Atlanta diary
Got me thinking. I traveled to Atlanta for the first time last week. While the weekdays got utilized in work meetings, sessions I did not really head out. Office to hotel, hotel to office. Except on thursday when I really really craved for rice and searched for a thai place nearby but settled for a chinese one instead and got my tummy full of greasy fried rice!
So come weekend colleagues here told me about a lot of fun things I could do over the weekend. Except few of them which I was interested in involved really long commutes and were not recommended to be done using public transport. Then I decided I would do something I have never done. I made a list of touristy places people told me about. Chalked out a plan to cover as many as possible. And guess what Atlanta's geography helped!
I made sure I knew my addresses, hence a day before started googling for routes and saved them all. Having a phone with maps on helped. Left house at 11 and got a very kind cab driver who was nice enough to give me his inputs as well. So this is how my day with grand plans unfolded.
Reached Georgia Aquarium by 11.30. 15 minutes in queue and got a admission ticket for 1 PM. had more than an hour to spare so walked across to the Centennial Olympic Park. It was built during the 1996 olympics and has engraved bricks having names of people who donated money to build it. Sat around a bit but it started to drizzle so walked across the street and paid a visit to the CNN world headquarters. They had a 50 minute tour which I could not take, so I roamed around, visited a few other places and hit the merchandise shop. Was super happy to get powerpuff girls magnets and an umbrella. As luck would have it heavy rains had started outside so made it just in time without getting drenched to the aquarium.
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| fish! |
I have to admit that this was my first ever visit to a full fledged aquarium. The Georgia Aquarium did not fail to fascinate me. They had an ocean voyager, a tunnel like passage in the middle of the exhibit which was so awesome. Surrounded by whale sharks and gigantic manta rays it felt surreal to be walking that tunnel. They also had beautiful coral exhibits where I found Nemo and Gill ->
Guess what also found some sea dragons.
After this I visited the world of coca cola, museum, just because it was adjacent to it. And I wanted to check off everything on my touristy agenda. Visiting such a place is the ultimate dose of pop culture. I am neither a soda fan nor a coke fan. But what the heck. When in rome and la la la. Most fun thing here were the people. There were nice exhibits and videos embodying the coca cola company's values of spreading happiness. They have a vault where they claimed the secret coca cola formula is kept. One of the exhibits takes you to the vault which is of course all secured and out of reach. The only dampener here was the long wait in queues.
After this I headed out to watch a movie in an IMAX theater. Another thing I had never done in life before. So I geeked out on Pacific Rim at the IMAX which is an awesome escape fantasy movie involving giant robots and what not. The 'holy shit' moments in the movie totally made it worth the money and time. Also I did not get bored even one bit. Only recommended if you like the action genre. Then I shopped a bit at my favorite H&M at the Atlantic City Shopping Center and headed back home.
Whatta day! Packed with touristy activities. Although I am not a big fan of such back to back activities I followed the norm and explored a new city using wikipedia and local recommendations. Also given the fact I was pretty much on my own this method proved hassle free.
So what was the new thing that you did for the first time lately ?