you’re pulling me under

LISTENING TO: Motionless In White - Voices

I feel like the majority of this trip has been written on airplanes or within the backseat of taxi cabs, which I was both not expecting and yet not surprised by. For such a quick trip it really did feel like it was longer than it actually was, which only makes it more interesting to try and recount everything I was actually able to accomplish in Atlanta.

Once I landed at the airport, my first plan of action was to be a total tourist, as I made sure to have more than half a day to kill prior to meeting up with my coworkers later in the day. After one of the more interesting cab drives through the city (where I was told I had to go visit Eastern Europe as “it was obvious someone in my family had been born there”, which although true, is the first time I’ve ever had a total stranger tell me such a thing), my first stop was the World of Coca Cola. Now, anyone who knows anything about me knows that I have a sweet tooth that has always extended to sugary carbonated beverages, so I was excited to spend some time in the home of one of my favorite non-alcoholic drinks. Although I was a bit surprised (I don’t know why I expected it to be larger), the amount of historical memorabilia and the overall tour was a lot of fun; I think I now know more about Coke than I ever really expected to. The end of the exhibit was my personal favorite, as instead of a solid lunch, I just ended up drinking waaaaay too much soda. It was literally like being a kid in a candy store, if the kid was thirty year old me and the candy was every beverage Coke currently is producing across the world. 

After walking around for a little bit, I picked up a Lyft for the drive into Buckhead to my hotel. It was really cool to drive past the Olympic stadium (even if I didn’t get a chance to stop); if anything, it was this ride that proved what everyone had been telling me about Atlanta was true - it truly is a driving-centric city. If I have more time the next time I visit, it’s definitely something I’m going to have to consider when planning things to do. Atlanta really reminded me of Richmond, with all of the different areas. It almost felt like we were driving through individual cities that in the end make up Atlanta proper, which was really intriguing and something I wished I had more time to explore.

After checking into the Hyatt Place Buckhead, I enjoyed some really wonderful beer from Sweetwater brewing prior to meeting up with my coworkers at Ecco, this amazing restaurant down town. With all the bad weather we’ve been having back home, it was a really great treat to eat outdoors with good food and amazing cocktails.

This leads us into today, which although was full of multiple client meetings, really continued to drive home how different each area of Atlanta is, as well as how much a driving tour of the city (if it doesn’t already exist) completely should. Prior to heading back to the airport, we were also lucky enough to grab a snack from Sublime Doughnuts, which made the traffic we ended up getting stuck in completely worth it.

After ironically grabbing a quick bite to eat from the airport version of Ecco in the terminal and having a slight delay in my flight home, I’m sitting here in the back of a taxi making what feels to be the longest trek back from the Philly airport possible. The main takeaway from this work trip is basically how much I would love to actually spend more time in Atlanta in the future, as this short burst only just gave me a tiny piece of what the city has to offer.