The ATL - Hotlanta!

I visited Atlanta 8 years ago with my family - I loved it then and I love it now. It is an awesome city that just seems to have an amazing vibe about it and I was excited about the prospect of introducing Sup to the place and of rediscovering the city ourselves.

The journey from Chicago to Atlanta on the trusty Greyhound was incredibly long, but we both got a good night's sleep on the bus (on and off!) as the stops were all about 3/4 hours inbetween. Arriving in ATL was a wonderful experience - we had both been freezing our tushies off for the last few weeks, so the warm Atlanta sunshine was extremely welcome!

Once we had found our hostel we were told that we couldn't check in til 5pm. Determined not to waste any of the precious time we had, we threw our bags into storage lockers and headed out for a walk around Piedmont Park, just a few blocks up the road.

Piedmont Park was beautiful...

We walked all around the central lake and found some great spots to take photos, as well as taking some time out to climb a tree in the middle of the park, monkey-style!

Obviously Sup managed to scale the tree a lot quicker and with much more dignity than me, but I got there in the end and was proud of the achievement! Our stomachs were soon rumbling from all the effort, so we headed to Downtown Atlanta on the hunt for some Southern Fried Chicken, something I had assumed was an obvious speciality in the city, but was soon proved wrong by the complete lack of fried chicken, much to Sup's disappointment. We grabbed a chicken wrap from a gas station instead - not so authentic, but yummy all the same!

Walking through Downtown Atlanta we admired all the sights of the city, lit up with a thousand Christmas lights and alive with friendly locals and tourists alike. Underground Atlanta was our next stop - an area of shops and restaurants and a local hangout according to the Lonely Planet. We were soon rewarded with a giant food court where everyone was enticing us in to buy their food with delicious tasters of Hawaiian chicken and all sorts of Chinese delicacies. Being in the USA though,

we decided it would be far more cultured to try something more local and settled on the biggest pizza I have ever seen - a 17inch giant cheese-fest loaded with a whole pig's worth of pepperoni! Hell yeah! Halfway through our feast, a guy came over and asked if he could have some - the look on Sup's face was priceless!! NO-ONE takes food from Sup, that's a serious offence and he was soon sent on his way!

After our bellies were more than full, we carried on our journey, passing the Capitol on the way through - very similar to the Capitol in Washington and a lovely sight in the moonlight. I really wanted to show Sup the interior of the Georgia Dome as I had watched a baseball game there previously and loved it.

Hoping it would still be open we made our way to the Dome, but were disappointed to find that the doors were closed. At this point we realised we were in a deserted parking lot quite far from civilisation, so in the name of safety and good sense, we hastily made a retreat back into the heart of Atlanta, past the CNN center, Coca Cola HQ the Georgia Aquarium and through the impressive Centennial Olympic Park and fountains.

Back at the hostel after a very successful day in ATL, we celebrated with some Hershey's chocolate and M&Ms and Sup thrashed me at pool (I'm better trained at snooker!) before retreating to our room to catch some well earned rest.

The next day we set off for Sweet Auburn, the birthplace of Martin Luther King and the site of his memorial and center for Non-Violent Social change commissioned by Coretta Scott King in her husband's honour as she continued with his legacy after his assassination. On the way we spotted some more impressive street art and took some snaps.

We first stopped to eat our left over pizza slices for lunch in the rosebush-lined grounds and a well dressed middle aged woman came over and asked if she could have some...bewildered as to why no-one would leave us with our pizza in peace, again the scavenger was shooed away!

The exhibit was fascinating and we both came away having learned an awful lot about the incredible hardship suffered by African Americans and in awe of the strength and sacrifice showed by so many in the name of ending this prejudice and discrimination. The center also highlighted how Martin Luther King drew inspiration from Gandhi in relation to striving for social change using non violent methods and we were both left inspired by Gandhi's belief that 'an eye for an eye leaves the world blind'.

The walk back was an opportunity to discuss and contemplate our new found knowledge with lots of philosophical thoughts, before heading to the Greyhound once more for our final American State - Bienvenido a Miami!!!

written by

SupandNic on January 7, 2010 from Atlanta, United States

from the travel blog: Sup and Nic's World Tour!

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wish to be there too. I like to visit beautiful places ;) http://www.cigs4girls.com/

written by Donna Martin on October 20, 2011

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