I had to do something fun and uplifting after I left Seattle University, so I planned a one-day pilgrimage to the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta. I made sure to be alone on this trip to fully appreciate this spiritual and culinary journey to Georgia, home of southern food and my beloved drink.

I took the subway to get to my downtown hotel from the airport, as it was the cheapest and most direct way to get downtown. During the trip, I got complimented on my straight hair several times by locals, as it has often happened to me in the South (because they all know too well I’m half black).

After a good night of sleep and a breakfast with fried chicken and Coke, I headed out to the Coca-Cola museum for the VIP tour I booked more than a month in advance. As I was walking to the museum, I couldn’t help but notice the transparent Coke bottle that was overshadowing the Atlanta skyline.

The VIP tour consisted of a guided tour of the museum with one guide for about 12 people. None of the tourists in my group were American, and didn’t seem into Coke as much as I am, except for a middle-aged German woman who I laughed the most with. The tour guide took us around the museum and recounted lots of interesting anecdotes and debunked some urban legends about Coke. The museum is full of little-seen Coke artwork, ads, and items.

About halftime through the visit, our tour guide pointed to a huge safe, that is said to contain the original and only recipe of Coca-Cola. Although we were warned not to touch the safe, I accidentally leaned against its door while taking this picture.

The lights of the room suddenly turned red and an alarm began to ring. I almost thought prison bars would come down from the ceiling and trap me…

The museum also boasts a real assembly line, and a numbered bottle of Coke that was bottled onsite. The last room of the museum is really impressive: free machines dispense sodas from the Coca-Cola company that are sold all around the world, like German soda Mezzo Mix or regional variants of Coke.

I had another VIP tour scheduled later in the day, so I headed out to the Centennial Olympic Park. Atlanta’s touristic attractions are located close to one another, which makes it really easy for tourists to go around solely by walking from attraction to attraction.

The next and last tour of my Atlanta trip was at the CNN center, the worldwide headquarters of the CNN network. As I also booked online the tour, the experience was painless, and the tour started shortly after I checked in. The VIP tour allows backstage access to some of CNN and HLN’s shows, depending on the time of the visit. http://edition.cnn.com/tour/vip.tour.html The tour is definitely worth the $35 ticket, as the experience offered is quite unique. One of the most impressive moments is to walk into the actual newsrooms of CNN and HLN.

Through the different rooms, our competent guide explained all the hard work that it takes to broadcast CNN all around the world; but I’m sure she was exaggerating, as I had no problem anchoring for the afternoon news…

As my one-day trip in Atlanta was coming to an end, I rushed to the nearest chicken fast-food restaurant to grab some high-fat low-quality fried chicken with some Coke®. Just because…