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Published: March 20th 2007
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Athens Sorority Houses
These things were amazingly lavish houses. One street was just lined with row after row of houses all as big as this one. As we described in out previous post, we had a great opportunity to travel with Fiona attending a four week course in Athens, Georgia. Apart from hosting the the US Navy Supply School and only about a one hour drive to Atlanta, (the city which hosted the 1996 Olympic Games), Athens is an old town of about 100,000 people. Uni students make up about 30, 000 of those - but it is not the Uni we are used to in Australia. Being a relatively old town, Athens has many Sororities which house the rich kids who attend Uni. It's pretty much like you see on American movies and there is a street of Athens lined with these Sorority Houses. They are absolutely lavish, and it gives you an idea of the money that must be floating around the old wealth of some of these towns.
After our whirlwind tour of Alabama (see previous post) we had a day up our sleeve and decided to head into Atlanta to see the sites. We arrive in Atlanta around 6 pm and thanks to daylight savings had plenty of time to do a quick trip around the CBD. Much like many other US
Another Sorority House
Here's another example of one of these houses - it's just like the movies.... cities there isn’t a great deal going on in the city, however Fiona had heard of a shopping centre that was built entirely underground, so we thought we could have a look at the centre and get something to eat. After finding a park we walked to the shopping centre and found that it as actually only a relatively small ‘Street’ of shops that was built along the first road in Atlanta. During the Civil War Atlanta was suffered serious damage with many buildings burnt when the Southern Armies abandoned the city and they rebuilt the CBD over the top of the old. So basically what they have is an outdoor shopping centre underground. There are still old street lamps that were damaged during bombings of the city during the Civil War lining the road underground. It was all a bit weird really. Anyway, Fi managed to buy a couple of pairs of shoes (as usual) and we headed back out to a hotel for the night.
The next morning we had our free continental American breakfast which consisted of Coffee, waffles, bagels and donuts - not a piece of fruit or cereal in sight. One guy we watched
Olympic Park
Here's Fiona being a Gymnast at Olympic park. Very convincing if you ask me. sat down to a hearty breakfast of 4 pieces of toast smothered in strawberry jam and 3 donuts…..Mmmmm nutritional. Pumped full of sugar we headed back to the downtown and for a quick drive through Olympic Park. It was a nice if unremarkable series of stadiums which was really only memorable because it offered cheap parking. After dumping the car we headed into the CNN World Headquarters for the behind the scenes tour. After the pleasant surprise of learning it was free for Military personnel we headed up the worlds biggest escalator (8 stories high) for the start of the tour. This was actually a great tour showing us how the news was put together from the back rooms right to the studio, and also showcased TV technology like the blue screen and tele-prompters which was pretty cool. We also got to pose for a photo at the CNN News Desk which is attached to this post. After leaving we stopped for a quick photo at the giant CNN sign out the front but were chased away by the security guards yelling “You can’t sit in the ‘C’ Ma’am….” (See the attached photo).
From here we wandered through downtown
CNN - 'You can't sit in the C'
Here's Fiona moments before getting chased by the Security Guards. This is out the front of the CNN World HQ. to ‘Coca-Cola’ world which was the first factory to produce Coca-Cola. After seeing the long line up we decided it wasn’t worth the 30 minute wait or the $9 to see how they mass produced this muck so we headed off. Unfortunately for me we somehow managed to end up back at the shopping centre but I was able to successfully prise Fiona out of the place without her spending a dollar (here’s to hoping I’ve set a precedent!!).
With a bit of time up out sleeve we headed towards the outskirts of the city to the house where Margaret Mitchell lived when she wrote ‘Gone with the Wind’. They had actually done a pretty good job setting this up with the house fully restored (with adjoining gift shop of course), and another building close by set up as the ‘Gone with the Wind’ Film Museum. We did a tour of the house which was an interesting tour as it explained much of where Margaret Miller drew her inspirations for the book. Not having seen the movie or read the book (and here’s to hoping I never do) much of this went over my head, but you couldn’t wipe
Ron Burgundy, Eat your heart out!!
Here is the future of news. Stunning good looks, has own groupies, can read. Can't believe they didn't offer us a job straight off the cuff!! the grin off Fiona’s face. One thing I did find interesting was that Margaret Mitchell’s cousin was Doc Holiday who was involved in the Gun Fight at the OK Corral. Apparently the character ‘Ashley’ (whoever he is) was based on Doc Holiday. Even better, the actor who plays Ashley in the movie (whoever he was) was shot down by the Luftwaffe during WWII and died. I thought those bits were cool 'cause they involved war and guns and stuff. But anyway, Fiona loved the tour and bought a copy of the book which she is now reading.
After leaving the 1860’s behind us we were on the road home to Athens with one last stop - Stone Mountain. Apart from being the 3rd largest monolith in the world (2nd loser if you ask me), Stone Mountain has a giant carving in the side of the face of Jefferson Davis with Generals Robert E Lee, and Stonewall Jackson, all who were Confederate war heroes (Fi said that it was the biggest & most expensive example of graffiti that she’d ever seen). Even more interestingly, is that the Klu Klux Klan sponsored this carving which is now located amongst a kids
World of Coca-Cola
Here's the World of Coca-Cola that we didn't bother going to....I prefer Pepsi. theme park. Just up the road is ‘Confederate Hall’ which is an imposing white wash building with giant Greek pillars built in 1776 as a meeting place for the KKK and was used for this purpose up until the early 1970’s.
Atlanta is one of those cities that you can see pretty much everything worth seeing in a weekend, but it was still a good trip. Our next travelling adventure begins next weekend into the heart of Boot Scootin’ country - Nashville, Tennessee.
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Knackers
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Hello
Mate, you are worse than me! Is there one photo on your blog where you aren't trying to impersonated Derek Zoolander or Ron Burgundy?? Sounds like you two are getting a great experience, especially exploring the deep south. Just hope the yokels don't read this travel blog as they may not enjoy some of the adjectives that you're using to describe them. Jemma and our unborn daughter say G'day and hope that all is well