Atlanta, Georgia.

When I came to America, I never really thought about going to Atlanta, but after finding a $10 bus to go there from New Orleans, I couldn’t really turn down the opportunity.

Surprise surprise, we stayed in an AirBnb, but it was located in the suburbs of the city as it was so much cheaper. It was a lovely quiet neighbourhood near an area called East Point, and it was so easy to get the subway in to the city centre. We got a 3 day subway ticket, which cost around $16, but it was definitely worth it as we used the subway 4-5 times a day.

DAY 1

We arrived in Atlanta around 10am after our 15 hour bus journey, so we were pretty shattered. But we soon gained some energy after going to the World of Coca Cola. Normally I avoid big over-priced tourist attractions, but this was actually a really fun experience. It’s basically a giant interactive museum telling you about the history of Coca Cola, and ends with a massive ‘tasting room’, where you can try hundreds of different flavoured fizzy drinks from around the world, so be prepared to have a massive sugar rush.

After this, we had a look in some shops in the city centre, and checked out the Georgia State Capitol and other government buildings, which became a bit of a holiday tradition for my boyfriend and I, as he loves politics.

Unfortunately the lack of sleep really caught up on us as the day went on, so we decided to go and check into our AirBnb mid-afternoon to catch up on some sleep instead.

DAY 2

We got up nice and early to get the subway to Little Five Points, which is a cool, rather hipster part of the city. There are loads of huge vintage clothes stores here, so ended up shopping for quite a while!

There’s an art project in Atlanta that creates loads of tiny doorways and installing them throughout the city, founded by Karen Anderson and Sarah Meng. So whilst we were in this area, we went on a little explore to find some of them. It was quite a fun, unique thing to do, and you can find a map of all the doors online: https://tinydoorsatl.com/pages/doors

On our way back to the city centre, we stopped by Martin Luther King Jr’s house and museum. I definitely recommend seeing this if you ever come to Atlanta, as he had such a massive impact on American history.

After a lot of deliberation, we decided to take the plunge and go to the Georgia Aquarium. It was quite expensive, but thought we couldn’t turn it down as it’s the biggest aquarium in America, and second biggest in the world. It was so worth it – we saw whale sharks, beluga whales, a dolphin show, a sealion show, penguins, and so much more.

DAY 3

On our last day in Atlanta, we wanted to get out of the city and see a bit of nature. We took a 45 minute bus out of the city to hike Stone Mountain, however when we got there we saw a huge confederate flag, which we were not expecting. It turns out this area is very controversial as the leaders of the confederates are carved into the side of the mountain, and it used to be a meeting point where the KKK used to initiate new members. The hike was great, and the views of the Atlanta skyline were incredible, but we felt a bit uneasy knowing the history behind the mountain.

In the evening we checked out a local comedy club that our AirBnb host was a part of. It’s called ‘The Village Theatre’ and it was absolutely hilarious. It was such a fun way to spend our last night in the city, and I’d recommend it to anyone visiting!

Although Atlanta wasn’t my favourite city I visited in the states (compared to cities like New York City and Chicago), it was a lot of fun – you definitely can’t get bored visiting.