I had a six hour layover in Atlanta, my final stopover before Santiago, Chile. My first layover after departing Manila was two hours in the Tokyo Airport. The security queue at the Atlanta airport took 40 minutes, and I needed to queue again before my flight. You couldn’t skip the security check even if you didn’t intend to leave the airport. So I thought I might as well leave the airport and walk around, since I went through all that hassle already.
Just like Hong Kong and Singapore, Atlanta’s MARTA subway system is linked to the airport, so it’s convenient to hop on it and get a quick look at the city. You just have to give an allowance of 30 minutes round trip to your walking-around time, as you need to take a 15 minute ride on a free shuttle from the international terminal to the domestic terminal (where the subway is physically connected to). The free shuttle ride was scenic and pleasant, just time consuming.
The subway is spotless and clean, and so is the area surrounding the North Avenue/ Peachtree metro stop I chose to get out of. I couldn’t ride too far because I had a maximum of two hours (including the 30 minute round trip transit time from the international to domestic terminal) to walk around. It was cleaner than Singapore. Not even a stray leaf in sight.
I walked around taking photos, and this guy in a pickup (first photo in the slideshow below) even called me over to take his and his friend’s photo. Atlanta has a lot of great architecture. I saw one bar that said “no sagging pants allowed”, and I felt a little self conscious, because the pair I had on for my flight was loose and I didn’t have a belt.
7 photos. Please click arrows to navigate.
Here are some more snapshots from Atlanta.
Click here for photos from my layover in Atlanta on July 4, 2014.