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After I missed my Atlanta flight on May 30, I
saw to it that I was at the gate 30 mins prior to departure. Lo and
behold, I saw Vesna Scantamburlo near beside the gate and we were laughing
of the coincidence. From the airport, I
took the MARTA subway and got off at
Peachtree station. Round trip fare was US$4.00 which was really
tourist friendly price. When I got off at Peachtree with a map on my
right hand, looking a little lost, a tourist ambassador approached me and
re-directed me to the tourist spots. I was very impressed that Atlanta
had a program for tourists noting that the city boasted of the
busiest airport in the world, headquarters of CNN and Coca-Cola, and the
city had the largest aquarium in the world.
From the station, I passed through the
Centennial Olympic Park then to
CNN headquarters for a tour.
The fun part was at the World of
Coca-Cola which was just 2 blocks away from CNN.
The Coke center gave us a glimpse of how Coke
evolved through the years and how it became an icon. At the end of the
tour, we were challenged to taste the 60 flavors of Coca-Cola, which were
all for free. The guide though gave a special 5 star thumbs up taste
for "Beverly"
soda which was the nastiest soda I ever tasted! I do not know how the
Italians handled the taste of Beverly.
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Also, the tour provided a freshly bottled 8 oz
coke as a souvenir. However, I did not have a checked-in bag and the
bottle would not have passed through airport security. The guide just
took a picture of me holding the bottle.
Coke was invented by
John Pemberton, a
druggist in Columbus, Georgia. Ironically, John Pemberton was a a drug
addict and invented Coke as an alternative to the prohibited drugs.
Beside the Coca-Cola center was the
Georgia Aquarium, the largest
aquarium in the world. I did not go inside the aquarium anymore
because the tour would have lasted about 3 hours and I had a flight to catch
back to Toronto.
Atlanta was very clean, tourist friendly and
it was worth the trip. I highly recommend a visit to the city.
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