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After 2 and a half weeks chilling out in Florida we get back on the road and head to Atlanta. Were doing Couch Surfing for the first time so were staying with two lads called Michael and Halef for 5 nights. A little but nervous now!
So we get a train to a place called Kings Memorial and Halef is there waiting for us. We arrive at his house and we find that we have a big double bed to sleep in, much better than the couch we expected!
That night we sat in drinking and getting to know Michael and Halef, they seem pretty cool.
Next day we headed downtown and went into the Aquarium, didn't really know much about Atlanta but this is the biggest Aquarium in the world!
The first thing we saw was a touch pool full of Sting Rays and some type of Sharks. In 2 weeks I have now held a baby alligator and touched a shark and a stingray!
The aquarium is really good, much bigger than most I have been to, they have 4 massive whales called Whale Sharks.
With our tickets we got an extra behind the scenes tour so when we went up to the top of the massive 8 million gallon tank we got to see the staff out in their boats feeding the Whale Sharks.
After the aquarium we went and met Halef for a tour of the Coke Cola world. We didn't know this but apparently Atlanta is where Coke was invented, were learning more important facts travelling than we would ever have in Uni!
The Coke world is really good, they have all kinds of huge coke bottles that are made for different festivals and holidays around the world. We also got to see a special football 3d film that was made for the World Cup so we got to watch football in 3d, was alright but think it would be class in the pub. There was a 4d film on about the secret ingredients to Coke, we all came out soaked afterwards!
Because Coke sponsored a lot of the Olympics they have a collection of all the Olympic flame torches for the past 20 odd years and they sponsored the academy awards so they also had one of them on display. At the end of the tour there is a taster room, we got to taste all 46 Coke products from around the world, the worst by far was Beverly from Hong Kong, left a taste in your throat simular to the one you get when have just been sick!
Next morning Michael and Halef took us around to some less touristy places, the first place they took us too was the Martin Luther King memorial. We watched a film about how the civil war started and how Martin Luther King got involved in it all. We then went to the church where he first preached and to the house where he was born and brought up. His house and the street has been fully restored to the what it was like when he was born. The last thing we went to see here was his and his wives grave. They have put his gravestone in the middle of a fountain and it looks really good.
Later we went to a Hindu temple for a Hindu prayer session. The temple was immense, it was shipped over to the US in 34000 peices and then assembled over here. It's all hand carved in marble and limestone so it is really impressive. Inside it is again all carved and every roof piece is different to the last. When the monks came out we had to sit on the floor with the men at the front and the women at the back. The monks waived around some candles a bit then we had to douse ourselves in the fumes to give us good luck. It was really good to see.
After this Halef took us to an Indonesian restaurant to try his home food, was different but not exactly our cup of tea! Michael and Halef had a concert after dinner so we ventured out on our own to the zoo. We got to see Panda's, kangaroo and a vulture eating a mouse as well as all the usual stuff so it was really good.
That night we were invited to a surprise 40th birthday party. I don't think I have ever been to a party where every guy except me is gay but it was quite good. It was good to get speaking to other couch surfers so hopefully we will have a few more people recommending us on the website. By the end of the Michael our host was hammered!
As it was Independence day on the Sunday we arranged to get up early and go and watch the Peachtree race (type of marathon) that morning. We managed to get up early but got on the wrong bus and had to have about an hour and a half round trip just to get to where we wanted to get too (should have been a 5 min drive! We still caught the end of the race but missed our hosts running and then were too late to meet them afterwards! As the Bionic gardens was on the City Pass tickets we had we headed to there after the race, wasn't really the best as it just looked like a big garden but the Amazon rainforest bit was quite cool.
That afternoon we got invited to a 4th July celebration BBQ at a couch surfers house. The Americans BBQ Is so much better than back home, they had ribs, fish and all kinds of stuff on there it was well nice. It was good to speak to other travellers and hear where the best places to go were. We also met a girl from London who seemed ok, just very loud! She is heading the same way as so may meet up with her in Washington. After all the drinks had dried up we went to a guy called Rustko's condo to continue the party there and watch the fireworks. He gad his big expensive camera set up on a tri pod to get pictures of the fireworks only to find out that they were behind a building and he couldn't see any of them!
Next day was Jodie's 22nd birthday and we spent most of the morning having a lie in. When we did get up Jodie opened her present of me and her Mum. As were living on a budget we've decided not to buy each other much things so all she got off me was a box of her favourite American chocolates and a meal.
Before we went to the meal we headed to the historic Atlanta cemetary. Here they have the first ever African American mayor (which the airport is named after), the author of 'Gone with the Wind' and a famous golf player called Bobby Jones. Everyone who went to his grave thought to bring a golf ball with them to leave on his grave, must have thought that no one else would think of that but after seeing the huge mound of golf balls and a golf club they evidently did!
We headed for a meal after here, the meal was at a all you can eat Sushi buffet as Jodie has had a craving for Sushi since we left the IOM! Towards the end of the meal Halef spoke in Indonesian to one of the waitresses, 10 minutes later the waitress came out of the kitchen with a birthday ice cream and got the whole restaurant to sing happy birthday, never seen Jodie go so red so quickly!
After the meal we headed Downtown to the CNN center and met J from London from the night before. We all went round the CNN headquarters and saw all their main studios and how they put the news together, it was good but we saw more in Bloomberg but I suppose that was because Kelly worked there and got us in the main parts.
For the rest of the night we just chilled out with the guys an stayed in. Michael cooked us all a meal as it was our last night and Jodie's birthday.
Have really enjoyed Atlanta and doing couch surfing. Our hosts were great and they are now looking into coming to the Island for TT so in a few years we may return the favour.
Anyway it's off to Washington for us and time for us to get used to dorm rooms again, what a joy!
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