Blogs from Chicago, Illinois, United States, North America - page 70

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North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 30th 2008

Welcome back. So, picking up where I left orrf, on the way to Chicago, travelling on the overnight Amtrak train from Washington DC. The carriages are big double decker things, kind of like being on a bus in London, except that you're not in London, you're on a train, the seats are well spaced and comfortable, and it's not painted red. Actually it's nothing like being on a double decker bus at all, I'm glad I cleared that up. We didn't get a sleeper cabin this time, because they're really expensive and the reclining seats we're sitting on seem perfectly adequate, and besides it's only one night aye, shouldn't be a problem... Now there's this thing that we seem to have noticed since arriving in the States, and it's the loud talking mobile person. Here's how ... read more
Ben's house
somewhere in Chicago
 the John Hancock tower, from the bottom

North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 30th 2008

Hello! Greetings from the windy city. This is only a small update as all i have been doing really is sitting on a bloody train. I had the worst time on the train 19 hours about 4 hours sleep no plug socket so my laptop ran out of power after 3 hours. Then while in a state of restlessness the train got full and i had a companion which makes it harder because you cant spread out. The only good thing was he missed his stop because he had moved seats after getting off to have a smoke he was told to go to a different carriage. he was not happy inside i was. If i suffer its much better if someone else suffers too. So i got to chicago around 9am and got my bearings ... read more

North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 29th 2008

Well, I can't believe it, we are officially bloggers... never though that would happen! In about 6 days we will be leaving on a United Flight arriving in Hong Kong about a day and a half later. We will be visiting Hong Kong, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Borneo Malaysia for just about two months. We chose this time for the trip as it is both of our last summers as I will be starting work full time in Chicago and Adam will have to go year-round for school. Almost all of our visa's are applied for and all vaccines have been taken- so at least we can get into the countries and hopefully not come back with any diseases. There is still a lot of packing left to be done- which is surprising ... read more

North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 26th 2008

So last time I went to Mexico was for Spring Break my senior year in high school. The trip was barely over a week long, and of course I checked 2 bags full of clothes as well as crammed another 4 or 5 outfits into my two carry ons. That said, I'm not necessarily a light packer. The way back to the airport on our way home from Puerto Vallarta (keep in mind there was only 3 of us) we had to pay for 2 taxis, one for us and one for all our luggage. While I did wear every single outfit (almost...) that I packed, I also learned a lesson after ending our Spring Break trip with an $80 cab fare that none of us could afford. Pack light. Not that I really have a ... read more

North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 25th 2008

This time my travels take me a little closer to home for the wedding of a college friend. I have been to Chicago 4 or 5 times (in fact this is my 3rd time within the last 12 months) but this time I am traveling solo and am actually staying in Itasca, a suburb Northest of the city. At first, I was a bit skeptical about staying so far outisde of the city and of course, I would love to be downtown but I must say the hotel is wonderful - more on this in a minute - and for $5 I got a weekend Metra (yes Mertra, with an "a") and took the very easy 40 minute train ride right into Chicago's Union Station. Backing up. One piece of advice I can most certainly give ... read more

North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 20th 2008

Items Lost: 1 (camping mat) New Phone Number: (001) 907 227 4747 Mobile numbers on my possession: 0 (PLEASE SEND ME YOUR NUMBERS) Mates nearly fired on my behalf: 1 Doctors' orders followed: 0 Doctors' orders ignored: several Indians met: 500 Indians liked: 490 Times cried: 4 (more than normal due to sad Tommy Burns stuff on internet) Bottles of champagne:11 $3000 bar tabs: 1 Months trip likely to be shortened due to the above: 2 Houses sold: 0 Cars sold: 0 Blog-in-a-Sun-word: Chaos I am an idiot of some distinction. And, I suppose, they've invented this round thing called the wheel. But I hadn't fully appreciated quite how much of an idiot i was until relatively recently. I set off for my trip without having sold my flat, my car, paid my parking tickets (that ... read more
Take Me Out To The Ball Game
And The Award For Most Gullible Boy and Girl In Chicago Goes To..
Jack Rabbit Slim's Twist Contest

North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 19th 2008

Welcome to my travel blog! It's 1:22am and I've just finished packing.. for the most part. I leave in the morning. For the next 30 days, my friend Noah and I are going to be traveling around the world, specifically Europe and Asia. I decided to make a travel blog, based on a suggestion from my friend Jennifer. As I travel, I'll be blogging from my cellphone that can receive wifi internet. I'm going to try to upload pictures, but I don't know if that's going to happen. Here is a brief (and tentative) itinerary: 5/19/08: Overnight flight to Brussels, Belgium with stops in Detroit and Amsterdam. 5/20/08-5/25/08: We'll be staying with my cousin Ria, her husband, and their daughter Evy in Antwerp, Belgium. 5/25/08-5/27/08: Commuting by train, Noah and I will be on our own ... read more

North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 14th 2008

Tim: I was feeling much better today. We set off out early into town full of hope and optimism :) We found our way into Chicago and headed (so we thought) towards Navy Pier...we actually went away from it and skillfully managed to ignore signs pointing us in the right direction, in our defence they were on the other side of the road and we were walkng away from them. We ended up there eventually! Whilst back enroute to combat bordom I took on the task of naming a US state every US flag we saw, needless to say by the time we got to the pier I had run out of states. The pier was cool and much like being in Blackpool, we then headed along the front and dreamed of being rich looking at ... read more
Tim and the Skyline of Chicago

North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 13th 2008

Hi. Welcome to the first installment. I'm happy to be here, and I hope you're happy to be here, too. We leave tomorrow for a six-week slog through Indochina. We are chalk full of true grit. True grit. In order to help us prepare for the tropics, Jackie-Boy and I hollowed out a pineapple with an icecream scoop and blended together a variety of fruits and ice and gin, then poured it back into the empty husk and drank it. Later we made pina coladas, and tried to saw open a coconut, which was a project that was unfortunately abandoned due to difficulties. With all of that under our belts, I think we're good and ready for the challenges that lay ahead. Jackie and I were prescribed the controversial drug 'Lariam' to combat the diseases of ... read more
Jackie-Boy
Schererville
Me

North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago May 12th 2008

Tom: Okies, back to the US and A and Chicago. We check into our hostel after a good flight and a very bad metro ride, due to maintainance to the whole Chicago subway system (called the EL system, as much of the track is elevated above street level) and we find we've made a small balls up here. Skillfully we've managed to find a dry "Alcohol is Prohibited" hostel, which brought a tear to our eyes tho i'm sure our tummies will appreciate the rest. As friends back in Blighty happily inform us that the weather is very nice, we're finding Chicago is certainly living up to it's name as the wind is certainly blasting off Lake Michigan, which is less that a block to our East. Downtown Chicago is nice, Grant Park is beautiful and ... read more
Chicago Skyline
How did we warp the city?
Cool Glass Building




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