Finding Appalachia

If you drive North from where we are on I-77 and then some other such direction on another interstate or highway you find yourself crossing three states (North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia) and ending up in Ohio.

Athens, OH is an old college town, a hippy town, an artsy town, just to name a couple of things. All this, and much more I cannot even think to enumerate. Our friend who invited us up has referred to it as a town “nestled at the foot of Appalachia” for years now. I always found this space poetic, sort of unreal, like this might be a mythical place in a fictional book, but not in real life. But Appalachia is real.

I have heard before that this region is usually associated with extreme poverty, but also hardworking and resourceful people, outlaws as much as talented artists. I guess as a passer-by, it is hard to see all of these in just a couple of days. There is certainly a sense of poverty in the poor roads of West Virginia (which we crossed on our way up), and in the leaning, one-pump gas stations of West Virginia and Ohio. But Athens is an old Southern town (I know, Southern!), with lots of charm, and lots of personality.

Street art in Athens, OH

Ohio University sits at its center and it sort of defines its vibe: students, youth, quirky professors, bespectacled and rosy cheeked, mixing with students on a Friday night at the local pubs.

Ohio University campus entry

Our friends took us on a tour and we found some treasures, like fine local beers (pretty much anywhere – this town is made of beer, really), great, very diverse food (my favorites were Thai Paradise, as well as Salaam, both downtown), Artifacts Gallery is a quirky little gift store, where you can buy your patchouli incense, as well as your cheeky gifts for that crazy aunt who is a tad too hard to shop for, otherwise. The homemade chips and the blackening seasoning on the tilapia at Eclipse Company Store were out of this world! The setting of this place was amazing, as well – just an old, tall farmhouse turned into a brewpub, in the heart of an old neighborhood, with hiking trails and forests all around …

The blackened tilapia sandwich at Eclipse Company Store

We strolled the university grounds, and we visited some of the areas of the art and visual design schools. The staff at West End Cider House is bar none the best staff we have experienced in a while: they are friendly without being overbearing, knowledgeable, and very open-minded in trying mixed drinks their drunk customers want to experiment with but which are not on the menu. And drunk people (we) can come up with some cocktail doozies. Like Imperial Stout aged in whiskey barrels mixed with Grand Marnier, or Baileys. They did not even blink and made them for us. Or rather, provided the ingredients for us to mix.

The cucumber ale at West End Cider House is by far much more delicious than it sounds. Perfect for a hot summer evening! 

We were there during Ohio Brew Week, so every bar had a special beer menu to honor that. I have not seen this many craft beer options in my entire life: every bar had many (20 – 40 - 100 - lost count) options for craft beers, and most of them were different from one bar to another. I left thinking that for sure this town is made of beer. Do you remember that song that goes something like this: “And the little streams of alcohol/ Come a-trickling down the rocks.../ And a lake of stew/ And of whiskey, too/ You can paddle all around in a big canoe ...” - well, you might as well paraphrase that song and make it about Athens, OH: “And the little streams of beer/ Come a-trickling down the rocks/ And a lake of stew/ And of beer, too/ You can paddle all around in a big canoe ... ...”. I believe that original song might have been written somewhere in or about the Appalachia, too.

Reminder on our friend's refrigerator

The bars we hopped had pretty much everything else (wine, liquor, cider), but everyone seemed to be enjoying the beer: the festival and the sweltering, humid summer weather probably called for this.

If you want to experience a hippy vibe in one place, have breakfast or lunch at Village Bakery. Our friend kept telling us this is “quintessential Athens”. They lost our order, and after waiting for more than hour and finally asking about it, they admitted to that and started from scratch without much blinking, really … Easy going, and unfrilled is how I would describe that experience. There was no point letting your blood pressure raise at that moment. The kids took care of it in their due time. Like many other mountain towns, time is trickling here, and not flowing nor rushing like in the big cities.

Local woodworking and homemade goods for sale at Village Bakery

We visited the Kennedy Museum of Art which is housed in a former lunatic asylum. I am sure this is not PC anymore, but this is what they told us in there. Today's museum is not very good, but the grounds are beautiful, albeit haunting. I wished they would have done something with just sharing the grounds, the history of the place itself, the stories, the history of medicine through a place like that with the visitors. But maybe some other day …

The Kennedy Museum of Art

Athens is a happening city which comes alive at night. Even during the day, the pubs are not empty. The town is small and comfortable, with one way streets, brick roads, and historic buildings bordering the sidewalks. The mountains are right there, behind every hotel, home, store … you can almost touch them.

Old wooden floors and brick walls that could tell a story, in a beer store in Athens, OH

I would love to go back in the fall when hopefully the heat might let up and I could take in some trails for a hike or twelve. The leaves would be gorgeous, I bet.

If I were to pick just one word to describe Athens, it would be artistic. The craft beer, and craft pretty much anything, the banjo playing, the homemade brewing, the people experimenting with canning and commercializing little known fruits, like paw-paw, the art school, the old buildings left untouched, the old brick walls and streets tell an artful story of pure Americana. I think in the middle of all this I might have found that that mythical Appalachia is alive, well, and surprisingly real, after all.

More street art in Athens, OH. Click the image to see the full album from this trip.