As it turns out, Hotlanta in January is pretty beautiful. My work required me to stay on the edges of the city in a typical business park, but I allowed myself an afternoon in the city before flying home. When I’m visiting a new city in the U.S. I do a little research but everything written about Atlanta focused on corporate-sponsored tourist attractions. Friends recommended a few neighborhoods I might like but they all inevitably were difficult to get to on the metro, especially on a Sunday with reduced service. When I asked to be taken to the nearest metro stop, the hotel concierge warned that I shouldn’t visit the neighborhoods I was interested in, even in daylight, even if I was a “tough city girl from Chicago.”
Being warned tends to have the opposite effect, and did nothing but encourage me to see what I was missing. As much as I wanted to prove him wrong, the transit gods were not in my favor that day so I headed downtown to the central business district. I walked along Peachtree looking at archetecture, recommended by someone on Twitter, and visited the aquarium. Chicago has a pretty cool aquarium so I wasn’t too impressed, especially since it was designed so… childish. Because I spend so much time at art museums I’m often take aback when everything is “family friendly.” After my cartwheel in front of the Coca-Cola museum and Atlanta’s skyline I sat outside and simply enjoyed being outside without a coat.
