Atlanta, Georgia

Hi everyone, today I'll tell you about Atlanta. Last summer, when we were taking a Greyhound from the Carolinas to Florida, we had such a long layover in this city that we managed to walk through almost the entire downtown area. We arrived at night, waited an hour for dawn, and stepped out of the station around 7 AM. It was cloudy and gray. We hadn't even gone a block when I stopped to take a picture of a sign that said "Atlanta, Georgia." I love taking photos of signs, you know. A police officer flew up to us, asking what we were doing and where we were headed. I thought, maybe I shouldn't have taken that photo, maybe it's forbidden—it is a station after all, there was a fence, and it said: "Restricted area, trespassing is prohibited." But no.

• Where are you going? That way is a very dangerous neighborhood! You may be killed, I am not kidding!

That's how Atlanta greeted us, no jokes..

He also added that it would be better to wait for the bus inside the station building. Or go in the other direction.

Okay, so we went. Through the deserted streets in the morning fog, we trudged to Centennial Olympic Park.

So, what do I know about Atlanta?

• The 1996 Olympic Games were held there,
• It has one of the largest international airports in the world,
• The Coca-Cola headquarters and its large museum,
• The CNN headquarters,
• And the largest aquarium in the world.
• There are a lot of African Americans there, although the city's population is gradually becoming more diverse.

That's probably it.

Overall, downtown seemed quite cute to us. Almost everything I listed is located right next to each other—the Coca-Cola Museum, CNN, the Aquarium—all of it is located near the Olympic Park. Lots of fountains, benches, and flowers.

And you know what was the most surprising thing for me after the mountains of North Carolina? !In Atlanta! on every street! on the trees! there are flowers blooming!!!! red, white, pink, yellow!!! and little palm trees!!!

We took pictures with almost every tree and repeated: "We are on the right track! We are going to Florida, we are going south!!!"

Inspired by this happy thought, we no longer paid attention to the fact that passersby offered us to buy weed, drink Russian vodka, or just give them money several times.

Also, I saw how funny they mow the lawns there :) The workers on a special machine drove around the park, mowed the grass, and then drove that machine to where there were scorched yellow spots and scattered the cut greenery onto the dry ground. It turns out that the whole park looks green and fresh even in such a hot climate. Simple, useful, and easy!