the best parts about it is its proximity to a city that feels like it’s been preserved in amber. It’s a place where history isn't just in museums; it’s in the air you breathe and in the cobblestones under your feet. Last weekend, my host family and I decided to spend a couple of days exploring it.
The first thing that strikes you about Savannah is the sheer beauty of it. The city was planned in the 1700s around a series of 22 public squares, and these squares are the heart and soul of the city. Each one is like a miniature park, a green oasis filled with ancient oak trees draped in long, elegant strands of Spanish moss. In Korea, cities are often a testament to modernity and efficiency. Savannah is a testament to planning and preservation. Walking from square to square, you feel the pace of life slow down.
We spent our first day just walking. We wandered down to River Street, where the old cotton warehouses have been converted into shops and restaurants, their balconies overlooking the huge container ships gliding up the Savannah River. The contrast between the historic cobblestone street and the massive, modern ships was a perfect picture of Savannah itself—a city that lives comfortably with its past.
Of course, you can't talk about Savannah without talking about its ghosts. Savannah is famously known as one of America's most haunted cities, a reputation the city happily embraces. We decided to take one of the famous ghost tours in the evening. A guide in a period costume led us through the dimly lit squares, telling stories of duels, plagues, and heartbroken lovers whose spirits are said to still linger.
Was it scary? A little. But more than that, it was a fascinating way to learn about the city's history. The ghost stories are not just for entertainment; they are a form of oral history, a way of keeping the city's dramatic, and often tragic, past alive in the popular imagination. It's a contrast to the way history is often taught in Korea, which is usually a very serious and formal subject. In Savannah, history is entertainment.
On our second day, we explored some of the beautiful historic homes and visited the Bonaventure Cemetery, a stunningly beautiful place made famous by the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."
Leaving Savannah felt like coming back to the present day. It's a city that serves as a powerful reminder that the past is never really past; it's all around us, shaping the present in ways we can see and in ways we can only feel. It’s a puzzle of a city, where every square and every street holds a piece of a story, and I can't wait to go back to try and put more of them together.