Ybor, FL

Either as part of Tampa, FL, or an immediate suburb is Ybor City, an old school college town with bars, shops, and other stores with a "main street" kind of feel. There are no stores like the Gap, Best Buy, or Starbucks. Here, it all seems to be home grown.

Tattoo parlors and piercing places are big here. There seemed to be one on every block. I was tempted...but the skull kind of scared me away.

If you're dating a nice young lady, you can buy her a black leather mini-skirt. Man, I'd like to have a girl I can buy a black leather mini-skirt. I'm so alone in this world...

Tampa's oldest restaurant is here. It's right next to...

...a bunch of Soviet Union flags. Yes, this is a college town, and wearing black leather mini-skirts, getting tattoos, and thinking Communism was a good idea are all acceptable notions here. Socialism didn't do much for the area though, there were homeless people everywhere.

That's not to say there aren't rules though.

I have a rule...no "New York style" anything outside of New York City. New York pizza in Ybor? Thank you very much you socialist bastards.

There's a movie theater turned into a concert hall. I was disappointed to learn that I was not going to be in town for a band called Nashville Pussy.

It's probably for the best though, because I would have gotten a piercing, a tattoo, and a black leather mini-skirt for myself before the show and that's all just too expensive.

I will say this though, it was nice to be able to walk around. This was a place not soiled by car culture. If you're in town and you need something "different," check it out.