I’m in Atlanta where I’m staying with my old friends from Denmark, Lars, and Marianne. Lars and I used to do a morning show on the radio back in Denmark, and they offered to host me a week here.
Join me when I visit CNN started by Ted Turner back in 1976. At the time it was the world’s first 24-hour news channel, and while they currently have studios around the world, CNN has its headquarters right here.
The same goes for Coca-Cola, and here I also did a tour. I saw their museum, which shows the history of the iconic company. They also show a movie, and there is an area where you can taste hundreds of different flavors that they make around the world. In a large area, you can walk around from continent to continent with a cup and sample the many different kinds of sugary water.
It sounds quite silly and very American, but I thought it was quite exciting to see.
Atlanta is the capital and largest city in the US state of Georgia, and the main city in the ninth largest metropolitan area in the United States.
The city itself has just under half a million inhabitants, but looking at the population of the metropolitan area, the figure is over 6 million. Over the past 10 years, this population has been increased by more than one million people, which, according to Wikipedia, is the fourth most substantial absolute growth among all metropolitan areas in the United States.
Lars says it’s a mecca for trading in this part of the United States, and so they have the world’s largest airport.
“There is so much happening all the time, so it’s an exciting place to live,” says Lars.
One evening Lars asked me if I wanted to go playing soccer with him and his friends. I thought it would be an excellent way to get some exercise. And maybe a beer with his friends after the game.
It turned out that we were going to play against a Mexican team. And they were really taking the game seriously.
It was almost turning into a physical fight, and the referee had a busy night.
One afternoon, I found out that Ed Sheeran was scheduled to play that same evening in Atlanta, and I managed to get a ticket. Lars and Marianne couldn’t go so I decided to go alone. I got into an Uber and went to a concert.
James Blunt was the opening act and although he probably is most famous for making ballads like “You are Beautiful,” he managed to hype up the crowd before the little red-headed Englishman went on stage.
Sheeran was almost three hours alone on stage with his guitar and his loop pedals, and he was fantastic. What an outstanding talent.
So I filmed a lot with my phone, and when the concert ended, there was only 20% battery left. Usually, I always have a power bank so that I can give my phone little extra power, but I forgot it that night.
Along with maybe 15,000 others I went outside. I ordered an Uber and just saw that I was being picked up by a gray Honda with a license plate that ended in 4144. And then my phone died.
Not only did I not know where to wait for it and I could not communicate with it, but I also did not know where I was going. I just copied Lars and Marianne’s address into the app. In other words, I would be screwed if I did not find the Uber.
After 45 minutes it appeared miraculously, and I ran after it. I managed to make it stop, and I was saved.
On my way to my next stop in North Carolina, we stayed in Charlotte, which is a beautiful city I would like to return to and experience more.
