travel notes
May. 14th, 2010 08:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaYesterday I was on 3 planes, a bus, an airport tram, and a subway. Plus 3 cars. The first of the planes was a Cessna Caravan 208b, which seats 8, and may I say that going through security at an airport where that is the largest plane they have going is so much nicer than going through it at the ATL.
I somehow ended up watching about 6 episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians on the flight to SLC. Now I know. SLC, I had forgotten, with the bowl of snowy mountains.
I was so happy to be traveling that I was just smiling like a mad thing at people as I boarded the plane in ATL, and I (re)discovered how infectious happiness can be - several people just beamed back at me for no reason.
My cousin M lives in an interesting neighborhood south of city hall. It's very high-low; his apartment is clearly expensive (it's lovely, top floor and immense windows) and there's a yuppie grocer and fancy beer shop and such, but also halfway houses and a lot of homeless. I mentioned that we have homeless in Athens - and did in Durham - but they're both small enough towns that after a bit you feel you know the homeless, which makes for a different vibe.
I went to the Asian Art Museum (lovely building and very nice collection, though smaller than I was expecting; gift shop excellent for gifts for small children) and stopped in the public library where they have a nice little display of archaeological finds (1840s-1940s) from the construction of the new building.
After a nap, out with M. and two friends to Aziza, a fancy middle eastern place rather a long way off. Only in SF (probably? certainly not in Athens!) does the cab driver look up the address of the restaurant on his iPhone while he drives. M & friends are all sort of foodie, and discussed cocktails and bars and restaurants at great length. I managed to drop jaws by telling them that the fanciest restaurant in Athens, the one with the James Beard-nominated chef, has a prix fixe for $25.
Being here makes me remember how Georgia is so very different from the slice of the country I was raised and expected to live in. And M and his friends have such a different lifestyle from me (all childless, they go out a lot, live in the city) but in another life I could have had that life. But I didn't.
I somehow ended up watching about 6 episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians on the flight to SLC. Now I know. SLC, I had forgotten, with the bowl of snowy mountains.
I was so happy to be traveling that I was just smiling like a mad thing at people as I boarded the plane in ATL, and I (re)discovered how infectious happiness can be - several people just beamed back at me for no reason.
My cousin M lives in an interesting neighborhood south of city hall. It's very high-low; his apartment is clearly expensive (it's lovely, top floor and immense windows) and there's a yuppie grocer and fancy beer shop and such, but also halfway houses and a lot of homeless. I mentioned that we have homeless in Athens - and did in Durham - but they're both small enough towns that after a bit you feel you know the homeless, which makes for a different vibe.
I went to the Asian Art Museum (lovely building and very nice collection, though smaller than I was expecting; gift shop excellent for gifts for small children) and stopped in the public library where they have a nice little display of archaeological finds (1840s-1940s) from the construction of the new building.
After a nap, out with M. and two friends to Aziza, a fancy middle eastern place rather a long way off. Only in SF (probably? certainly not in Athens!) does the cab driver look up the address of the restaurant on his iPhone while he drives. M & friends are all sort of foodie, and discussed cocktails and bars and restaurants at great length. I managed to drop jaws by telling them that the fanciest restaurant in Athens, the one with the James Beard-nominated chef, has a prix fixe for $25.
Being here makes me remember how Georgia is so very different from the slice of the country I was raised and expected to live in. And M and his friends have such a different lifestyle from me (all childless, they go out a lot, live in the city) but in another life I could have had that life. But I didn't.