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“man oh man was it a lot of coke” |
We arrived in Atlanta on the 11th July. It took 3 hours to get out of the airport, as we picked up our luggage, went through baggage checking, apple confiscation, handed over our luggage again for baggage re-checking, picked it up again and got it re-checked. They are nothing if not thorough!
We stayed at the only hostel in Atlanta, the Atlanta International Hostel, and getting there from the train station was a bit of a mission. Not being accustomed to American street signs, and every street seeming to be names the same regardless of its direction, we got a wee bit lost, and arrived at the hostel very hot and tired about an hour later (it is a 10 minute walk!). Managed to make it our again though, we walked to a local area (apparently this is unwalkable as it is too far!) to check out the nightlife, but ended up having a very nice meal in a little pub. Taxi back, and sleep to get over the jet lag!
On the 12th (after our complimentary two Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee, what a breakfast!) we headed straight for the coke factory (where the ticket guy sang Rule Britannia to us!), man oh man was it a lot of coke and fizzy drink related things! The museum was quite interesting, but then we hit the second floor for tasting. We hit is a bit hard at first, and soon flagged in the 50 varieties. I thought I was going to pass out! Persevered though, for the challenge of finishing all of them. Most were disgusting! We shocked a little kid called Anthony (in a very American basketball shirt) when we told him that we only have Fanta, Coke and Sprite, not the other millions! I think he is going to go round thinking that we are a very deprived country!
We took a quick look at the CNN building, and gorged ourselves on tacos and burritos, but decided again the tour for $12, and then checked out the Olympic Park. It is incredibly dead now – hard to imagine the Olympics ever made it here.
Walked back to the hostel and relaxed on the hammock and giant rocking chair on the balcony with tea (courtesy of England) and learnt some Spanish. Attempted to go ‘out’ again in the evening, via the largest mall in this part of America for some more appalling food of burgers and cinnamon things dripping in some glorious sauce, and finally found a bar where they served us red wine after some thorough ID-ing. We went next door then to the karaoke bar, where the rules were just crazy! They took up two pages. The gist of it was it was a karaoke circle and anyone could come in and join it but everyone had a go. They were GOOD. Hence we didn’t sing. We had some crazy drink, as they had no red wine, and seemed to attract all the men over 40, oh joy. What are they doing in a club I ask you?!
It was all very American anyhow. Atlanta seems to be a very friendly city, although everyone is black, so no chance of blending in there then!
The 13th saw us getting us late (still fighting with that jet lag though ignoring it well) and packing, generally chilling out, and aiming for the airport nice and early to get through all the security. All went smoothly, but the flight was a little hairy, as it was seat belt signs all the way.
previous travel blog entry
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