If your looking for rants or potential witacisms than this is most probably the place to be! Expect more updates when I actually get to Canada!
2009-07-30 - Chicago - Travelling the US:
Ok sooo... I went to the US and I am finally back from Canada. Been home for 3 weeks today, and I nearly settled in. I started this Chicago review, got bored and have decided to lump these photos (from Hollywood, San Fran and Chicago) and the unfinished review together to stick on the site...
Our trip to Chicago was relatively slow by modern transportation. We had to take a bus down to Seattle (up at 5am and a 3hour bus journey) and then catch a flight from Taxonamy?? Airport (3.5 hrs) to Chicago O'hare. Once at the airport the trip to the hostel was staight forward as the city is covered in different public transport systems, and a 50min ride took us to within 200m of the hostel.
Our first impressions of Chicago were significantly better than that of Seattle (where we were harrased by a 'bum' right outside of the greyhound station), the people [in Chicago] were extremely helpful and one gentleman even tried ringing the hostel for us when we couldn't find it; all at 1am in the morning having never met us before. In all it took us about 19 hours to reach our final destination, cheap but slow. (110GPB + 24USD + 2.25USD each).
The AAE Parthenon Hostel would be our first residence on our xx day trip and the only one that didn't belong the to the 'USA Hostels' group. A quite simple hostel, I can believe that it is owned and run by a greek family. Breakfast was included (toast, cereal, juice and... boiled eggs). The reviews on the net rated it around 3.5 out of 5, a fair rating as this was a simple but clean hostel. We decided to splash out and stayed in a 2 person private room, the 4 nights we stayed cost us a hefty $404USD, the tax of 15% for hotel rooms increasing the overall cost significantly. The room was cream with a wardrobe and drawers, the bed, made from 2 singles was extremely comfy (although one matress slanted quite a lot) and generally clean. Both towels and bed linen were included in the price, but aren't if you are in a shared room. Our dorm had a common room with fridge, microwave, tv, a single computer and rather flakey WiFi.
The city is exactly what I expected, a mixture of old red brick buildings and new modern glass/steel structures. It's clearly going through some sort continual regerenation, but this didn't distract from its grandure. We spent the majority of our time downtown towards Lake ???, on one occassion we ventured over towards one of the more rural areas to visit the Museum of Science and Industry (A must see by the way). I am not sure of the figures, but I would bet that the largest ethnic group in the areas we visited were African American, especially true by the university. Something I hadn't expereinced in Las Vegas nor New York.
As this was a budget trip, we had to get the best value out of everything. Our top buy to date was the 'City Pass' which, got us access to: - Sears Tower or John Hancock Observatory (High, high buildings to overlook the city, open till late) - The Field Museum (Huge museum full with everthing from animals to chinese pottery) - Planetarium (About our planet, our solar system and beyond) - Aquarium (Fish, Mammals) - Museum of Science and Industry (Brilliant! An old street, huge minature railway.... and a Harry Potter Exhibit) - some pointless vouchers (Magnificent Mail shopping, meh)
It cost a little under $60USD each and not only saved us hours of queing (especially at the MoSaI and Sears Tower), but actually cost less then visiting the attractions seperatly, a real bargain. These 5 places provided enough entertainment for 2.5/3 days worth of activities. For the remaining 1.5 days we visited the following attractions, and generally mulled around the city taking in the sites and the sounds.
- Millenium Park - Taste of Chicago - Fireworks - The Bean - Pier One - Chichago University
Our trip to Chicago was relatively slow by modern transportation. We had to take a bus down to Seattle (up at 5am and a 3hour bus journey) and then catch a flight from Taxonamy?? Airport (3.5 hrs) to Chicago O'hare. Once at the airport the trip to the hostel was staight forward as the city is covered in different public transport systems, and a 50min ride took us to within 200m of the hostel.
Our first impressions of Chicago were significantly better than that of Seattle (where we were harrased by a 'bum' right outside of the greyhound station), the people [in Chicago] were extremely helpful and one gentleman even tried ringing the hostel for us when we couldn't find it; all at 1am in the morning having never met us before. In all it took us about 19 hours to reach our final destination, cheap but slow. (110GPB + 24USD + 2.25USD each).
The AAE Parthenon Hostel would be our first residence on our xx day trip and the only one that didn't belong the to the 'USA Hostels' group. A quite simple hostel, I can believe that it is owned and run by a greek family. Breakfast was included (toast, cereal, juice and... boiled eggs). The reviews on the net rated it around 3.5 out of 5, a fair rating as this was a simple but clean hostel. We decided to splash out and stayed in a 2 person private room, the 4 nights we stayed cost us a hefty $404USD, the tax of 15% for hotel rooms increasing the overall cost significantly. The room was cream with a wardrobe and drawers, the bed, made from 2 singles was extremely comfy (although one matress slanted quite a lot) and generally clean. Both towels and bed linen were included in the price, but aren't if you are in a shared room. Our dorm had a common room with fridge, microwave, tv, a single computer and rather flakey WiFi.
The city is exactly what I expected, a mixture of old red brick buildings and new modern glass/steel structures. It's clearly going through some sort continual regerenation, but this didn't distract from its grandure. We spent the majority of our time downtown towards Lake ???, on one occassion we ventured over towards one of the more rural areas to visit the Museum of Science and Industry (A must see by the way). I am not sure of the figures, but I would bet that the largest ethnic group in the areas we visited were African American, especially true by the university. Something I hadn't expereinced in Las Vegas nor New York.
As this was a budget trip, we had to get the best value out of everything. Our top buy to date was the 'City Pass' which, got us access to: - Sears Tower or John Hancock Observatory (High, high buildings to overlook the city, open till late) - The Field Museum (Huge museum full with everthing from animals to chinese pottery) - Planetarium (About our planet, our solar system and beyond) - Aquarium (Fish, Mammals) - Museum of Science and Industry (Brilliant! An old street, huge minature railway.... and a Harry Potter Exhibit) - some pointless vouchers (Magnificent Mail shopping, meh)
It cost a little under $60USD each and not only saved us hours of queing (especially at the MoSaI and Sears Tower), but actually cost less then visiting the attractions seperatly, a real bargain. These 5 places provided enough entertainment for 2.5/3 days worth of activities. For the remaining 1.5 days we visited the following attractions, and generally mulled around the city taking in the sites and the sounds.
- Millenium Park - Taste of Chicago - Fireworks - The Bean - Pier One - Chichago University
Pictures:
