(not hot) Atlanta – live on CNN with cold and rain

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March 9th 2011

Published: March 10th 2011

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mr mink

Atlanta old & new

This comes to you from the proverbial Hound from Atlanta, Georgia to Birmingham on 10 March as it is a 4 hour trip and it is more sensible to do this than stay up all night writing. I am posting it now from my fine hotel, the Redmont in Birmingham, where I stop for a night on 10th before on to 11 and 12 March in Memphis – then to Nashville for nights on 13 and 14 March, before flying out 5.30pm on 15th to LAX and connections home, via a stop in Auckland to say hello to me Mum. This will be a welcome end to the heavy duty part of the trip as I am starting to suffer somewhat from travel fatigue after virtually 6 weeks on the road (incl. of course a week on the sea too of course).

I left Athens GA on the Hound on Tues. for the shortish run to Atlanta – all becoming somewhat of a blur now. Even though the Hound was quite close to the overhead Metro light rail in Atlanta– 2 stops to slightly past my hotel, but it looked a simple enough walk and not too far. It was

Atlanta Olympic Park

with modern urban - Westin Htl is tall circular one

under 20mins to the hotel, the Centennial Inn, which was somewhat a squashed and basic room as it was simply a double bed rather than 2 as in most places I have stayed. It was however only around $70 all up I think which was pretty cheap for a big city like Atlanta. Apparently the airport here is the busiest in the country, largely due to the fact that it is a connection hub for so many cross country flights. The poor and largely black people go by the Hound. The 2 buses leaving at the same time as this one this morning were rather long distance ones – this one goes all the way to Dallas – the other was going to Miami. Man, I would not be doing either of those all the way – overnight from N’Orleans to Orlando was enough for me!

The hotel room was on the 8th floor with a good view across to the Omni hotel and the CNN HQ which is based here I think. It was a short walk to Olympic Park which was supposedly a centre during the 1996 Olympics. It was just an expanse of slightly brown grass

Atlanta CNN HQ

with walkways paved with bricks with people’s names on them – likely part of the “funded by private enterprise Olympics” – you buy the brick, you get set in perpetuity in the park? There were some lighting towers which looked OK at night – but the alleged fantastic Olympic fountain was certainly out of action and was being repaired when I took a stroll around. No doubt a bit like Olympic Park at Homebush, Sydney – deserted most of the time but apparently they use it for outdoor concerts etc. My relatively sole contribution to local tourism was walking down towards the designated Martin Luther King (MLK hence) historic district. Although I did this from about 4pm the city seemed almost a strangely deserted ghost town for what is a major metropolis. You would think it was Sunday not a Tuesday. There seemed to be quite a few workers leaving car parks in cars but that was about it. The city is dominated by one-way streets. And the number of old buildings that have been no doubt demolished and are now taken up by car parks, either simple flat ones or multi level is quite extraordinary. I swear that 30%

Ted's Montana

at least of the inner city must be taken up with the dominance of cars and places to park them. There seems quite a good bus/metro rail system but they seem relatively empty. The standard ride is $2 – and they hardly encourage use of a day ticket by charging $8! – a multiple of 3 or so s general elsewhere. I was considering getting one just to discover some of the limits of the Metro and go uptown to Buckhead, an upmarket shops and eating places area, or mid-town which was 3 stops away. I was considering that for yesterday Wed. 9th but the wet weather put an end to that idea.

The walk down the boulevard to Sweet Auburn, which was the name of the relatively prosperous black area in the 1920’s, before it fell into disrepair, was not all that exciting. A few black folks walking around but nothing much happening. The odd grocery/general store but otherwise nothing much. A black guy asked me to give him my camera, but not in a threatening way as he kept walking past. It was the sort of area where you kept your wits about you but nothing scary,

Sweet Auburn church

now apartments?

and it was daylight still! The area is dominated by the MLK related buildings – a large visitor’s centre, a research centre and the actual tombs for MLK and his wife Loretta – a large marble tomb in the middle of a large pool – dominated as you will see by the famous “free at last, free at last…” inscription. I must say I found this all rather emotional and moving for no apparent reason. It was after 5pm so all of this was all closed up and I was not going to come back so that was it.

Wandered around the block to the next parallel street over called Edgewood Ave – a bit more happening there with a bar or two and the odd eating place. Including a funky looking bar/eating place called the Sound Lounge which got quite a good 3 star write up in CL (Creative Loafing) – a pretty good free local weekly. I could have walked around a bit and eaten there later at 6.30-7 but the neighbourhood looked a bit ‘sketchy’ as they say in the classics and I did not fancy a walk home from there after dark. As it turned

Thelma's ribs

for downhome food?

out it would probably have been OK as Edgewood is close and runs down to the Georgia State University main complex of buildings not that far away. I think Edgewood is a little up and coming funky sort of area as close to the University etc.

