Well there I was back in Jacksonville waiting for the a connecting bus again. It feels like less than 2 weeks ago, but I've done so much in that time. The bus left at 4.15 and finally it looked like I would get some decent company. I was sat with a young lady called Marie. Can you guess where she's from? That's right, Michigan. After the initial promise of some decent conversation it deteriorated rapidly. All she would do is laugh at me whenever I turned to say anything. I have no problem in making people laugh, but only when I've said something funny. I guess the Michigan thing explained it. Still the Georgia countryside was nice to look at. Lots of farms and cottonfields.
I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia at 11.00. I decided to treat myself so I booked into the Motel 8 at 100 Luckie Street for $69 a night. I'd slept okay so I decided to make the most of the afternoon. The first stop was the Bicentennial Olympic Park which was bombed during the 1996 games. They still haven't decided what to do with the place and are still working on it.
I then went to the CNN Centre to do the studio tour for $8. It's amazing the lengths that they go to, to produce such crap 'World' news. Mind you the world is America. In fairness the tour was fascinating, but it got a little tiresome when they showed us the same thing for the 5 different news channels produced here.
Next was a trip to Coca Cola World for $6. Yep, Coke was first made here, in Atlanta over 100 years ago. It was a great little tour that told the story of the world's first world wide brand looking at all the memorablia and advertising. You get to sample a lot of the different drinks produced for the rest of the world. Of course you exit through the shop and although I was tempted, I left empty handed. It was kind of quirky and fun.
I walked back through underground Atlanta which was nice and up to the hostel to scope out the area. The hostel is in a much nicer area, but it's miles away from anything that I want to see and do. Although I quite like Atlanta, I'm only gonna stay a day, mainly because I can't be arsed to move to the hostel. Everyone is really pleasant (and why wouldn't they be). It's difficult to find any obvious signs of the prosperity that the Olympics is supposed to bring to a city. The only obvious legacy is the carpets in the metro system.
Sun burn update - I'm very appealing. I've decided that it's genetic for me to go red and then peel. (Thanks Dad)
