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Published: October 17th 2007
A grumpy, very wet Linz on arrival..
Looking good in the jacket though...Hey y'all!
Chugging out the blogs a leeetle quicker...tho still q behind (we're now in Calgary - think we're doing this the blond way!) but anyway! So Minnesota (with a dash of Wisconsin thrown in for good measure!)....1st Oct - 8th & v different from everywhere else so far.
Arrived to find a LOT of rain & a train full of people dressed as Vikings. Once we realised the 2 hour time difference from Chicago probably wan't enough to make us hallucinate we discovered the Vikings are the football team & today was big game day. Unfortunately this meant town was closed down pretty much until after the game & Lindsay & Lucy were left to wander the streets playing in the puddles for several hours (isn't it great how things are funny looking back...?! Thank god for the sexy - ahem - waterproofs) Also unfortunately the Vikings were playing the Greenbay Packers who funnily enough wear green...as did we...on a train full of purple -clad Vikings. Luckily they don't share the Celtic-Rangers slashing culture but it was a pretty uncomfortable train ride!
Stayed in a hostel in Minneapolis for 1st couple of nights & on
Paolo!!
Bless him, Linz was the only person in the crowd who understood him!! our 1st night blagged our way into the Arcade Fire gig downtown using a combination of celtic charm, slight stupidity & "it's our 1st day & we LOVE Minneapolis" banter. Shameless yeah, but gig was awesome. Liking the way that turned out, the next night (after getting over the trauma of thinking our taxi driver was about to kidnap & mutilate us) we blagged our way into the Paolo Nutini concert! It was fun, tho no one could understand the weegie accent!
Minneapolis is twinned with another city, St Paul & kinda connected across the Mississippi. They're pretty different as Minneapolis is q modern & cosmopolitan and St Paul is more historical (well ish, nothing in the US is THAT old). Spent a couple of days exploring...mostly in the rain. Grrr. & went to Mall of America, which is one of the biggest in the world apparently. No kidding. It has an amusement park, aquarium, Wedding Chapel (!), baseball field and even a University in it! Only took us 4 bloody hours to get round!
We then set off on road trip part deux. & typically 1st stop was a Winery (ok, 2 winery's but who's
Mall Of America
A great big shopping centre.... counting?!) in a gorgeous little town called Stillwater ('The brithplace of Minnesota') in the St Croix Valley on the border with Wisconsin. Also went on a post-wine tasting (ie tipsy) tour of an apple warehouse & gave a really good impression of the UK...I walked round for approximately 10 minutes with my umbrella up...indoors...& Lucy attempted to be spoon fed (like a king) some apple & caramel by the slightly bewildered server! Stayed in v lush hotel that night - note to self: drinking impairs decision making! But have long since accepted we are crap backpackers & hostels ain't really our thing!
Spent next couple of days driving in and out of Minnesota/Wisconsin across the Mississippi & the sun even came out! It was really pretty. Went to see some bald eagles, searched for waterfalls (& got laughed out of 1 town - the falls were dammed up 40 years ago. Dumb Brits!), visited an Indian Reservation & headed to Duluth to visit my relatives, who were awesome and proceeded to spoil us rotten for the next few days. We even had our very own tartan-themed guestroom! ohhhh yes! I love Americans. Also gave my 13 year old cousin
The winery
Not in sight..Linz and Lucy knocking back the free drinks.. the impression Scotland is some kind of 3rd world country due to lack of 24 hours McDonalds! They fed us up & one of the meals they took us for our waitress had spent a year at Glasgow Uni and knew one of our friends (Digger) how random is that?! & they took us to the 'Bayfield Apple Festival' in Wisconsin which is small town America at its best. General indulgence & tried pumpkin pie for the 1st time!
We also got a lesson in good karma - after returning lost keys & wallet we found on platform on way to airport hotel, we were almost instantly rewarded by a free lift by a lovely woman to our hotel after getting stranded (Trust me, it was a life saver - now if you ignore the 'getting in cars with strangers' rule, it was karma I tells you!)
But then had enough of all this appley wholesomeness...on to Las Vegas. Sorry mum.
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jen
non-member comment
ok.. who's tartan nightgown is it?? xx