St. Augustine

Ghosts, forts, and pirates, oh my!

St. Augustine is actually the oldest city in the United States, founded by the Spanish in 1565, and is thus quite rich with history and excitement.
These days the city might have been conquered by tourists, and the settlement still holds onto its reputation as the most haunted city in the nation (much to the pleasure of the ghost tour guides). However, much of its beauty and history can still be seen through a number of reenactments frequently performed as well as within a number of the buildings themselves.

Caitlin, Katie and I stayed the weekend in the hostel Casa Yallaha. Although it was not my first time in a hostel, it was the first that I had been to in the U.S., and I was pleasantly surprised.

Plus I can appreciate places with a sense of humor:

This was where we would come back in the evening to play pool and make plates of nachos (the hostel, not the void of nothingness), but that was after we had a number of other adventures during the day first.

Once we were checked in, there was nothing for it but to stop for a quick lunch at the Santa Maria Restaurant. 

 (The view from our table)

 

The place may be a bit on the pricy side for the average college student (though splitting a wrap with someone is both more affordable and tasty), though they do have one interesting perk.
Before your meal comes out, they provide you with a basket of their discarded bread (don't worry, they're just stale, not moldy) to feed the birds and fish with through a latch beside your table.

 Afterwards we went our for a brief walk along the water.

Which was made even more brief when the sky began to look like this:

We hurriedly made it to St. George St. where we found not only shelter, but an image of my doppelganger:

Of course, we managed to get in a bit of playtime as well:

We were just practicing for Carnivale in Venice, which I've mentioned before here.

As the sun was setting, we went to see a friend of ours perform in a show. 

I only managed to get the one image because I thought the lights were pretty, it was fairly dark once the show began, and I was busy getting pulled up onto stage (it was an audience interaction performance, and I guess I just have one of those interactive faces).
Also, there may have been free, unlimited sangria.