New York City has its subway system. We have marta. marta will get one all over Atlanta proper. But it stops just short of Gwinnett county, where I live (25 minutes north of Atlanta). But Gwinnett has a first class bus system and one of its buses, Route 10, will take you to the closest marta station in Doraville. This is the stop that I always wait at in order to get on the bus to Doraville.
Now, I have arrived at marta (that's not me). See the orange sign? There is a train that comes on that side and then there is a train that comes on the other side which you can't see from here: one going north and one going south.
Those esclators will take you upstairs to street level. But I don't mean to give the impression that this is a subway. The train, itself, is at ground level and you can see scenery as you zoom along. But when it arrives at some of its stops, it is below ground, but not always. This was one such stop.
The above picture is blurry because the train was speeding along. It had not yet stopped.
And here it is after it has stopped.
marta does not take coins or tokens. Instead, at the entrance of each marta station, before you enter, there is a machine where you buy a "Breeze" card. It will cost you a dollar and then you tell the machine how much money you want to load onto the card. Rides are $2.50 one way. Your card is dispensed from the machine and you simply swipe the card over a blue light on the outside of the gate and the gate will open for you and let you onto marta. You can reload the card, either at the machine or online. That card is my card, which I keep in my wallet. It's really very simple to ride marta. marta starts at the airport, which is on the south end of the city and there are many stops all over the city, both north and south AND east and west. As I said, it stops at Doraville and doesn't go into Gwinnett county, which is a vibrant county known as "Atlanta's playground".
Well, it's the weekend, the time in which I earn my bread and butter. So I probably won't make a post Saturday or Sunday because I will be at the hotel all weekend. We have a large bagpipe group with us. They are playing at Stone Mountain and I imagine breakfast will be hopping each day.
And having nothing to do with Atlanta and everything to do with beauty, here is my closing song for this post: the Mexican singer Alejandro Fernandez singing the classic "Contigo Aprendi". Enjoy.