Day 149 of international places giving smiles – Remembering Athens and Atlanta in America
Our first stop in the US just after we landed and had a long drive was at the wonderful home of an old dear college friend…like many other American women, she balances her great career plus her great family plus her great home! Imagine maintaining a huge beautiful place in Watkinsville without support of any maidservant.
We decided to visit the huge campus of the University of Athens.Life as a student in US must be an experience by itself….studying in the Old 1785 times buildings, walking across the different academic blocks, ringing the old chapel bell, smelling the giant magnolia flowers, the Sanford football stadium, the sorority and fraternity houses etc…we were so grateful to be shown around the sprawling campus at Athens University of Georgia.
We decided to skip the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and instead spend time for some bargain shopping at the factory outlets.
Next day was spent in the peach city of Atlanta…home of Coca Cola, CNN Martin Luther King and the 1996 Olympics…
The CNN tour gave a true picture on the story behind the Television story..i volunteered to act as a weather reporter and my teenage dream of becoming a TV newsreader become true for a minute. It was nice to see the behind the TV preparation that goes on to whatever is presented on the screen. And when my body was covered with a green cloth, only my head was visible on the TV, one of the many tricks used by news broadcasters that we learnt for the day. We also get on to the world’s largest free standing elevator
The bricks at the Centinnial Olympic park had the names of all the multiple sponsors. We took a quick stroll around this glorious green space, built for the Summer Olympics in 1996,
The Coca Cola tour was a fun experience. We saw the vault where the secret formula of Coke is still stored. The Coca Cola Polar Bear Mascot was cute. And at the Coke Historical gallery we got to understand the story behind Coca Cola. At the end we got to sample a variety of cola drinks from around the world…we just went on and on and literally had to run out of that place as we had no clue what flavour we were tasting after some time!
The ride around down town and Martin Luther Historical district is best done in a streetcar what we call tram! We took that ride to explore downtown Atlanta. We continued to our next stop, the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site, which includes the final resting place of the great civil rights leader.
And we got to feel the excitement of the basketball fever in the city with the people in the streets rooting for the match between the Atlanta Hawks v / s Colorado Caverns! The celebratory ambience even before the match started is something that cannot be expressed in words. We even got to pose with a picture with the over enthusiastic cheerleaders. At night we went to the Atlanta Bus station. And realized that we were the only Indians amongst the predominantly black community who had chosen to travel by inter-state Megabus. It was a day as well as a night to remember in Atlanta.
So which place made you smile today?
Be grateful for the places that make you smile!
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