Chicago is a wonderful place!

Stop number 2: Chicago. Well, Jill was telling us how awesome it is but I was rather skeptical since I am not much of a cities fan. I must admit, however, that I loved Chicago. It's true... I love that city. :)

We stayed at a hostel called Arlington House. It wasn't bad, but given the fact that we stayed at hostels in South Africa and camps in Southern Africa, I simply wasn't impressed. It smelled kind of weird, but nothing that an open window wouldn't solve. There was no hot water the first night. It seemed quite clean, though and good enough to sleep at. :)

We spent our first day walking around, starting with a breakfast at Nobel Tree (which was ok, amazing apple pie, not so amazing sandwiches).
We started at Lincoln Park, through which we walked to Lake Michigan. Then we walked alongside the shore until it was time to get back to downtown. We had lots of fun at Millennium Park, especially with the Cloud Gate (aka 'The Bean') where we were trying to take some good pictures of ourselves jumping... When you see the photos, you'll understand. :)

Our next stop was to be John Hancock Center which didn't happen as easily as we thought. We walked to Sears Tower (the the USA's tallest building... but we just don't go to the tallest ones :)) to realize that John Hancock Center is on the other side of downtown. Only a little disappointed, we ended up at Pizzeria Uno having Chicago's famous deep-dish pizza. I liked that place.
We found John Hancock Center eventually and went up to the 94th floor (only later we realized that we could have got to the 96th for free if we bought drinks up there). The view was amazing, with only one little flaw - a bunch of high-school kids being there at the same time as us on a school trip. :)

When we were done there, we decided to go back to the hostel and rest a little. And that was the first time we used the public transport which, I must say, was one of the reasons I liked Chicago so much. I was impressed by the public transport system (you know, I'm usually very skeptical about public transport in the US :)) and I loved the trains!

Later that night we went back to Millennium Park to watch the Buckingham Fountain. The Lonely Planet guide claims that it "squirts on the hour" - which is true - and that it is "accompanied by at night by multicolored lights and music" which is not true. It was just red and with no music, but it was nice anyway.

On day 2, we had breakfast at an amazing Algerian cafe called Crepes and Coffee Palace, then we went to the Greyhound station to get the tickets to Omaha, left our luggage there and went to Museum of Science and Industry. Unfortunately we got there quite late - at about 2 pm - and since it was closing at 4 pm we didn't have time to see everything. I had fun, though, we saw a German submarine from WWII, Jirka tried snowboarding, we saw the Earth :) and also went to see a special exhibit called Smart Home which was fun mainly because there was a bunch of school kids taking notes about everything the guide (who was really nice) said. I took a picture of them, although it wasn't allowed to take pictures in there (I didn't know that :)).

We wanted to go to Adler Planetarium next, but had no time to do that. So we went to Giordano's for lunch-dinner instead, having deep-dish pizza again. Their portions are so huge that we ended up taking more than a half of the pizza with us.

Having some time still, we walked to Navy Pier which was quite touristy, but that's just the way it is with places like that.

Our bus was leaving at 21:45. We had reserved our seats so we didn't have to be there an hour earlier which was good. Well, the fun part was to come. We left Chicago late (which didn't surprise us - it's Greyhound :)). We had the weirdest guy sitting in the seat in front of us (first, he asked Jirka if I was his girlfriend or sister... then he asked me if my glasses were brown or red... just like that... out of nowhere... :)). And then, after about two hours, the bus broke down. Our driver was a funny guy, too, a little like a strict school teacher. It took about 1,5 hour before another bus arrived and by that time, I felt as if on a school trip. You know, people who travel by Greyhound are kind of funny... :)

Back on the road...

A year has passed (almost) and we're on the road again. It is not going to be such a marvelous trip like last year in Africa but we're hoping that it's going to be amazing and great and wonderful anyway. :)

Right now, we're at our first stop - Cleveland - where we attended Jill's graduation. It looks much more fun in the movies, my dear European friends who haven't experienced this yet. :) Anyway, it's good to see Jill and her family again so we're happy to be here.

