Well, we’re back at it!
After over 2 years of dormancy (not entirely due to the pandemic), I’m going to try to officially re-launch this blog, starting with a post on my most recent trip to Atlanta.
I may go back and try to resurrect some memories for retrospective blog posts on other trips I’ve done since my last post back in 2019. Just before the pandemic, I went to Iceland and Ireland but never got the post up. In 2020, I did a week-long backpacking trip around Mt Rainier and, in 2021, my travels included Cincinnati (where I’m now living), Boston, Rhode Island, DC, Baltimore, San Diego, LA, Chicago, Maine, and NYC – in addition to a cross-country drive from Seattle to Cincinnati that included quite a lot of sight-seeing and a week spent backpacking in the Smoky Mountains. Not bad for COVID times!
Even this year, I’ve gone to Charlottesville, Atlanta, and Kaua’i; seen a variety of local concerts and shows; and we have some exciting international travel plans for later this year.
But, focusing back on the subject of this post, this last weekend I went to Atlanta to attend the Shaky Knees Music Festival! It was my first time in Atlanta (or Georgia at all, for that matter) and I LOVED it. Similarly to my trip to Chicago last summer, I left the experience ready to move to Atlanta.
Friday, April 29th
I started my day VERY early. It’s a 7 hour drive from Cincinnati to Atlanta, so I woke up at 6AM so I could get into Atlanta around 3PM when my Airbnb was open for check-in.
Since the festival was in Central Park, I stayed in the Ponce de Leon area, which had me just a 20 minute walk from the park.
I didn’t get to do much sightseeing on Friday as I got into town in the afternoon and almost immediately headed over to the music festival.
Shaky Knees seems to trend towards being a bit more of an “Alt” music festival and I was unapologetically there mainly for Green Day (seeing some friends in town was definitely an added bonus).
On Friday, my lineup was:
- Mannequin Pussy
- Highly Suspect
- Spoon
- Rainbow Kitten Surprise
- Dropkick Murphys
- Green Day
Of all of the bands, I thought Green Day put on the best show, though it was a copy of their Hella Mega show. I did LOVE Spoon (which gave me all the college nostalgia), Dropkick Murphys had some really intense moshing, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise had the band mostly in drag, which I was a little surprised by.
I ended up wandering around post-festival with some friends in search of food (options were bleak at midnight) and we ended up grabbing some late night eats and drinks at 8ARM, which was a really cute bar on Ponce de Leon (ostensibly claiming to be an izakaya, but that seems like a stretch).
I did, however, try a fantastic jasmine green tea rice lager, Ukiyo, from Three Taverns and now really want to visit their brewery!
Saturday, April 30th
I got up on the earlier side so I could wander around Atlanta and do at least a bit of exploring before the festival started.
I headed over first to Freedom Park and went to the Freedom Park Farmer’s Market, which is held every Saturday in the park year-round. It was adorable and I grabbed a kouign aman (my favorite pastry) and a blueberry lemon cookie from the Little Tart stand.
After wandering around the park for a while (awkwardly trying to eat the ultra flakey pastry without making a huge mess and while still walking), I headed towards the Little Five Points neighborhood. Little Five Points (as I was informed by my friend the previous day) is a super cute and quirky neighborhood with a multitude of trendy bars and vintage shops. I stopped in The Clothing Warehouse and Rag-O-Rama. Rag-O-Rama had a bit more of a Buffalo Exchange type feel while The Clothing Warehouse had an impressively well-curated selection of mid-price vintage clothes.
I headed over to the park mid-afternoon and caught the following acts:
- Chastity Belt (I was super excited for them because this was a band from my college)
- Phantom Planet (I didn’t know many songs beyond “California” but honestly they were super good)
- Gang of Youths
- Mt. Joy
- The Regrettes
- Kurt Vile and The Violators
- CHVRCHES (SO good and I got pretty excited since one of their songs was featured in Heartstopper)
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (honestly one of my favorite shows of the festival)
- Japanese Breakfast
- Nine Inch Nails (I only knew one of their songs and it wasn’t played, so…)
All-in-all a VERY long day of festival-ing and we called it a night immediately after Nine Inch Nails. My favorite show of the day was definitely King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. They’re a prog rock/metal band from Australia and I had SUCH a good time rocking out to their music.
Sunday, May 1st
Sunday I really put my nose to the grindstone in regards to sightseeing since it was last full day in Atlanta.
I started off my day by walking up to Virginia-Highland, which was an adorable bougie hipster neighborhood at the north-most part of my walk. I LOVED it and it would definitely be the area I would want to move to if I relocated to Atlanta.
One of the things that really struck me with Atlanta was all of the beautiful craftsman style houses, which reminded a lot of Seattle. I also loved all the tiny shopping zones surrounded by residential areas and parks – it definitely made Atlanta feel extremely walkable.
From there I headed south and passed through the Krog District area – in part along the BeltLine (a walking / biking trail along an old railroad track). The Krog District area had a cool food hall (Krog Street Market) and highly graffitied tunnel.
I then walked through Cabbagetown (I adored the area around Carroll Street Cafe) to Oakland Cemetery, a huge cemetery dating back to 1800s and one of my Atlanta highlights!
From there, I walked back up north towards the festival with my friends and we dropped by 97 Estoria to visit the Georgia Vintage popup market they had in their lot and Ponce City Market, a food hall and shopping area inside an old Sears on Ponce de Leon. At Ponce City Market, I grabbed a Death from Above (a coconut milk sour from TrimTab Brewing) from the growler shop and a cuban sandwich and seriously considered getting a shirt from Citizen Supply (a very cool store with work from local artists).
I was pretty tuckered out by the time we got to the festival, but we saw:
- COIN (I didn’t know them before, but REALLY liked them)
- Band of Horses
- Death Cab for Cutie (I didn’t realize how many of their songs I knew!)
- Khruangbin
- My Morning Jacket (I thought I knew their songs and I realized that I really did not)
Before totally calling it a night, we grabbed a late-night bite at Fellini’s Pizza, an apparently quintessential punk slice joint with cheap drinks and tasty pizza.
Monday, May 2nd
This barely counts as a day since I spent most of it driving back to Cincinnati but I did stop by the Buford Highway area since I heard it had fantastic asian food. On my way out of town, I stopped at White Windmill Bakery where I grabbed some green bean paste manju, a few anpan, and a mochi azuki bean donut (all super good but this last one was definitely the best – almost a cross between a malasada and andagi).
In conclusion, a great trip to a super fun town! I definitely can’t wait to visit again.
Fun-sized: A Travel and Life Blog 