Whenever I travel, I’m always on the lookout for the first little thing that tells you that you’re not home anymore. On the Delta flight to Atlanta I asked for coffee and milk and it was considered perfectly normal to replace the latter with a mixture of partially hydrogenated soybean oil and corn syrup.

If you want to get a good first impression of a new city, Sunday morning is definitively not the right time. Downtown was completely dead and the afternoon thunderstorm didn’t help much. Fortunately I had enough time to sneak up to the 28th floor of the OMNI Hotel where the view of Centennial Park is gorgeous.

Things got a lot better by dinner time. During my studies in Carolina, I developed a taste for southern food and I discovered Pittypat’s Porch a couple of blocks from my hotel. I started with a Sweet Water (a local pale ale) and a bowl of Southern Georgia gumbo. This was followed by fried chicken, mashed potatoes, greens and a peach cobbler that were to die for.

On my way back to the conference center I encountered that gorgeous conjunction of subject and light that photographers dream about. The setting sun was backlighting a large number of kids playing in the fountain.

Now if only somebody would have warned me about those fireworks.

who the hell is this guy?