Today’s post brought to you by: my office at Starbucks.
Grateful for: feet, eyes and ears. And head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
Trying hard to accept: I can’t earn a living doing this.

I will NEVER hear a word against Starbucks again. It’s provided me with endless hours of hassle-free wifi, a desk, ability to sit uninterrupted for 2 hours for $2.19, clean bathrooms and super nice servers.
Ok folks, pour yourself a mega mega grande coffee because I’ve just done a walking tour of Charleston and you’re about to get the highlights.
I learned so much about Charleston, what a battery is (the military type, not the type you can never find when you need it), the American Revolutionary War, Noo Joisey (from fellow guests) and colonial architecture.
Thank your lucky stars we no longer do this by Kodak slide show over several boring hours. I bring you the abridged version.

This wasn’t on the tour but shows you typical downtown office building.

Neither was this but because I went to the effort of uploading it you have to see it. A little shack on the corner.

Ok, tour begins. Charleston’s answer to Coronation St. Every one of these stones was brought over from the UK. There ain’t no stone in these parts.
Actually before I add any more, just have to tell you that I asked the guide where all the money in Charleston came from.
Interestingly: rice (at one point supplied 85% of world’s rice), indigo, slavery and shipping.
It used to be a walled city. There have been 5 great fires and 2 massive earthquakes.

Slave mart. The most in-demand-at-the-time slaves (eg sugar cane workers or liveried butlers) were displayed in the front windows. Everyone else was crammed into a yard out the back.

Largest privately-owned home in Charleston – all 35 rooms and 20,000 sq ft of it.
Around the doorframe the wood has been carved like rope to tell everyone the owner was in the cotton plantation business.
The wealthy and showy-offy added what they called ‘piazzas’ to their houses – what we’d call porches. It told everyone they’d been on a grand tour of Europe, specifically Italy. Just a shame they got the word wrong. Duh.

Front door of said house. Not too shabby, eh?

Fine examples of Charleston singles – no, not Tinder swipers, but houses so-called because they were a single room wide.
Most were shops so had solid shutters on ground floor and louvred ones on living quarters floors – to let breeze through.
The British sugar cane plantation owners who came here from Barbados brought the Barbadian house colours with them. That’s why they’re all pastel hues.
In the 1920s these houses were the city slums, occupied by descendants of slaves.

St Michael’s Episcopalian Church, c 1700s. George Washington once sat in the cypress pew in the front and since then it’s only used by foreign dignitaries. All the stained glass is Tiffany.
3 more interesting facts:
- First shots of American Revolutionary War were fired in Charleston harbour
- To reduce fire risk, kitchens were housed in separate buildings out the back
- As we were passing one of the waterfront mansions the black nanny pulled up to the electric gates with her 2 white charges in the golf cart next to her. It’s another world down here.
Right, food time! Again!