Atlanta.
This will span our entire time in Atlanta.
It came and went, leavening an amazing impression.
Day 27.
Coke, cold, but a new day and a new experience
Wow staying awake to 1am to catch this bus then not sleeping, leaving me a grumpy person. Carly sleeping on the bus, have to deal with the grumpy Jason, not a fun thing, just like a 3yo haha not in a bad way.
We arrived in Atlanta, my temperament was not of great status like I said I didn’t sleep at all, I had the most annoying guy in front of me. This ride was slow, the guy in front put the chair all the way back to I couldn’t move at all, the guy behind, he was like a spider his legs were so long, unable to put my chair back, I was up straight right and couldn’t stretch my legs, not fun. On the other hand we had the girl next to me (Carly), chair all the way back and the guy in front didn’t even really put his chair back much
Carly jumped in my seat so I could try and sleep, it was so tight for her, i had to jump back after 30mins, that ride so far the worst for comfort.
I can’t remember if I said anything about our ride from Miami to Orlando, now that ride was scary, ill read over what I wrote and ill tell you if I didn’t say anything.
The temperature, giving us goose bumps, come from Orlando we were in shorts and tees, it was just so cold here. It was 11am once we got out of the bus.
Once we gathered ourselves, tried to get public transport with the help of the guy that tried to sell us cortisone and weed, we made our way to the information center.
Checking out the city, walking from the information center to were we could sleep, party, make friends, and enjoy Atlanta to its fullest.
Now, couch surfing in Atlanta was the accommodation for us this time, I guess with the fact you never go into a house with any expectations, this 4 days were trip toppers.
We contact Olivia, she was at work and had left the key for us, opened the door and put our stuff in, we had decided to get a city pass to save some money but also, see more then we normally would.
What is Atlanta known for or what’s there to see. Well our city pass gave us 7 things to pick 5 activities to do. You had to do the Coke-a-Cola center, Atlanta Aquarium and the CNN headquarters, the other 4 you had to decide between 2 for example it was Atlanta history or the Zoo.
So after we had places our bags down, we got lunch and went to the coke center.
The Coke-a-Cola Center: its starts off with a guy explaining some history in a room, then you watch a movie about the culture of coke and how the employees view their work.
After that you walk into the main part of the building, there are 2 levels to the main center, Down stairs you have a guided history walk tour, it is full of the progression of coke its starts with how it was invented, then its progression to become a world wide product. The next room was the bottling room, showing you every step from mixing the formula to bottling and distributing.
Upstairs a 3D movie of what they pretend to put in the bottles or what is inside the recipe, next to that they have a coke art room, show paintings that people had done about coke, also all sorts of nicks and knacks that people had made with a coke can or bottle top. You can also write a personal experience you have had with coke, the wall filled with all sorts of stories.
Following the art room a room with commercials from coke, they were the commercials from all around the world, they didn’t show any Australian ones, not cool. We sat in here until we had seen them all, we were a little nervous to go back to the house because he had met anyone yet really.
After that room we hit the tasting room, over 60 different coke products from around the world, they were divided by area like north America, Asia, Europe and what not. By the 2th taste test I felt sick. don’t know about Carly, the most disgusting flavour was “Beverly” from Italy.
We arrived at the House, Olivia and Kevin were there, we’ll its hard for me to describe them, well Kevin is a pom so that sums it up for him haha no, they were both amazing people and our friendships just grow from the first point we met, and will continue to.
Then we met Cheryl and Justin, they also are amazing people, ok I guess ill explain the layout, the house was Olivia and Cheryl’s, Kevin and Justin were the boy toys (boyfriends) but the king of the castle had to be my favorite his name was Harley, Harley is a dog, the coolest and cutest dog.
That night we were wrecked but hungry so everyone else besides Justin had gone out, doing there thing, so the 3 of us went and got pizza for dinner. Chatting all night we all just clicked straight away, and it was a great first day in Atlanta.
Day 28.
News comes with fun, swimming would be scary I say.
A GREAT sleep came with the comfort of a good night, on today’s agenda CNN and the Worlds Largest indoor aquarium.
CNN: Arriving at the CNN center, walking through this hall, then entering the main section to the building, huge, the reason it looked so big is because of the way it is laid out, the food court area was in the center with all the offices and hotel surrounding it (yes I said hotel).
It was funny we had 20 mins to kill for our tour to start, so I wanted to go to the Atlanta Braves store (baseball club) I got chatting to the guy who was working there, he followed Essendon Football Club from the AFL. He had met Kevin Sheedy while they had the AFL American tournament in the U.S., Kevin walked over because a Bombers jersey on, and they had an interview that was on Australian TV.
We got on the tour it was really good to see what goes on behind the tv, how CNN all comes together, and what it stood for. I found it interesting because it might be a path I want to walk down, even so it was a very interesting thing to learn if that’s your thing, it only cost $15Adult so doesn’t break the budget.
After the CNN tour we got some lunch, walked around, went to the Phillips Area - home to Atlanta Hawks.
A little history for you, the CNN Center was originally a indoor theme park, it was the biggest and first indoor theme park, the park was for H.R. Puff-n-stuff. The Center has the biggest freestanding escalator in the world, boy is it big when I was at the top my legs were weak.
