Hej!
Okay, are you ready? Let's get this blog post rolling!

I love cemeteries. LOVE them.
In Gothenburg we lived right next to a huge old cemetery that I used to visit a few times every week; to run, go for a walk, make a shortcut through it on my way somewhere. We even filmed a few scenes for a movie there (didn't turn into something though). Cemeteries are moody and dramatic, and they contain SO many aspects of life. Yes, death too, but to me it's more about life. All the people that were once living and breathing, all their friends and family visiting them and remembering them alive. All the beautiful gravestones that were made by amazing artists (that might even be buried on that very cemetery by now). All the people keeping the graves in shape for people alive to see.
There's so much life in a place for death!
Anyways, when we found out that we were going to Savannah the first thing I did was to google if there were any cool cemeteries there that we could visit. I found the Bonaventure Cemetery and it looked AWESOME on the photos.
On Sunday we took an Uber there, armed with my camera and the tripod for my iphone. I was imagining all the spooky photos and self portraits I was going to take.
And then when we got there it was closed.

But, "how did you get these photos then?" you might ask.
Weeellllll....
Two girls were standing outside the fence looking equally disappointed about the Closed Signs that we were. They said it was closed because of the fallen trees and mess after Hurricane Matthew. They also said that they had seen the guard sleeping in her car at the front. And that they had seen some people sneaking inside.
David was looking around and all of a sudden he was inside. He had found a hole in the fence. "Just a little peek?"
Okay.
So we went in there, and quite a few people followed.
It was so beautiful! And because it was closed it was quiet and calm and even more of an adventure!

We could see the remnants of Hurricane Matthew everywhere. It made the place so spooky.

We walked around looking at all the names on the grave stones.

Some were big and intricate.

Some were just plain sad.

Some were funny. Lang and Lange sounds like an awesome detective business.

A little family cluster.

And then we saw this monument from afar and it was like my heart started pitter patter super fast.

The trees, the light, the structures, the hanging moss, EVERYTHING!

I took a bunch of self portraits here. You can see all of them on my instagram, but here's the one I took at this exact spot.

Let's just walk around in silence for a bit, shall we?

This environment reminded me of a forgotten land, like Atlantis, or a level in a Sonic the Hedgehog game.

It seems like we're never getting away from Hollywood.

And then we found my name on it...

And here's little Gracie. Alone in a fenced in garden. That made me the most sad. She died so early and then they put her here, locked inside, like she was doomed to be forever lonely, parted from the rest of the world. I don't even believe in any afterlife, but it still seems sad to me.

Only 6 years old.

And here's Ida. Born in Sweden.

Such rich jewel tones everywhere. I was walking around there with constant heart eyes.

Gray and David.

Then we met the two girls from earlier. They said they had seen the guard driving by, and that she had thrown out a couple of people, but they hadn't been seen yet.
We thanked them for the heads up and made our way quickly to the hole in the fence. We did not want to get caught in there!
Hearts beating, eyes scanning everywhere, ears listening for sounds of a car.
We got out. And then, just a breath later, we saw the guard and a police car driving by inside the cemetery at the exact place we were walking just moments earlier.
We sent a thought of Thank You to the two girls for warning us, but then we realized: they were still in there. We wished we could have warned them somehow but there was no way.

We were walking down the road ten minutes later when the girls drove by us. They looked solemn. We waved.

And that was that adventure. It was fantastic! I wish we could have stayed in there forever. Maybe some day we can go back, and walk in the front entrance like normal people. But I would not change this day in any way, because it really was the most beautiful experience.

But wait! We're not done yet!
Sunday evening we had the panel after Lights Out screened and it went great. The audience was lovely and we met so many wonderful people afterwards. Every time we do something like this we want it to go on for longer. When they say "we have time for one more question from the audience" it makes both of us think "Oh no! We want more questions!" Haha. It's just so much fun.
I didn't bring my camera for that, but on Monday morning it was back around my neck for the hours before we had to leave for the airport. Let's take a look at that.

We were on our way to eat breakfast. Walked through the square with the guy and his umbrella (yeah, yeah, it's a flag. But it would be cuter if it was an umbrella, right?)

And here we were! At the Gryphon Tea Room!

So. Incredibly. Beautiful.

We ordered the Afternoon Tea even if it was not afternoon yet.

And fancy lemonade! Look how happy I was!

The bill came in an old book. This place used to be an apothecary back in the day. And then it was a book store.

And now it's a tea room.

After that delicious breakfast we went to get some coffee. We passed a pumpkin display.

And then we found a bench to sit on for a couple of hours. People watching, talking about everything we've seen and done during the weekend, and imagining what it would be like if we lived in Savannah.

I would love to live there if it weren't for the extremely warm and humid summers. Savannah reminded me of the town Lund in Sweden where I used to live between 2003 and 2007. A cute, small student town, with lots of history and interesting spots.
Yeah, I hope I get to see more of Savannah in the future.

And that was all from our weekend in Savannah, Georgia.

/Lotta