Off to the Windy City!! - Part 2

Mardis Gras Etiffoue

The following day was a busy one!

Lucky for us - one of our fellow travellers had brought a guide book with him to the Windy City! So we decided to go for breakfast in this place which was highly recommended in the guide - Heaven on Seven. It is a restaurant that specialises in Cajun recipes located on the 7th floor of a building on North Michigan Ave. The slogan says..."People who come back from Heaven all say the same thing...try the Gumbo!" - and it's true the gumbo is amazing. Gumbo ...is quite hard to explain. Its like a soup, but its really thick more like a stew and it has rice in it. Most of us had this for starters and we chose different stuff for our main meals. I think I had the Mardis Gras Etiffoue, although I can't remember for sure. All I remember is that is was seafood in cajun sauce and I think it was served with rice - it was really good!

After our satisfying breakfast/lunch we took a wander through Oz Park which is a park dedicated to the author of 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz', who settled in Chicago later in his life. We took a lot of photos there as it had statues of the Wizard of Oz characters and also, it was a very nice location.

From there we went to Lincoln Park Zoo. It was quite a small zoo with various different animals including, tigers, snakes and otters (I can't remember them all now!). It wasn't busy when we were there...probably because of the time of year. Some of the girls I went with were uncomfortable because they felt like they were in small enclosures/cages and that the location was too cold. I had to agree with them, but at the same time - I couldn't believe there was a real tiger right in front of me. It's different from seeing these animals through a television. Their enclosures were rather small though and I was completely split emotionally, I was amazed at the same time I was appalled.

The zoo experience was cool but it was absolutely freezing! From there we took a bus to a different part of the city. I can't remember where exactly it was, but it was a place where we were able to see the Chicago skyline. It was near a beach. Of course, we took a lot of pictures (all of which I looked ugly in because of the intense sea breeze). I think at some point someone's hat nearly fell in the water but for some reason this memory doesn't stick out too clearly to me. I think one of the guys rescued it though and we were crapping it that he might fall in.

By this point it was late afternoon and we took another trip to a different part of the city. I didn't know much about Chicago before I went, but I had heard about the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower) which I really liked the idea of visiting. I heard that it was the second tallest building in the world, however, according to Wikipedia, its the fifth tallest building! Who cares, its a tall building - and we went up it! The view was astonishing - it was like being on an aeroplane. From one window apparently you could see accross three states! I can't remember which ones but I think it coulda been Illinois (obv), Indianna and Michigan. It was really cool though. I think the most exciting thing about it was the section with the glass floor. It was terrifying but at the same time - thrilling. It almost looked like a screen-shot from Grand Theft Auto or something.

Our night did not end here. By the time we had visited the Tower, we decided to go to Navy Pier which is basically a famous pier there with lots of different attractions. We had dinner there and then took a look around. The night we were there, there was a party or a wedding or something going on as there were very dressed up people in a big place near the end of the pier. We walked down and walked back up. One thing I remember about this was going into a place which was like a garden centre (I think its the same place that's in that Vince Vaughn movie - 'The Dilemma'). I remember it because there were powerful jets of water that arc over you, yet you don't get wet. As gay as it sounds, I was fascinated by how they worked. Then I remember coming out of there and there being this 'Circus' show thing on. The place was done up, but the style was street theatre. We went to Chicago in October so it was close to Halloween and I think this is why the show was on. Basically these dressed up people took on characters and interacted with members of the public. Some of them really freaked us out, especially as some of them jumped out at us lol.

This one speaks for itself.

 All in all, it was an exciting day out. I couldn't believe how much we done in one day. It was fun, if a little tiring. Found out how the last day went by checking out the blog next Monday!

Off to the Windy City!! - Part 1

Because most of the people I met in Kansas were foreign, like me, we all agreed that we wanted to do a good amount of travelling.

Me and my roommates had discussed that one of the reasons we wanted to study in Kansas was because it was centrally located in the States, making it easier to travel to other states. We all decided we would go somewhere at Fall break but we weren't sure where yet...and we all had different ideas.

One of my roommates had family in Houston,Texas - so she decided to give them a visit during the break. My other roommates made plans to go to New York City together, as they both really wanted to go and one of them was meeting her brother there. As much as I knew I wanted to visit NYC, I fancied going nearer Christmas time and our fellow British/European friends were making plans to go to Chicago. So I decided to join them.

Me on the Greyhound

We went to Chicago by Greyhound bus, which was my first experience with these coaches. We had around two or three stops and it took us about twelve hours to get there. It was a bit of a nightmare...not the whole journey though. The trip to both Kansas City and Des Moines, Iowa was fine because the first journey was short and the second one wasn't busy so we had most of the bus to ourselves. However, the trip from Des Moines to Chicago was a nightmare. The bus was packed and we had to be separated. I was stuck next to this guy who wouldn't shut up - which I didn't mind at first, but when I was tired and wanted to sleep I wanted to kill him. Then he went to sleep and tried to rest on my shoulder and cuddle into me! Not only was I freaked out - I didn't sleep in fear that he would try and rest on me...which is not something I'm willing to do with a complete stranger. So I was extremely irritated.

Eventually, we got there in the early hours of the morning. Although Chicago is amazing - I would have been more excited had I gotten more sleep. Plus, it was still dark. The group decided we should get a coffee and breakfast somewhere before heading to the hostel to drop off our things...it was too early for us to check in anyway. So we found the nearest subway and a friendly man took us to a diner where they serve good food. We started the day with a good breakfast.

We then made our way to the hostel.

The hostel we ended up staying in was horrible, but it was in a good location and was very cheap - so we couldn't expect much from it. Plus, we had read reviews that it wasn't very nice, so we bought sleeping bags with us. Also, we were pretty lucky because the eight of us managed to share a room together and we didn't have to sleep with strangers so that was good. Although the room wasn't very secure seeing as we had to leave the room key with the receptionist every time we left the hostel, which made me slightly paranoid they might steal our stuff. However, as the people I was travelling with pointed out - they wouldn't get any customers if they stole stuff as people would have mentioned it in the reviews!

So we got to the hostel and got settled and showered. I wanted a nap, but also wanted to go out and explore as it was early in the day and it seemed pointless to go to bed now. We all agreed that we should go out and explore.

The first day felt like a dream and I can't remember now everything we got up to. However, I remember going to a place called Millennium Park which had loads of cool art and architecture. This included a big bean-shaped reflective mirror thing. One of the girls joked it was 'Chicago's Bean' and that we were flicking it! This became an ongoing joke during the trip...

I think we spent most of the first day exploring the city, looking at some cool buildings and looked around the shops briefly. The same day/evening we went to the Chicago Art Institute which wasn't really my kinda thing to be honest, but it was still cool to look around and experience! I think it was also on this night that we went to a traditional Chicago pizza place which served traditional Chicago-style deep dish pizza pies! They were amazing! It was also my first experience with pink lemonade which was delicious! It was pretty cool to have Chicago-style pizzas in Chicago!

The delicious deep dish pizza!

It was a really tiring day, but amazing at the same time! I wish I had appreciated it more when I was there. We did a lot on the first day and it was the start of more exciting things to come! Check out the blog next Monday to find out what happened on the rest of the trip!