Blogs from Midtown, Atlanta, Georgia, United States, North America

With the skies finally open, my buddy and I decided to reconnect for the first time since the pandemic. We had planned to go to Morocco in March 2020, but the pandemic grounded our plans. Getting there is still a challenge, so we looked at a “Plan B” closer to home. Outside of Florida, I haven’t been to the southeastern United States, so we chose its unofficial capital, Atlanta. I must admit I knew very little about the city before this trip… During our nine days in the city, we explored a good chunk of it. As I grow older, slow travel is a better fit for me. Four things stuck with me after this trip. The first was learning about the history of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950s and ... read more

Perhaps some of my readers will have seen the url=https://www.ajc.com/sports/college/captivating-photo-georgia-tech-from-1918-and-the-story-behind/XOukYT9082wGyHDyP27XVL/now-famous photo of masked fans attending a football game at Georgia Tech in 1918, during the Spanish flu pandemic. This week, I wanted to see the same place as it confronted a new pandemic, just over a century later. As luck would have it, one of my favorite teams, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, were playing at Georgia Tech on Halloween afternoon. This game was on the calendar before the pandemic, but originally scheduled to take place at the Mercedes Benz Stadium instead, presumably to accommodate the larger crowd expected for Notre Dame. As such, it had been one of my must-see games before the pandemic, and since it’s the only game this season (so far, and most likely will continue to be) that regular fans... read more

I had several options for rivalry week in college football, and I don't regret going to a place I have been before, to watch a matchup I have seen several times. Though I had my choice of games for this rivalry week, I also had commitments on Sunday back home, so it meant I had to stay within an area that would allow me to be back by noon the following day. My heart was really set on the Iron Bowl, but the price just never got low enough for me to consider it as a serious option. In hindsight, of course, that would have been THE game to choose—it had everything you could hope for in a college football game, and people will be talking about it for years to come. So maybe the price ... read more

My first trip to Atlanta was back in the 80s as I recall. I was attending a convention, then on my way to the US Open Tennis in NYC (1982). I was greeted by my friend, Ken Bob at the airport, along with a large cooler of ice cold beer. Those were the days!! He proceeded to show me the Atlanta that he knew, as a native. We made all the visits, Stone Mountain, the Varsity, Mary Mac's Tea Room, The Fox, and many, many honky tonks and bars. I don't even remember where I was staying! My visit now is ostensibly to visit the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, and perhaps a few of the nostalgic places like Merry Macs and The Varsity. And who knows, maybe I can? From the Carter Library: Shortly after taking ... read more

Težko bi rekla, da je Atlanta postala moj dom in tudi ameriške sanje mi ne dišijo najbolj, hrano lahko opišem samo z eno besedo - presladko, in preživeti polovico življenja v avtu se mi ne zdi mikavno. Fulbright štipendija mi je omogočila najboljše delo, trenirala sem z odlično plesno skupino, uživala z Atlantčani, bila odlično sprejeta, spoznala več plati ameriške svobode, se preselila 5x v 6 mesecih, se navduševala nad parki, obupavala nad javnim prevozom, kričala na NBA tekmi, pojedla veliko pic, plačala ogromno napitnin in neštetokrat vlekla ven mojo osebno, da so me spustili v bar. Jugovzhod je zanimiv del Amerike in ga vsem toplo priporočam. Savannah, Charleston, Athens, so čudovita mesta, ki jih večinoma vsak turist prezre, medtem ko leti v San Francisco, Boston, Chicago. Ljudje na tem koncu so res prijetni in to ... read more