Atlanta, Georgia, USA (14th May 2008)

When we arrived at our hostel in Atlanta we were told that we were unable to check in until five in the evening which left us with a good three hours to kill. Not wanting to venture too far away we made the sensible decision to go and find a supermarket to get the food for our weeks stay. We were lucky to find one only two blocks away and after an hour and a half wasting time wondering up and down every aisle we were lugging heavy carrier bags back to the hostel. After unpacking the food and watching a bit of television we were allowed to check in but were disappointed to find we were both on top bunk beds, not only that but as Mark climbed onto his we discovered that it was quite possibly the noisiest and most squeaky bed either of us had ever heard, even lifting a finger seemed to make a noise; god help anyone trying to get a good night's sleep in our room we thought! The communal areas of the hostel were pretty nice; there was a pool table, a television area, a large dining table, and then a separate conservatory room so we opted to spend the rest of the evening down there rather than in the bedroom. It was after a couple of hours that we both started noticing little bites on our arms and legs and as the night continued they seemed to multiply and get worse and it was when a dog appeared that we figure it must have fleas and that's what the bites were. Not feeling overly thrilled with our chosen accommodation we skulked up to bed in the hope that the rest of our time in Atlanta could only get better.

After a morning spent doing laundry and booking hostels for the rest of our trip we made our way to Downtown Atlanta, in particular a place called Underground Atlanta that we had heard interesting things about. In reality it was a bit of a disappointment and not much of a tourist spot, it was like a bad shopping mall but underground which strangely seemed to be its "selling point" so to speak. Almost as soon as we went to leave the centre the rain began to pour so we took refuge under a shelter and were soon accompanied by a tramp. After a polite conversation with the tramp and a quick look at the papers he was holding Mark felt obliged to give him $2 for a Sunday paper forgetting that it was midweek already, way to get conned!

Atlanta is the headquarters of The Coca Cola Company, so it made sense that we go and check out the World of Coca Cola and find out what makes Coca Cola the most recognizable brand in the world; it is said that you can go to anywhere in the world and you will find that people will know what a Coke is. Located at Pemberton Place (named in honour of John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola); a 20 acre complex located across Baker Street from Centennial Olympic Park that also includes the Georgia Aquarium. It has only just opened to the public in the last year (May 24, 2007) and replaced the 17 year old smaller museum located a few miles away.

After going through a security checkpoint involving airport style metal detectors, just like every place we seem to go now, we waited in the lobby, with another 50 or so people. The lobby area features a variety of large Coca Cola bottle's made from different materials from around the world, i.e. twigs and stuff. After a short while we were then funnelled into the Coca-Cola Loft where a young girl told us all about the company and its history using some of the Coca Cola advertising artefacts that surrounded us as prompts, some of which dated back as far as 1905. After the girl had finished her talk the lights dimmed and a load of adverts that the company has used of the years played on the TV screens followed by a music medley compiling some of the most memorable songs and slogans, e.g Alllllllways Co-Ca Colllla; when the lights came back on it was time to move into the "Happiness Factory Theatre" where the tour continued.

Inside the cinema we sat and watched, "Happiness Factory: A Documentary", it's more of a mockumentary featuring the characters of the Happiness Factory, a key part of Coca Cola's current advertising campaign, The Coke Side of Life. The film is an extended version of the advert where you see the coke bottle being made and filled by all the cuddly creatures that live a vending machine, which is really good and funny both for kids and adults with some jokes thrown in that go over their heads. At the end of the advert part, the movie shows some of the imaginary creatures being interviewed, which is actually real employees who have been interviewed and transformed to say how good the company is to work for etc. Following the film, the screen lifts upward revealing a walkway into The Hub which was a fun surprise; from this point forward you are left to your own devices and can look around the various attractions in whatever order you want.

Most people took the opportunity to queue for 20minutes so they could pose with a wonderfully expressive Coke polar bear, which was set up like a shopping centre Santa Claus shack, we however did not. Next stop: "Milestones" an exhibit on Coke's company history; it sounds dry, but such artefacts as a Victorian-era soda counter and a Coke dispenser used in space illustrated a surprisingly interesting story: how an Atlanta pharmacist's 1886 invention became a global brand before globalization was even a word. We also learned how the name Coca Cola came about, it is made up from the two basic ingredients: a stimulant of Coca Leaves and caffeine from Kola Nuts. One of the most interesting parts of this section was to see how Coke had become such a major part of the Olympics, Special Olympics and the World Cup, they had a massive collection of memorabilia and even one of the official Olympic torches from every year they have been involved, it was amazing.

Duly educated, we headed to Bottle Works, a working bottling operation all be it at snail speed so that you can actually see what's going on. Conveyor belts whipped eight-ounce bottles through gleaming, stainless steel machines, over our heads and into the ceiling. The effect was part industrial plant, part Willy Wonka factory.

