A Thank You Letter to Greenville, SC

Dear Greenville,

Thank you for making my days a little bit brighter after a week that was awful personally and professionally. Thank you for welcoming me to your beautiful city and for letting me get outside in nature. Thank you for having good food and a kickass hot yoga studio. I will be back.

With love and gratitude,

Allie


Last Sunday I drove up to Greenville, SC from Atlanta because I was presenting at a conference. The week prior, I had to cancel yet another vacation, been forced to work on my days off, and my relationship hit the skids for what is probably for good this time. I have a stressful job because I like my job and enjoy solving problems. I don't want a stressful boyfriend because I don't like stressful boyfriends and the way he treats me has been my problem. A two and a half hour drive is a good time to do some self-reflection. I ended up listening to Barbell Shrugged instead. Is anyone else frustrated by the Shrugged Collective podcast channel? What if I only want to listen to certain podcasts? Can I filter for them? Or do I have to seriously sit their and add only Barbell Shrugged to my queue so I don't drive someone off the road trying to find the good stuff?

Here are some highlights from the trip.


Where to Stay: The conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Greenville located downtown on Main Street. I'm usually a Hilton girl, but I enjoyed the Hyatt. My room on the 8th floor had a nice view that included a sunrise. I am all about allowing natural light to wake me up.

Where to Shop: I saw the cutest top in the window at Traveling Chic Boutique so I rewarded myself for a presentation well-done.

Where to Eat: I stayed downtown for all of my meals and walked from the hotel.

A friend recommended The Trappe Door, which was good but would have been better with friends. I had the beef tartar and the meat and cheese plate. I don't drink on business trips and so I missed out on their extensive Belgian beer selection. I'll be enjoying the mussels when I come back.

Sushi Murasaki had great salmon sashimi. Anyone can make a decent fried roll, but I judge a sushi restaurant by its raw fish. I also had the salmon skin roll, shrimp tempura roll, and the egg nigiri. They had a very legit looking bar, but I am #teamDietCoke when someone is letting me speak to a group of people on a topic of which I am supposed to be an expert.

I had a ridiculously good Farmer quiche with sausage, peppers, onions, and cheddar cheese at Coffee Underground. I ordered an iced chai tea to go with it. I liked that they didn't sweeten the chai tea, but I am sure they would if you asked.

I enjoyed the most amazing breakfast sandwich at Caviar and Bananas Gourmet Market and Cafe. House-made turkey sausage with egg whites, gruyere,“everything” spiced kale pesto on toasted ciabatta. I don't even like turkey sausage, egg white, or kale and it was that damn good. Do yourself a favor and make sure to order this.

Where to Exercise: If you want to run or bike, get out on the the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail, a 20.6 mile multi-use greenway system. Some of it is paved and some is natural. I work in national service and so our conference had a service event. We got to go out and work on a new section of natural trail. I got to use an axe and it was glorious!

Greenville is home to Southern Om Hot Yoga. If I owned a yoga studio, this is the studio I would want to own. I went to the new location in the West End. The original location is on Woodruff Road near the Whole Foods. Southern Om offers a variety of hot yoga classes, including Southern 26 (think Bikram), Southern Flow (inspired by Baptiste Power Yoga), Yin (which is my new favorite in Atlanta), and Deep Southern Flow. I wish I had been in town longer so that I could have taken more classes!

From the moment I called Southern Om to see if I could drop-in, I felt welcomed. This feeling extended from the time I walked into the studio until the time I left. I met owner Pace Beattie and he gave me a tour. There are two studio rooms so that two types of classes can be held at the same time. The women's locker room is gorgeous, as in I wouldn't mind living in there. There's a mat cleaning station for everyone's use and mat storage for members. They also have a filtered water system to refill your water bottle. Blocks, bolsters, straps, and sweat towels are available for free. Mats and yoga towels are for rent at the front desk. I had the choice between an eQua or a Yogitoes towel. I don't know the difference and so I trusted Pace's recommendation.

I attended Deep Southern Flow with Kristen Albert. This class was challenging but I felt like I could do it. At no point did I question if I had gotten into something way over my head, which has happened to me at other places. The class started on our backs doing some poses with the strap that I've done in Yin classes. Then we moved onto vinyasas. I got to try poses I haven't been exposed to before, which I found exciting. Remember that I really only did Bikram or Bikram-esque yoga for a long time. Kristen gave us modifications and the opportunity to play. The 90 minutes went by faster than I had expected or would have liked! I found it more difficult than usual to find stillness in my brain and body, so this class was the right balance for what I needed. I really enjoyed myself!