Atlanta Aquarium: at first I really didn’t like it because the amount of children around, as we went on it didn’t bother me so much but the exhibits were amazing, so it took my mind off the children picking there noses.
I really don’t know where to start in this place, its shaped in a house shoe shape, so we started by going left and working our way around. This place was huge, the exhibits were amazing each different from the next and to the fullest extent to capture your imagination. The main attractions of course is the Worlds largest indoor tank, it was filled with all sorts of fish, from the small to the large and everything in between, and all sorts of shapes.
The center has many appealing animals to see the listing some, Shark Whales, white Whales, Sea Otters, Hammerhead shark, mantras but even the fish you have never seen before or will ever see again. This really does create the illusion of a underwater world, but giving you an understanding of what it feels like to be down there.
That night we stayed in. Kevin cooked us dinner, very nice the next Jamie Oliver, I know I’m sorry just because he is from the UK.
Day 29.
Fuzzy with a side of feathers.
Today was Zoo and the to watch the Hawks fly
Kicking off the morning we had a sleep in, we got to the zoo at lunch, that’s our start to the day fun yeh.
Arriving at the Zoo, the anticipation of seeing some pandas, we first started walking, the zoo looked sad, run down and not maintained. The animals were by themselves or in what looked like unsanitary for even an animal, I compare this to Melbourne Zoo, it itself isn’t a top range zoo. As we walked it got better, the enclosures became bigger and clearer, some animals still were sad to see.
But that’s the bad, the good, the gorilla’s were very fun to watch very active having fun and displaying many human emotions and actions. They played, wrestled and put a show on for us (I say show I mean fun to watch). The pandas were very cool to see, one was active, walking around his pen looking for food. We saw the baby panda, it is the sneezing panda from youtube which is very funny.
They have an Australian part to the zoo, which had some kangaroos and a kookaburra that had no tail, there slogan was G’day Mate haha, very funny to see.
After the zoo we went home to Olivia and Cheryl’s, organized to have a drink that night after we saw the Atlanta Hawks Vs. Boston Celtics.
We arrived at the game, with our tickets you could almost touch the roof, but on the same hand they were still really good seats and the game had a very close end score, all I could ask for. That atmosphere and the electricity that came with this game was crazy, I would say that the range of Hawks fans compared to Celtic fans were very close, if not Celtics had more fans, they were crazy, they would boo when Atlanta would have to shoot a foul shot, that’s there home court and would get booed, there chants would take over the stadium and it all was loud as well.
After the game we went home, let the drinking begin, we where going good, as we talked more our conversations became more in depth and more emotional, very very fun for us. The night going very good and we all were having fun, we got low on beer then Justin came home, there was nothing left for him so we had to get some more, we left, by the time we got back Carly head over the toilet and feeling very sick, this for me is the very really funniest home videos, I know she was sick but it was just so funny to see for some reason I don’t think it was because I was drunk more so because Carly has had to look after me after drinking on the rare occasion and over drinking.
She got better and felt asleep like she never slept before, I ended up drinking to 5am good night.
Day 30.
Dazzy morning and handling deadly weapons go hand in hand right?
Waking up still drunk, taking the first step to the toilet almost falling over, it soon sobered up very fast after the BK breakfast.
Next we where off to meet Olivias Dad and brother, they lived not in the city but more out which I would say not even the suburbs more like to use the country. This part of Georgia was amazingly beautiful, the fields and landscape where everything you could imagine, our drive was just out of a movie as well, blazing the 90’s hits and driving down the freeway, it was really fun.
After meeting Olivia’s dad, we drove more into the sticks, to a gun range.
Loud popping fills the air, lets us know we were getting close.
Pulling up to a small 10 person gun range in the middle of no where, it was fill with people shooting an array of guns. We tested 5 different guns all handguns, I don’t remember all guns but there was a gloc 9mm, smith and western, colt 45 and two older cowboy guns. I do have very different views to guns than most Americans, but I soon found out why a lot of people enjoy guns, its not a feeling of empowerment more just an enjoyable experience and it could be a hobbies, I still disagree with some of the laws and regulations with guns, on the same hand I understand why and how it is such a big thing in America.
Day 31.
Relax and unwind.
Today was maybe one of our slowest days, it was about not doing too much.
We woke in the morning, we were waiting on a new couch surfer to arrive, cleaning up our gear for our departure tomorrow.
Time passed and she hadn’t arrived yet, we couldn’t contact her, nothing.
So we drove around looking for her as we knew she had got lost, we couldn’t find her so we had to decide wait or leave and start our day. We got back from the drive, while writing a note to leave on the door, the surfer called off someone’s phone, she was so far away we still don’t know how she got there.
We went to wal-mart to get food for dinner, dropped it off at Olivia’s house then set off to a batting cage to hit some balls. I had wanted to do thing while I was over here and it was fun.
I cooked dinner then we had a little part, drank and played some games. We had a early start the next day so by 12 we need to sleep.
I cant really sum up our stay in Atlanta with words, what I am sure of is that the group of us will be friends for along time and I hope that we get to see each other more in the future.
Jason & Carly
Signing Out
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