Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Easter Sunday (Atlanta: The Pits)
Easter Sunday, March 27 2005. The Albertan winter is finally coming to an end, warm Chinook winds rattling the house last night and an overcast morning followed by the sun coming out at 2pm, with the skies clearing to blue and the temperatures rising to 12oC for a while. On call for me on Friday while Paula and the visiting Robsons headed off for Banff & Lake Louise (photos soon), then the Farmers' Market and Cochrane yesterday while I shopped for snowboarding gear in the spring sales (photos coming here too). So far today we've been over to the COP, then Sunnyside Nurseries and then off for a walk at Bowness Park. Visitors seem to like Calgary a lot so far, and we might go a bit further afield tomorrow. Anyway, to fill the void before the latest photo-blogs, here are some pics of our recent visit to Atlanta:
I was attending the annual SSO (Society of Surgical Oncology) conference, and P tagged along for the ride. I'd been in downtown Atlanta before, and it was a bit of a sight then. Unfortunately, it hasn't really improved in the intervening years, and although it has a number of huge conference venues, it's doesn't really offer anything for tourists to see. The downtown core seems to be full of homeless people and drug addicts, and you take your life in your hands if you want to visit 'Underground Atlanta' which seems to be a collection of tat shops built into a hole in the ground. The Coke Factory is nearby, in a particularly grimy area, not to be visited after dark. Lots of pawn shops and cheque-cashing joints nearby, but no good shops at all. There are a few parks to visit, but these are again stuffed with the homeless. We would have taken a few photos, but we were afraid of getting our camera nicked.
The Coke Factory
The one safe and relatively interesting area is around the headquarters of CNN, the Centennial Olympic Plaza and the Georgia World Congress Centre. There's a food court here which is pretty poor (the worst Mexican food we ever had), but at least you can be fairly sure of not being mugged over dinner.
The 26th Olympics were held in Atlanta in 1996, and there's still a nice park where they held the medal ceremonies. It's got a reflecting pool and a waterfall, and a set of Olympic rings with musical water fountains in them.
Reflecting pool
The Atlanta sky
Waterfall
Come to the musical water fountain show!
We went along to see the 6:30pm 'show' and found ourselves more or less alone with another 2 or 3 slightly frightened-looking tourists in the cold Atlanta evening. Unfortunately, the area seems to be renowned for kerb-crawling after dark, so we elected not to come back at 9pm, when there might be a different kind of 'show' on altogether. We did break the rules and run through the water fountain while it was on. Luckily , some of the jets were broken, allowing you to run into the middle of the Olympic rings without getting wet.
Cowboy and Olympic rings
Not getting wet
In the Fountain
Sorry to be so negative, but Atlanta is just a pit. Alas, out hotel was also a sight. We got a 'special conference rate' and ended up in the smallest room we have ever stayed in - we've both travelled a bit, and stayed in various places at various prices around the world, but the Atlanta Hyatt Regency on Peachtree street really has to win some sort of prize for having the tiniest room and the highest rate. 200 dollars US a night, and not enough room to swing even a small dead cat. The room had a bed, a desk, a TV, one chair and a bathroom built into a closet. The bathroom doors had to open out into the room, as if they'd gone inwards they would have smashed into the toilet.
Turn left for the bathroom, right for the wardrobe or squeeze through to leave the room
Our sumptious bathroom
Micro-bath
I think someone stole the mini-bar...
It was a very patriotic hotel, though, supporting our troops in the field in the battle for oil/freedom (delete as appropriate), and it had a very lovely enormous flag in the lobby, so that was alright then...
What a lovely flag
Our trip to Atlanta wasn't a total loss though. The conference was actually very good indeed, and it's nice to have joined the SSO and been to the annual conference when they are the reason why we ended up on Calgary. The 2-hour time difference was a bit tough, though. We arrived at 2am Atlanta time, and the conference started at 6:30am, so every morning it felt like I was going to a conference which started at 4:30am! I usually went to the first session and then returned to bed for an hour ot two before returning for the lunchtime sessions.
We also a found few good restaurants, notably a small Turkish doner kebab house in the downtown. We ordered a doner and a felafel, and while we were waiting for them, the owner spotted us looking at a photo of a football team on the wall behind the till. It turned out he (like all Turkish men, I'm sure) was a big football fan, and a discussion about European and English football ensued. In the end, he refused to charge us for our drinks as we were "all Europeans" stuck here in Atlanta! Cheers, guys! We also went up the tower at the Westin hotel (the tallest hotel in the Western hemisphere) and got a good view of greater Atlanta and the countryside of Georgia. It really looked quite nice and if we're ever back again I'm sure that the rest of Atlanta will have more to offer than the awful downtown. P also found a big garden show being held at the Georgia World Congress Centre and took a few photos:
Floral display
10 Green Bottles...
A lovely hat made of flowers ... right, then
So that was Atlanta, then. I think we'll give it two thumbs down and pass quickly on to Las Vegas...
