So there I was, early morning on january 15th, waiting for my airplane to depart. After a stern security check at the gate, asking me questions about the contents of my bags I was allowed to enter the airplane. The airplane departed on time and there the 10 hour journey to Atlanta started.
While in the airplane – looking annoyed around me, I noticed a girl a few seats next to me who seemed south american too. After the flight attended asked her where she was going, I found out she was dutch but going to Buenos Aires too. I told her I was going the same direction and had a little chat. She was thinking of checking out Atlanta as 6 hours on an airport is one of the worst things imaginable. I was thinking the same. I walked up to one of the stewardesses and asked her what she recommended me to do whilst being in Atlanta. She told me there happened to be a Coca Cola museum and a big shopping mall I could go and check out. When I returned to my seat I told the dutch girl, Yaiza, what options we had. She asked me whether I wanted to go together into Atlanta, obviously that sounded way better than staying alone on the airport so I agreed to come along.
After landing in Atlanta, where the weather was quite equal to the weather I had last seen 10 hours earlier, we had to go through imigration and customs. This process took forever. Entering the United states means lasering my fingerprints and taking a picture of my eyes. Once all this had been done we went to the metro station where we bought a ticket to the city center, which was only 30 minutes away from the airport. Once arrived we walked through the city center, and quite quickly we found the Coca Cola museum the stewardess was talking about.
The reason the Coca Cola musuem happened to be here in Atlanta, was due to the fact that Coca Cola has been invented here in Atlanta back in 1886. We bought a ticket for the musuem and went to check it out. It turned out to be quite fun. Although you do get brainwashed how wonderful the Coca Cola product is. They showed us a funny video animation about the inside of a Coca Cola vending machine. Afterwards we were allowed to take a photo with the big Coca Cola polarbear, which was quite funny. After seeing the product of Coca Cola through the years emerge as the number one drink in the world and a small factory how coca cola is made and bottled, we went to see a 4D movie about why Coca Cola is still the number one drink in the world. After all this stuff we walked towards the exit, where we were allowed to take a cup and drink as many coca cola products we liked.. I wasn´t aware how many products Coca Cola actually makes. Nestea, Powerade and loaaaads of other products I never heard of are all owned by Coca Cola. At the end of the whole thing we were allowed to take an official Coca Cola bottle along with us, which was created right there inside of the factory of the musuem. It turned out to be a nice few hours.
Once we had gotten back to the airport, we went to have a typical american hamburger at Wendy´s. Together with the bottle of Coca Cola we had taken with us from the factory. Then we went through customs again and the new waiting started. We had a 1 hour delay, so it took even longer for us to get into the plain. Thanfully I was really tired, so I slept the 8 out of the 10 hours I was in there. Once I woke up, breakfast was being served and there I was… in Buenos Aires!
After getting my bags I bought a ticket for the bus. The bus brought me to the frontdoor of my hostel, which was really good. There I checked in, freshed myself up a bit and then went out to buy me an Argentine simcard. After some wandering around the city center, buying me new flipflops and some sunglasses, I found a Movistar shop. I asked them in half Italian – half spanish where I could get a simcard. They pointed me to a bigger shop of Movistar. There, after a bit of hassling around trying to figure out what the girl at the desk was trying to say, I bought the simcard. On the way back to my hostel I figured I could as well check out the city a bit. I went to see the Obelisk, Plaza Colon and just checked out the city. It was great to see it all again.
Afterwards I came back to my hostel and started to type this very first blog item. Later on I am going for some typical Argentinian steak and who knows have a beer or two in some bar nearby. We´ll just have to see.. For now I am having a great time, and the 29 degrees, clear sunny weather are helping a lot too..
Stay tuned for new updates!!
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