i have spent a week in atlanta, the capital of the new south.. city of coca cola, cnn, the olympics and the african americans.. that was the only thing i knew about atlanta before my friend sean came to live hear and asked me over.
well, atlanta is not my kind of city. one week is way too long to spend here. first: it is a city like phoenix and los angeles. there is no way your life is easy here if you do not have a car. i hate cities like that. public transport is called martha. but it just takes you forever to get to the sightseeings. the public transport is for the people living here, not for the tourists. but then again, there are not many tourists here.
one of the best ways to find out if a city is worth visiting is to check if they are a lot of guide book about the city. you guessed it, there are not that many of atlanta. i found it even hard to get information at the tourist office. i wanted to rent a car and head out east to savannah and charleston but i never made it there.
anyways, for those of you who ever think of stopping in atlanta during a tour in the south or for those of you who have to be here for work: some info.
go to the history museum first. it is a very interesting museum that explains you more about the civil war. it is explained in a very easy way and you see a lot of stuff from that area. the musem also holds some old plantation houses which you can tour. it is worth the visit, especially if you arrive in atlanta. i did it on my last day but i should have done it earlier.
another must is the martin luther king center. very interesting and moving. there are a lot of tv clips from the man's speeches but there are also a lot of clips from the protest of his followers to the segregation. although you know the civil rights movement only started in the sixties, it is still very shocking to see how blacks were treated in the fifties for instance. i was amazed by this black mom who brought her toddlers to the museum and was explaining about the ku klux clan near one of the costumes. the center also has his birthplace, his tomb, the church he went to and ministered in.. very interesting.
the strange thing is that the freedom trail that you can walk from downtown to the center is lined with poor homeless black people who beg you and harrass you with offers of drugs. you come from a center that makes you not understand why white people could be afraid of blacks and then you get confronted with the low life blacks on your way back. very strange.
of course you have to visit the cnn building which was okay i guess. i liked how you could try out talking about the weather in front of a green screen... but basically it is just a studio. unfortunatly nothing big happened in the world at that time apart from this woman judge resigning after not having started yet at the supreme court. that was it. it must have been quite something if you happened to visit the center on 9/11. still, it was definitly different than the wtv studio i used to work at.
another 'must' is the coca cola museum. they are building a new one next to the soon to be opening aquarium. i hope it is more interesting. i did not like it too much and i drank way too much soft drinks from around the world. yes you can taste them. the atmosphere in the museum was cool but there was just not that much to see.
a few areas: little five points is a bit like haight ashbury, the hippie neighbourhood. however, it is only a corner big really. it was the most charming spot in the city that lacks charm in general. another nice area is midtown where you have the clubs and bars and the gays and the nice houses. i went out to two clubs and guess what: i was the only white guy in both clubs. i did not know they were black clubs and nothing made me think they were because i was allowed in without a problem. but i swear: it felt awkward. i needed a few budweisers to get started on the dancefloor. it was the first time that i feel uncomfortable dancing. i asked a few blacks if i should feel uncomfortable but they said: no just enjoy. however, nobody talked to me though. i felt like a girl in a gay club: i could just focus on dancing without having to think about being flirted at or flirting myself. so i danced. a lot. cool r'n b and hiphop.
the weird thing in atlanta is that you have so many black people but you never see mixed couples or families. it is very black black or white white or mexican mexican as well. no mix. too bad really.
the transportation hub Five Points has an underground shopping centre. they have malls all over atlanta. they are just malls. nothing extraordinary. just malls. five points is cool because it is in an old factory under the metro station but then again it is not the most safe neighbourhood.
a nice day trip is a visit of stone mountain. there is the granite rock some 15 miles of the city center that is just there. they build a lake around it and a cool southern town. when i went there it was pumpkin festival and i really liked it. they have this 4d theatre that was cooler than shrek's 4d in universal studio. the walk up the rock is also cool. it is only 1,3 miles but your calves hurt if you do it three times like i did. the view is not extraordinary but the walk up there is a cool excercise.
and that is basciallty atlanta...
