It recently occurred to me, like as in today, that I now no longer view myself as an outsider/foreigner/country bumpkin when it comes to living in the Metro Atlanta area… It might be because of my recent move closer to the ATL but now it’s like, in my mind, I’m no longer heading into Atlanta, I’m simply heading downtown.

It only took 18 months to get my mind around that, though that said, I never really went into Atlanta much. Today I went to Turner Field (3rd time in as many days, it’s becoming a bit of a habit) to exchange tickets the girl has for later games and as silly as it may sound, I was able to guide myself there completely unassisted… In fact I’m pretty sure I could guide myself around the Atlanta area unassisted now, downtown and midtown especially, the girl has said on many occasions that my knowledge of Atlanta is much, much better than her’s, and she had a 20 year head start on me… A good sign is I’m no longer getting hassled by guys on the street asking if I need directions, usually with a charge added on at the end. A prime example of this was a few weeks ago when I got off MARTA at Peachtree Center and started walking towards the north end of Centennial Olympic Park, one such guy offered advice that I should get back on MARTA and go to the Dome/Philips Arena/CNN Center stop and head that way, but thats a round about way to go what is literally a 3 minute walk from Peachtree Center, I often wonder how many tourists fall for this…

Many say Atlanta isn’t a walking city like, say, Boston, New York or Portland (going on experience here) but it really is if you just put your mind to it, it may have a lacking public transport system, but everything is easily within reach of a train or bus if you know where you’re going.

You just gotta know where to start… For me it’s the Sandy Springs MARTA stop. Everything is within striking range from there. I can get just about anywhere I want in under an hour, admitedly walking does take a lot out of me in these humid summer days of 90°+ but it sure beats sitting in traffic for hours on end…