Anyway I had decided I would likely eat at Ted’s Montana just along the street from the hotel. This is a chain started in 2002 by Ted (Turner) who started Turner Communications, a media giant and which now includes CNN. I assume he has a ranch in Montana where he came up with the idea. It features a bison on its publicity – and there was a stuffed one in the bar, and implies that what is good for him (i.e. no pesticides or preservatives etc?) is good for us (what, ending up as burger or striploin??). Their sell seems to be made fresh to order or every day (well I hope so). I did ask how beefy the bison and chilli soup was – the waitress brought me a small bowl to try. This was way too beefy, almost like the stand a spoon up in it Texas chilli-beef one I had

MLK museum/site

somewhere in Texas. It was cold enough for it, but with a bison main plate this would have been too much. Anyway the place was pretty reasonably priced. to keep ‘em coming back. 5 jumbo shrimp skewered and grilled on what supposed to be ciabatta with a drawn butter sauce was only $8. I then had the bison roast – served with gravy and garlic mash and (once green) beans that looked like they had been cooked by your grandmother (i.e. boiled to death). This was $18. A glass of chardonnay and a California merlot to go with this. I shouldn’t have but the prospect of an apple and raisin cookie with Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream at a cost of only $4 just had to be reported on. Pretty good actually, not that I needed it but your gastro correspondent has to do the hard yards for y’all.

The next day Wed. 9 March was forecast for rain and it certainly was, varying in its downpours. I had a simple free cereal and muffin and juice breakfast at the hotel and retired to my room to plan the rest of my trip’s accommodations and general arrangements. It was

MLK tomb

with those immortal words.....

what you call a “down day” and I was happy to do this and simply rest. There was nothing I was dying to do in Atlanta although the High Museum of Art is supposed to be worth a visit, but other things were more important. I needed to book and preferably pay for the rest of my hotels so I know how much is left on my debit card, as hotels are the major cost (followed of course by my gastro dinners!). As of this morning I have $155 on my debit card and $150 in cash in my pocket – and 3 other credit cards, so running out of money is not going to happen!

So going out to eat last night Wed. 9th was the only real entertainment. This was going to be in mid-town at a well reviewed Empire State South, but I decided to settle for the walk to Pacific Rim Bistro much closer by. Although I had mapped it on Google I still got somewhat lost with street names that did not compute, and going the wrong way, away from it. Also in Atlanta you have to be very wary about streets called Peachtree

MLK fountain & pool

tomb below it

as there are several – this was on Peachtree Central – but Peachtree NE runs parallel etc. Anyway found it (finally) after walking around more than I planned. It calls itself “sushi and pan-Asian” and was generally pretty good. I had the trio of dipping sauces with “grilled” dumplings. This of course was ‘pan fried’ on one side as such pork/vege dumplings/Japanese gyoza usually are. I though the trio referred to the number of dumplings – but there were 6 (phew!), so the trio was the dipping sauces. Peanut based one with a bit of chilli kick – a soy based one and a plummy sorta one I think. More than reasonable flavour for $8. The main plate was grilled skewered jumbo shrimp (2) and scallops (3) on top of soba noodles with a darkish buttery sort of sauce which was def. in the pan-Asian camp ($24). Enjoyed with a pot of warm sake ($5) – well on a cold evening what else with Asian food? Some of the on-line comments I saw about it complained about the food being expensive – but some people expect huge plates for $18 or something. I thought it was very pleasant without being

MLK mural

in Edgewood

earth-shattering in terms of pushing the flavour boundaries. This was the first time I have eaten Asian food here – some places I have seen Indian (easily resisted) and some chop chop Chinese. Not bad at all for $47 including tip (given your travelling gourmet’s average meal has been around $60 with peaks up to $100).

Finished the evening with a bit of a walk around Olympic Park and some snaps. Back at the hotel watched Anderson Turner doing his 11pm turn on CNN and focussing on the situation in Libya and the lies about “all quiet on the Western front” from Ghaddafi. A retired admiral who had been involved in the “no fly zone” over Bosnia described how difficult this would be to do and enforce. As someone from the Pentagon or the White House rightly said, this aint no video game. I personally doubt it will happen as it will involve a direct aerial assault on Ghaddafi’s military apparatus, regardless of the fact that innocent protesting civilians are being slaughtered. A bridge too far I think for the US as well as NATO, who is always looked for to do such things unilaterally. And you thought this

black lit

I want an Afro too!

was only a travel blog! Interesting as places like Misrata and Tripoli and Benghazi I of course went to on my Tunisia/Libya Roman ruins tour a few years ago.

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