Following my departure from Peru into Chile, I went through border control without any real issues. They X-rayed my backpack, asked me some standard questions, and then I was through. On the other side of the Chilean border control, I stuck out my thumb again.
A warning sign right past the border
While I was still living in Chicago, I wanted to legally drink alcohol while I was still younger than 21 since that’s the legal age in the USA. You always hear about people going to another country and drinking before they were “legal,” and I wanted to do it as well. The obvious choice was Canada since it was so close.
I was 20 and had some time off for spring break so I drove my car from Chicago to Toronto, Canada, which was only about 8 hours.
On the way there, I had to go through border control, and I actually had some issues. The first was that I had not previously booked a hotel or hostel or anything since I wanted to just wing it. They found that incredibly suspicious. I suppose with my lack of specific destination other than “Toronto” and with the way my car looked:
Again, in line with my previous posts, these are just a couple of the more significant activities I did while I was living in Chicago.
One of the places my friends and I liked to go to if we had the opportunity was Xtreme trampolines, which was an indoor trampoline park. I am 90% sure that was the name of the location, but I can’t seem to find it anymore. Perhaps they went out of business or changed locations? Continue reading
Following up my previous posts about things I did while I lived in Chicago, this post will be about The Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Auto Show.
One winter night, a chilling rain fell upon the Chicago area which then froze overnight. It’s pretty unrelated to this post, but there happens to be a picture I took around the same time and I wanted to show it.
Another evening, I went to the Art Institute to check out the exhibits. The Art Institute of Chicago is conveniently located downtown at the edge of the Millenium Park so it was easy to get to after getting downtown. Continue reading
While my brother, Carson, was visiting me in Chicago, we went to some more things together.
The first thing I will talk about that we went to is Medieval Times. I remember watching The Cable Guy with Jim Carrey in it a long time ago. At one point in that movie, they go to that restaurant and it looked pretty fun. Lo and behold, it’s an actual thing and one of their locations is in the Chicago area.
So while my brother was visiting me, I surprised him with a visit there.
The “King”
This week I will go over some more locations I visited while living in Chicago.
At 100 stories tall, the Hancock Building is one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city—the 4th tallest to be precise. At the top is an observatory which one can visit to get a nice view of the city. Some people claim that it’s the better of the 2 observatories (the other being the Sears Tower) to visit since you are a little more removed from downtown and can therefore see downtown a bit easier. I think both are fine and have their own appeal.Chicago: Hancock Building, Sears Tower & Alder Planetarium
Downtown Chicago
I used to play Dance Dance Revolution (the arcade game where you jump on a mat with arrows in sync with the screen) a lot. I played at least 3 times a week for 1-2 hours on very high difficulty, so I was jumping all over the place and sweating a ton—it’s actually an incredibly good cardio workout while being fun at the same time. I used to be on DDR forums on the internet, and while conversing with others, I discovered that there was a competition going on in the near future (mid November) in Seattle, Washington. I decided that I would participate.
I practiced the songs that would be in the competition and was able to beat almost all of them with AA or AAA scores, which is phenomenal. After weeks of practicing, the time had arrived.
The competition was to be held on Saturday. My plan was to drive up to Seattle from Jackson, Wyoming on Friday, which I took the day off for. I would find some motel or something when I got there, go to the competition on Saturday, and then drive back on Sunday. I left on Friday morning in my Jeep with my DDR mat in the back and hope in my heart. Continue reading
I moved from Wyoming to Chicago in 2008 to go to University.
My dad drove with me all the way from Wyoming and helped me move in and get my bearings before he flew back home. Before he left, though, we checked out Chicago together. I remember the first thing we did was drive downtown and park in a parking garage. What a mistake that was! I think we had to pay about $10 an hour, which racked up quite a bill for just one downtown evening. That was the first and last time I ever drove downtown, instead opting to take the Metra from then on, which is a considerably cheaper option. What we did see downtown was pretty cool, though. Continue reading
Earlier this year I went to Poland for the weekend with some friends of mine. We arrived late Friday night in Warsaw and stayed until Sunday evening for a simple weekend away.
The Palace of Culture and Science, our first sight in Warsaw as we disembarked from the bus.
We quickly made our way to the hostel and dropped our stuff off before going out for some dinner at a classic Polish restaurant. All 4 of us got something different so we could all share, but I think we were too busy eating it to take any pictures! I can’t remember what we each had, but the pierogi (dumplings) were like biting into heaven itself!
After some drinks, full and tired, we made our way to our hostel to retire for the night. As soon as we got there, though, we decided to go back out and get some cocktails at a bar near our hostel.
I can’t recall the name of the bar, and the cocktails themselves weren’t really amazing, but the bartender was pretty funny. He was very intent on making custom creations just for us, so we all kind of gave him some pointers and he very enthusiastically made them for us, even if they weren’t that great in the end. Continue reading
Earlier this year, a friend and I went to Rome, which would mark my second trip to Rome (after my first trip).
The friend that I went with was actually Italian, and he had a bit of knowledge that I wasn’t aware of the first time I went there. We left Friday evening after work and arrived late in the night. We went to a bar and got some Italian beers (which I will post about later), and while there we ran into a bunch of people from Wales. There was apparently a big Rugby game between an Italian and Welsh team, so the bars were full of Rugby fans preparing for the game the following day. Continue reading
