they lie, it's cold-lanta

While in Alabama for the holidays, Kurt and I took a mini road trip over to Georgia. Kurt is considering Georgia Tech for grad school and wanted to check out the campus and city feel of Atlanta. I hadn't been there since my Auburn years (and a layover at the airport here and there), so I was due for another visit as well. Us New Yorkers thought the South would be warm and balmy, but man, we were wrong. It's not that it was colder than it is here in NYC, but we were woefully unprepared for the chill and the wind and the rain. And now we know why people drive everywhere in Atlanta. Our attempt to walk places left us grumpy and cold. So needless to say, it's not our favorite city but it was still pretty fun...well, the eating and drinking was at least! 

Our first stop was a late lunch at West Egg (thanks, Design Sponge City Guide!). I had their deviled egg salad sandwich, and while it was good, it could use a little more pizazz. 

West Egg is located in this new-ish shopping development called White Provision which used to be a meat packing plant (lots of piggy logos all around to give a nod to its history).

There wasn't a soul on campus, but we did some walking around Georgia Tech. Kurt was excited about their storm water management while I enjoyed the pretty buildings and we both froze our buns off.

We made the necessary stop into The Varsity but weren't hungry enough to eat.

I was very skeptical of the MARTA subway but we took a couple rides and it was fine. It didn't actually drop us off anywhere interesting but ran frequently enough and I didn't get mugged. Success!

Eventually we gave up trying to make Atlanta a walkable city and went to the one place we knew of that would be easy to get around: the live/work/play development Atlantic Station. I guess some people must live and work there, but restaurants, stores, and a movie theater were all I saw. It was too early for dinner, so we made do with a drink at Rosa Mexicano. It was nice to be out of the cold, but we were dummies and got frozen margaritas. The bartender seduced us with his suggestions!

We had dinner at a pop-up restaurant called Hudson North followed by a beer flight at Yard House and watched whatever bowl game was playing that evening. Yep, we hung out at a shopping mall all night! :)

This was the amazing place we stayed! The house is huge and gorgeous and we didn't run into a single soul until we were packing up and leaving. If you are traveling to Atlanta and don't mind driving a bit/staying a little outside of downtown, the room was a great find on Airbnb!

Thanks again to the Design Sponge city guide which took us to the Virginia Highlands neighborhood for breakfast. Look at that sunshine! What a difference a day makes. While still a little chilly, we were able to eat out breakfast outside in the sun at Alon's.

Then we made our way to the Sweet Auburn neighborhood and I picked out the cutest little house with a lime green door that I am going to move into. I hope the current owners don't mind.

We were pretty clueless, but it turns out that Martin Luther King Jr. was born in the neighborhood. We walked through the historic district and took a stroll by the King Center. 

Sweet Auburn Curb Market where we picked up some dinner supplies for later in the week and good coffee, so we didn't have to drink the terrible stuff my parents like anymore :)

Lunch of fried fish and hush pupppies....when in Rome, right? Mmmm. Those hush puppies were good!

See ya later, Atlanta! You weren't all that bad :)