Open happiness

As mentioned previously, Georgia is a big ol’state and everywhere takes a while to get to (even in the city). But for sights, it is definitely offers some interesting places. Let’s start with Helen. From the city, you drive northwest for an hour or so and you will come across a town, which if you weren’t expecting it, would certainly cause confusement… I mean why would there logically be a model Germanic town in the sticks of a southern state of the USA? Beats me, but here one was. Welcome to Helen.

This place is so stereotypically ‘German’ it amused me no end, with its red roofs, white washed walls and brown (or green, red or blue) trimmed houses, mock beer garden (the garden, and probably the beer too), horse drawn carriages and the works. If you are in America and want glass blown decorations, cuckoo clocks, wooden crafted toys or Dutch imported goods, then this is the place for you. Yes I was confused by the latter in a ‘German town’ but there are also other foreign and random shops with less obvious links to Germany… maybe the owner’s brother’s wife’s uncle’s dog is German… anyone’s guess. Oh and there is also river tubing.

However, the country store we stopped off on the way back had more originality. It was crammed to the (low) rafters with jars of varying jellies (UK- jams), preserves, assorted bottled drinks, and other such items found in a backwater store. We opted for Cheerwine (a southern produced soft drink – like cherryade) and boiled salted peanuts (also a southern speciality).

 Around Atlanta (and it takes a while to travel around it because it’s so sprawled) there is the bohemian district of 5 points for all your hipster and quirky items. If you want to see something really bizzare (and a well-loved icon of the locals) then visit the KFC that sits under the ‘Big Chicken’, which is essentially a large 3D wooden chicken. Chic dining can be found in Historic Roswell, a small neighbourhood of old American town buildings filled with diners enjoying the live music and relaxed ambiance.

 All you who drink Coca-Cola, well Atlanta is your capital. You can visit the World of Coca Cola, see relics of their global advertisement campaigns (one recent slogan is the title of this blog), read about the history and development of the ‘secret’ syrup formula, watch the bottling process live, get your picture with the mascot polar bear and taste the variety of Coca-Cola owned drinks from around the world… but you may get a bit hyper and a bit sick after sampling 2/3 of the 60 on tap. You can also see the original coke dispenser as found at a chemist’s, which is a fountain like machine where the soda water was added separately to the syrup dispensed. It may seem strange that a ‘health enhancing’ shop would sell a drink which could be said to have nothing good in it… but I personally drink Coca-Cola when I am abroad if I am feeling ill, and it tends to sort me out. Saying that it was ironic that the complimentary Coca-Cola given at the end of the visit was the worst tasting one I have ever had.

The artist in you can feel at home in the HIGH museum. It offers a wide variety of exhibits over several open plan floors, one such item was a large metal dish, designed so that one person could whisper into it and another person could hear the words clearly on the opposite side of the room. Whilst we were around, there was an exhibition of Dutch Art, with the centre piece being the ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring’…only for my friend to point out that the girl doesn’t seem to have any eyebrows.

 If it’s raining then you can go shopping Underground, quite literally a street beneath a street. It has proper shops, vendors ‘outside’, arcade and eateries. A walk overground from there will take you to the Centennial (1996) Olympic Park and if you are feeling particularly childish you can join the other kids playing in the Olympic Hoops water fountain (as my friends did… I was holding their electrical stuff). Georgia Tech College campus is an interesting place to drive around (especially if you are with a graduate who knows the place) if you haven’t been to an American university before and want to see the fraternity and sorority houses and other such building that make up a campus uni.

 Note - I am currently in the Amazon and not much internet to come buy so I will try to get updates about here sometime in the near future.