Atlanta

After a very long and worthwhile sleep it was time to explore the city of Atlanta, home of the world's favourite gassy drink Coca Cola (except in Scotland where Irn Bru prevails).



The city is also famous for being the home of the Atlanta Braves baseball team. When the Baseball league first started up the team was actually called the Boston Red Stockings, perhaps not the most manly of names. The franchise changed names a few times, Boston Beaneater for example, before finally ending up in their current guise in 1966.

Atlanta Underground is a small entertainment area not far from downtown. The current city is actually built on the Atlanta of old and only these four blocks remain. There are a number of bars and guided tours of the area explaining the history of Atlanta.

However the area is full of tacky souvenir stands offering the sort of rubbish you get in any tourist area. There is a great smoothie bar there though.

Across the street from Underground Atlanta is the Coca Cola Museum. You don't actually get to see how the drink is made because all they ever make in the factory is the syrup. It gets turned to drinks elsewhere. Instead, for $9 you get to walk around the biggest "buy me, buy coke" advertisement you could ever imagine, showing the history of the brand and how you've been brainwashed into liking it.

The funniest bit is the tasting studio where you can try brands that failed (the original coke zero was something else) or you can do what all the kids were doing when I was there and make cocktails, taste them and them spit them out. The more they drank the more hyper they got - who in their right mind would allow their kid to go on a school trip to the home of Coca Cola?

Atlanta is also the home to CNN, that TV channel that you turn to when all the others aren't in English. They offer studio tours and stuff like that but I wasn't interested in any of it. Who wants to pay to see two smartly dressed people talk behind a desk?

10 years ago the city was home to the Olympics and you can tell how proud they were of that achievement. The city still has plenty of reminders to the event such as this park, and they're all immaculate. You just know that 10 years after 2012 the Olympic Village in London is going to be in ruin. Each brick on the ground has the name of a person who donated cash to the event; a nice touch.

In the centre of the park is the Olympic Fountain, shaped like the Olympic rings. In the heat that we had they were being put to good use. It seemed like another strange location for a school trip, but the kids weren't complaining.

The Philips arena is the main entertainment venue in the city. Usually the home to major bands and sporting events on the day that I was there there was nothing there at all.

This is the Atlanta Dome which is home to the city's football team, the Atlanta Falcons. They play all their games at this stadium. Its probably also used for very big concerts but on the day I was there there was nothing on at all.

The marta is the city's public transport system, and is a really easy way to get around. The metro consists of 2 lines with one intersection, so getting about couldn't be easier. A one way ticket of any distance is $1.75 and you can buy the equivalent of travel cards to save more money. Take advantage of the hotel shuttle buses to take you to the airport then board the line there!

A shot of the Philip's centre and one of the many Olympic statues taken from one of the many entrances to the Dome. I may as well take advantage of the quietness, I imagine on game day this area would be mobbed!

Close to the Dome is the exhibition centre, which was housing a convention for Athletic Trainers. I couldn't have picked a more inappropriate event to gatecrash, but you didn't have to pay to enter. Actually it was pretty dull, full of vain people talking about the latest exercise techniques. Not for me at all.

America, home of the monster truck, and whilst this wasn't particularly massive it had the kind of front that you wouldn't want hitting your vehicle.

New to the city is its Aquarium that opened in 2005. Its now the largest aquarium in the world with over 100,000 different animals inside. This place is extremely popular at the moment and reserving tickets in advance is highly recommended. Fortunately I had done that from the hotel the night before and managed to get some. I was however a little early but at least I knew where to head when it was time.

Back in the Olympic Gardens and another monument. This one lists all the event winners, which is a great idea for an Olympic monument, I just wonder if they attempt to remove names if people are caught taking drugs and have their medals confiscated.

and this one just lists one of the corporate sponsors, which is weak.

Interesting Sign #23
"No Guns, No Knives, No Lighters or Matches, No Outside Food or Drinks and No Fishing Poles Please..."
Oh, come on. You mean people have actually thought about catching their dinner at an Aquarium?

The Aquarium to be honest is absolutely brilliant! Its split into several zones, each containing a different water environment such as tropical, coastal, deep water etc. Each is gorgeously themed with an abundance of animals to look at.

Good ol' creepy spider crabs lurking within the deep water bits.

A lot of thought had gone into the exhibits, some of which contained crawl spaces for the kids to get closer to the animals. Who's the exhibit here?

One of the main tanks contains the Beluga Whales. When I was there, the tank was being cleaned and was a little murky with algae. The belugas spent a lot of their time at the back of the tank as a result but did make the occasional trip forward to keep the public happy.

The underwater tunnel allowed a close up view of some of the sharks. It was odd that just about everyone insisted on standing on the travelator when you could stand off it and spend longer looking at the fish.

In the days leading up to me getting to Atlanta the Aquarium had managed to acquire a couple of Whale Sharks, the largest mammals in the world. They would obviously need a big tank to house those babies.....and boy did they have a big tank.

After some teasing glimpses into it you turn a corner and are faced with one of the largest windows in the world. Some classical music adds to the overwhelming effect that the view offers.

Compared to the Whale Sharks everything else in the tank looked diminuitive but to those of us looking in most of the fish were massive.

As well as the aquariums, the place also has a really cool 4D cinema with some unique effects. How better to simulate swimming through jellyfish but by dragging a curtain of rubber straps across the venue from one side to the other. It totally catches you off guard.

More cleaning going on, this time in the barrier reef section. A wave machine sends waves crashing across the top of the tank just like an Australian coastline. (Why did I put Australian coastline? Don't all coastlines have waves?)

After having my fish fix it was time for some food. A couple of blocks away is the Hard Rock.

But I chose to go to Hooters! I can't think why.

Following lunch I decided to head over to the resting place of Martin Luther King. In hindsight I should have caught a taxi as I found myself walking through a ghetto to get to it. I kept my head down and walked quick as I was genuinely scared at the idea of being jumped on and mugged. The contrast between affluent downtown and this area is stark, even more so when you realise that one freeway and a couple of blocks is all that seperates them.

It was just as I was about to give up and head back that I spotted the reflection pool and I realised I had found what I had come here to see. The place is extremely tranquil. MLK's tomb rests in the middle of the pool. "Reflecting Pool" was definitely a clever pun. I'm just not sure if it was intentional or not.

I hadn't appreciated that his wife had died only a few months before the trip. She has been laid to rest close by.

The area around the tomb has been designated MLKs area and as well as the church where he made some of his most famous speeches, there is also an exhibition detailing his life and showing the civil struggle he fought to overcome.

A walk celebrating those who had fought for civil rights can also be found here. A statue of Gandhi stands at one end of it and the walk includes luminaries from the worlds of politics and entertainment such as Stevie Wonder and Jessie Jackson. Rather surprisingly Bill Clinton had a mention. Not surprisingly George Bush did not.

Having made it back to the downtown area in one piece I spent the remainder of the day taking in the city and just relaxing, as much as I could in the heat.

This was one thing I had wanted to see on this trip; overuse of the Segway. Lazy people!!! I think I had walked absolutely miles today, clearly more than this postal person, and felt better for it. I'm sure my legs would tell me otherwise in the morning.

Atlanta is a nice city, and you can tell that the Olympics had been a catalyst for the wonderful place it is now. I wonder if the Olympics would have the same effect to London. Somehow I doubt it, we're not as friendly as the people here for one thing. Having the right attitude is important, and I don't think London has that.

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