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... :)
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... :)
Posts
2 comments:
Nice...but why did you like it so much? It did not feel that big and impersonal? Weather sucks here and I am so tiredy already... pa pa see you soon
L
That's a tough question and you're probably right that it didn't feel so impersonal. :) It's probably the spirit, it just felt good to walk around, it was nice, different... It's like - New York City is cool, but for me it's cool just to visit for a couple of days because I felt kind of weird there, I felt good in Chicago, though. Maybe it was the public transport, too. :) I wanted to tell you that you have to make sure you go with John when he's there. :)
See you very soon, again - I can't believe how time flies. :)
Post a Comment