The next stop is Chicago. We're going to get there tomorrow evening (after an 8-hour bus drive... I hate Greyhound, but I guess I've already told you that :)). We spend two nights in Chicago and then move west to Omaha. Now, you might be asking what's in Omaha? Nobody knows and that's why we're going there to explore it a little bit. But don't worry, we're going to be there just for a day, we aren't even spending a night there... Although we might regret it later... Probably not. :)

That was the Greyhound part of our trip. The Amtrak part starts in Omaha where we get on a train to Denver. We leave Denver as soon as we get there to spend about five days in Boulder and here comes the fun and my favorite part - the Rockies!!! Yay!!! :) But later on, we're going to spend two days in Denver, too.

After Denver? There's not much time left. We get on the train again and go directly to San Francisco (which is, in the ideal world, about 30-hour ride... in the real world, it's probably going to last longer due to all the delays and stuff). Jirka is attending some Fulbright event there and I'll just do my best to entertain myself, possibly go on a hike with Sam. I'll enjoy it anyhow as I plan to go play kickball again in the Golden Gate Park. I like the San Francisco people, too. :)

Besides that, we have no exact plans fr what to do and what to see. We have one plan and that's enough - we're going to have fun and enjoy it as much as we can! :)

Mammoni... wanna marry one? :)

My friend sent me this link and I must say it's hilarious. Well, it's also sad but since I don't have to live there andlook for a normal guy among these, it's just hilarious... Enjoy the videos:

Mammoni

How paranoid am I?

Seriously, guys... I don't know what to believe anymore. I think I'm getting to the point where I'll just doubt everything. About four days ago, we watched Clerks 2 (which is, by the way, hilarious, I love Jay and Silent Bob, you have to watch it!)... The two main characters - Dante and Randal (who worked at a Quick Stop in Clerks 1) - work at a fast food called Mooby's and the movie begins with them coming to work and getting all the "food" ready. And here happens something that just made me wonder about where things come from for a couple of days... There was something that was supposed to be served as an egg in all those burgers they sell. I was staring at the screen with my mouth open in disbelief. What the hell was that??!!! My boyfriend looked at me, in disbelief, too, saying "that's what they use instead of real eggs" - ok, how am I supposed to know that? I've never seen anything like that before, it was very disgusting... The truth is, my boyfriend worked, many years ago, in a fast food in the US, so he probably had the chance... But for me, it was just shocking. So this, alongside with all the environmental articles and all that stuff, just makes me wonder what is real and what isn't all the time.
So I read an article about anything... And instead of thinking "this is intersting", or "this is boring", I think "well, and how do I know that it's true, who's the author? who is he working for?"

So - how do I know who's right - those who say that global warming (what kind of term is that, anyway? There's nothing such as global warming, it's just that the media like to use it... it's global climate change! :)) is going to kill us, or those who say it is not? Al Gore who made a nice movie, got a Nobel prize (one of the best jokes of last year, I'd say) and tells us how the US Republican government is destroying the environment and that we (or probably the Americans) have to do something about now? That Al Gore who did nothing about it when he actually had some power to do something as the US vice-president?


Please, tell me - are we ever going to know the truth about things? I just hope I won't end up not believing what I said myself... Who am I working for? Who's paying me to write this? :)))

The paradox of choice

How lives in the developed world can be difficult. No kidding... I'm sure you'll know what Barry Schwartz is talking about. It's a very intereting talk and I also like his presenting skills. Enjoy!

What is important and what is less...

This guy - Bjorn Lomborg - talks (quite fast :)) about a research a group of economists did and tells us what the world should focus on. I don't think I was surprised by what they put on the top... But I can tell you that I've read way too much about our environment, climate changes, and all that this semester that I don't know anymore what to think. To every point, there's a but, believe me... Anyway, I'm still going to reuse things and recycle, eat organic food and ride a bike or walk if I can... :)

Enjoy the video!