May 23 2008
Sweet, Weird Atlanta
My friend Katia and I were assigned to transport a robot, built by her son’s school team for the FIRST Robotics Competition, to Atlanta, Georgia. The poor thing had to travel in our packed car all the way from Richmond, Virginia to the Georgia World Congress Center, covering four states and enduring numerous bumpy highway stretches.
Right after dropping off the (luckily) unharmed robot at the Georgia Dome with a fussy team, we started our own agenda, which was as tight as it could be for a brief four day trip. I should say that after all the research that we did beforehand, with the Insiders’ Guide to Atlanta and the Explorer’s Guide to Georgia, we were prepared to be thrilled. But not that much.
Having spent two years hardly leaving Boston, almost everything in Atlanta seemed both astonishing and strange. For example, there were four TV screens in each subway train and bus but no air-conditioning at the same time. And the sheer existence of the Museum of Coca-Cola. I never thought that a brand, even one so popular, needed a museum for itself. And the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world, inhabited by the most bizarre looking fish I’ve ever seen along with plenty of whales.
From the hectic CNN Headquarters to the Civil War Museum, that quietly contains the largest oil painting in the world, everything was breathtaking. Other parts ranged from silly to creepy. There was a red brick steam car in the Underground District which space invaders could not have designed more weirdly. I noticed the Historic Oakland Cemetery needed volunteers. A cemetery asking for, um… volunteers? Alright… I guess I could imagine volunteers working all day and then having a snack at the Six Feet Under Cafe around the corner. That must have been a side of the Southern sense of humor, and we loved it. We really did.
I remember the exact moment when both Katia and I fell completely in love with the city. It happened on the day we were leaving for North Carolina after an amazing Southern breakfast in Cabbage Town. Accidentally, I spotted a sign that left me standing in the middle of the street, not believing my eyes. No mistake, it said, “Horse-drawn Carriages 6pm to 7am Maximum 2 units.” We both started laughing. Horse-drawn carriage overnight parking! We couldn’t think of any other place that would have that officially regulated.
We felt ultimately sad to leave Atlanta. After all, I had to return to chilly Boston, and in the South, the April was so warm and sweet and lovely. The only thing that cheered us up a little, was a decision to come back in the fall, without a doubt.
Read more: Museums, South US, TravelNastia was born in Russia, and probably that's the reason why she is so inexplicably attracted to the coldest parts of the world, such as Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Alaska and Canada. The more it snows out there - the better. Although would she be even thinking about all that cold if she hadn't first enjoyed Turkey, Bulgaria and Ukraine?