J
I was attending the annual SSO (Society of Surgical Oncology) conference, and P tagged along for the ride. I'd been in downtown Atlanta before, and it was a bit of a sight then. Unfortunately, it hasn't really improved in the intervening years, and although it has a number of huge conference venues, it's doesn't really offer anything for tourists to see. The downtown core seems to be full of homeless people and drug addicts, and you take your life in your hands if you want to visit 'Underground Atlanta' which seems to be a collection of tat shops built into a hole in the ground. The Coke Factory is nearby, in a particularly grimy area, not to be visited after dark. Lots of pawn shops and cheque-cashing joints nearby, but no good shops at all. There are a few parks to visit, but these are again stuffed with the homeless. We would have taken a few photos, but we were afraid of getting our camera nicked.
The Coke Factory
The one safe and relatively interesting area is around the headquarters of CNN, the Centennial Olympic Plaza and the Georgia World Congress Centre. There's a food court here which is pretty poor (the worst Mexican food we ever had), but at least you can be fairly sure of not being mugged over dinner.
The 26th Olympics were held in Atlanta in 1996, and there's still a nice park where they held the medal ceremonies. It's got a reflecting pool and a waterfall, and a set of Olympic rings with musical water fountains in them.
Reflecting pool
The Atlanta sky
Waterfall
Come to the musical water fountain show!
We went along to see the 6:30pm 'show' and found ourselves more or less alone with another 2 or 3 slightly frightened-looking tourists in the cold Atlanta evening. Unfortunately, the area seems to be renowned for kerb-crawling after dark, so we elected not to come back at 9pm, when there might be a different kind of 'show' on altogether. We did break the rules and run through the water fountain while it was on. Luckily , some of the jets were broken, allowing you to run into the middle of the Olympic rings without getting wet.
Cowboy and Olympic rings
Not getting wet
In the Fountain
Sorry to be so negative, but Atlanta is just a pit. Alas, out hotel was also a sight. We got a 'special conference rate' and ended up in the smallest room we have ever stayed in - we've both travelled a bit, and stayed in various places at various prices around the world, but the Atlanta Hyatt Regency on Peachtree street really has to win some sort of prize for having the tiniest room and the highest rate. 200 dollars US a night, and not enough room to swing even a small dead cat. The room had a bed, a desk, a TV, one chair and a bathroom built into a closet. The bathroom doors had to open out into the room, as if they'd gone inwards they would have smashed into the toilet.
Turn left for the bathroom, right for the wardrobe or squeeze through to leave the room
Our sumptious bathroom
Micro-bath
I think someone stole the mini-bar...
It was a very patriotic hotel, though, supporting our troops in the field in the battle for oil/freedom (delete as appropriate), and it had a very lovely enormous flag in the lobby, so that was alright then...
What a lovely flag
Our trip to Atlanta wasn't a total loss though. The conference was actually very good indeed, and it's nice to have joined the SSO and been to the annual conference when they are the reason why we ended up on Calgary. The 2-hour time difference was a bit tough, though. We arrived at 2am Atlanta time, and the conference started at 6:30am, so every morning it felt like I was going to a conference which started at 4:30am! I usually went to the first session and then returned to bed for an hour ot two before returning for the lunchtime sessions.
We also a found few good restaurants, notably a small Turkish doner kebab house in the downtown. We ordered a doner and a felafel, and while we were waiting for them, the owner spotted us looking at a photo of a football team on the wall behind the till. It turned out he (like all Turkish men, I'm sure) was a big football fan, and a discussion about European and English football ensued. In the end, he refused to charge us for our drinks as we were "all Europeans" stuck here in Atlanta! Cheers, guys! We also went up the tower at the Westin hotel (the tallest hotel in the Western hemisphere) and got a good view of greater Atlanta and the countryside of Georgia. It really looked quite nice and if we're ever back again I'm sure that the rest of Atlanta will have more to offer than the awful downtown. P also found a big garden show being held at the Georgia World Congress Centre and took a few photos:
Floral display
10 Green Bottles...
A lovely hat made of flowers ... right, then
So that was Atlanta, then. I think we'll give it two thumbs down and pass quickly on to Las Vegas...
J
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