Upstairs, another theatre cycled through national and international TV ads, and a pop culture exhibit showcased Coke themed artwork by Andy Warhol and Howard Finster, among others in which Mark got told off for taking photos, "Copyright" and all that...

Next up was the Search of the Secret Formula attraction, a 4-D film presentation featuring an eccentric scientist on a flying skateboard and his assistant searching for what makes a Coke a Coke. The movie's search for the secret formula used Coke's worldwide reach as an excuse for a world tour; we paddled down an African river, pedalled through an Asian market and entirely gratuitously ripped down a mountain with a snowboarder. The seats in the theatre move and the attraction features wind and water effects which soaked us both. The film is obviously aimed at kids but is a good laugh regardless; one thing that we didn't like was when in the movie some 3-D bees were flying around and then the seat gives you a hard sharp prod in the back, right on the spine and nearly paralyzes you.

The finale was the space age tasting room, where we slurped Coke products from around the world. Taste It! lets you try every single flavour, all 65 of them and Mark did! The room is separated into continents along with a section at the back which houses giant Coca-Cola contour bottle featuring only products that include the name "Coca Cola" or a variation in their titles, including Coca Cola Classic, Diet Coke, and most currently available variations on the original formula including Coca Cola Vanilla, Coca Cola Zero, Coca Cola Cherry, and others. We both had our favourites, Kara liked the Fanta Kolita from Costa Rica and LIFT from Chile, whilst Mark preferred the supposed English drink, Kinley Lemon and good old Diet Coke; how Italians stomach the awful, citrus-flavoured Beverly remains a mystery and we saw not one person who liked it. On the way out, which conveniently leads you into the Coke Megastore, you get given a complementary bottle of Coca Cola Classic for the road fresh from the production line which seems to whizz around every room in some fashion.

Sure, the new World of Coca Cola is a 60,000 square foot advertisement, but it's a really, really fun one. Rather than simply advertising Coke to visitors, it celebrates advertising as the key to Coke's success and its iconic status. Of course the messages are ridiculous: We learned that not only is Coke the perfect taste, it is also a form of bottled happiness, a magic elixir that binds all the world's cultures in our common humanity. There's little mention of nutritional issues, or labour problems at Third World bottlers, or the disaster that was "New Coke" but of course we didn't expect that there would be, but we really didn't expect to leave humming "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" either.

It was another early start as we made our way to Sweet Auburn, home of the Martin King Luther Jr Historic District and one of the main reasons we chose to visit Atlanta in the first place. Even before Martin Luther King was born Sweet Auburn was a well known and thriving African-American neighbourhood thanks to settlers creating businesses, congregations andsocial organisations and the main drag was even coined the "richest Negro street in the world" by John Wesley Dobbs.

Our first stop for the day was the visitors centre which we had planned to get to earlier than we did to get tickets to tour MLK's birth house but when we got there the next available tour wasn't until the afternoon which left us with a few hours to kill. Almost straight away we noticed that there was a twenty minute video due to start so we made our way into the auditorium to watch "Children of Courage" which taught us about the children involved in the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 60's and also how children of today view the movement. It was quite an introduction into the centre itself and led us nicely on to an exhibition with the same name, seemingly aimed at children and widening their awareness but also was able to teach us adults a thing or two and get us questioning not only how society was then but also how it is now. The rest of the visitor centre was taken up by another exhibition entitled "Courage To Lead" which includes MLK's words describing different periods of the first seventy years of the 20th century and of course his own work, beliefs and dreams because after all that's what the place is all about. The most moving part of the visitor centre for us was a special exhibition called "From Memphis To Atlanta: The Drum Major Returns Home" which examines the last few days of his life from his journey to Memphis through to his final return home to Atlanta. The exhibition included photographs from the entire period, April 3-9 1968, letters and poems written by friends, acquaintances and even strangers expressing their deepest sympathy, sadness and anger and documentation from his funeral arrangements but most importantly the centrepiece in the room was the funeral wagon that carried King's casket in his final journey, the procession from the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church to his memorial service five miles away. The funeral wagon, coupled with the emotional images and writing surrounding it made not only for a very special exhibit but also a more personal way for people to remember Martin Luther King.

Once we had seen everything in the visitor centre we headed across the road to The King Center. Coretta Scott King started the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in the basement of the couple's home in the year following MLK's 1968 assassination and in 1981 the centre was moved to its present home. It is within the centre that the remains of MLK were laid to rest in a memorial tomb in the centre of a reflecting pool, a site which draws big crowds at any time of the year, especially school groups we found, wanting to pay their respects or pose for a silly photo.... Just beside the reflecting pool is an eternal flame which represents all the work that MLK did and contains the message that as long as that flame is still burning then his memory, legacy and his work shall continue to live on and although the wind was too strong to actually see the flame, we could hear the noise and feel the heat coming from it with we thought made for an even better metaphor. The King Center also features exhibits on MLK, his wife Coretta Scott King and Mahatma Gandhi, the man who inspired MLK and drove him in his mission to change society. The exhibits contained personal items including clothing, jewellery, books and even handwritten speeches, all of which are there to help you get learn a little bit more about the great people they were.

Our tour of MLK's birth home was scheduled for 1pm so with that fast approaching we made our way to the starting point, Fire Station No 6, a historic site in its own right and waited for our guide to arrive. The King Birth Home is located just a few doors down at 501 Auburn Avenue and it was in this very house that Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15th 1929; although the King family were quite well off all of their children were born at home by a black doctor because MLK Snr had said that he would never have his children's first glimpse of this earth to be one of contempt at the hands of a white doctor in these times of prejudice. The family lived in the house until 1941 when it was sold and converted into a two flats and it was only in 1971 that the house was donated to The King Center in the hope of being preserved. Since then the house has been fully restored to how it would have been when MLK lived there and all the furnishings are original or period reproductions. Our tour guide informed us that some of the family's own personal items are still in the house including their crockery and games they once played. MLK's mother and wife were both actively involved in the restoration, giving a wealth of information on how the house looked down to the smallest detail. It was amazing to see how well the restoration had been done, it was like stepping back in time for thirty minutes as we were slowly lead around the house seeing the parlour, the dining room, the kitchen and even the bedroom MLK shared with his brother. As well as just giving us a tour of the house the guide was able to share stories about each room, no doubt passed along from MLK's mother and wife? One thing we did learn whilst on the tour was that long before MLK was born his family was already actively involved in campaigning for equal right for black people so it could be said that it was in his blood the minute he was born but it's doubtful anyone could ever have imagined what he would go on to achieve, not just for himself but for the whole of society.

The renovation of the Martin Luther King Historic District is still ongoing and their current project is the restoration of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where both MLK and his father pastured and where his funeral took place. Due to the restoration we were unable to see anything but the outside of the church which was a bit of a disappointment but if his birth house if anything to go by the restoration will no doubt add another gem to the area and draw even bigger crowds.

The whole experience of visiting The Martin Luther King Historic District was always going to be a fairly emotional one but I don't think we could have prepared ourselves for how much we learnt not just about the man himself but also about all of his work. There probably aren't many people in the world who don't know the name Martin Luther King but it takes a visit to the centre to truly appreciate how great and inspirational he was and what he meant to not just the African American community but the world.

Rather than get the train straight back to the hostel we walked the mile or so to downtown but after discovering there really wasn't anything to do there we were back on the train bound for the hostel.When we got back we were told that a couple of the guys there were planning on having a few drinks in the hostel in the evening so we made a quick dash to the supermarket for some beer and set up camp in front of the television ready for a bit of socialising. Evening soon came around and much to everyone's delight the title credits for Indiana Jones came into view on the screen; that was us settled there for a good couple of hours. When the beer eventually ran out someone suggested going to the pub for last orders which in our merry state we happily agreed to so off we went to "The Spotted Dog", a supposed quintessential English pub (in the eyes of an American anyway) complete with a red telephone box outside. The bar was heaving with pretentious business folk who seemed to think we had no right breathing the same air space as them; a problem that we quickly solved by taking our drinks outside. The night was fairly uneventful, a spilt drink here, a stumble there and pretty soon we were back at the hostel.

Our last few days in Atlanta were by far the most uneventful. Suffering with a bit of a hangover we walked to Piedmont Park with Chris, our friend from the hostel where we watched a friendly game of Ultimate Frisbee, a game we had both heard of but never actually seen in real life, and listened to a man whiling away a Sunday afternoon playing the trumpet. Once we said goodbye to Chris we went back to the hostel to be told we were moving rooms as they had a big group coming in, this didn't bother us at all as we now had a top and a bottom bunk between us. The only downside to the move was our new room-mate; a rather strange gentleman who seemed to be a long termer there and quickly told us of his fascination with UFO's and of his ability to "read" people really well....needless to say we didn't stick around for too many conversations.We also had a day off from being tourists and took the metro up to a shopping centre we had heard about. It was really nice to just be able to wonder around and not worry about being anywhere at a given time. It was here that Mark discovered the Macy's sale and picked himself up a few well found bargains.

On our last day in Atlanta we realised we had run out of food so rather than go to the supermarket and buy food to cook and them probably waste a lot of we walked a few steps down the road to The Old Spaghetti Factory, a restaurant chain that has now become one of our favourites. The prices on the menu seemed pretty reasonable to begin with so we were amazed when the waitress told us that all entrees on the menu come with either a soup or salad to start with, ice cream for dessert, unlimited break and coffee/tea/water or iced tea, all for an average $10 per person. We were amazed and ate every last thing placed in front of us, something we later regretted as we walked out of the place feeling like we were going to burst.

In hindsight we might have been better only having 4 days here rather than a week as we knew that we only wanted to do two things really and we spent a lot of time doing nothing, in the sense that we didn't go to museums everyday etc, but we managed to get a lot of planning for the last few weeks of our trip and we think that maybe someday it would be worth coming back again with some proper spending money and a bit of a better plan!