World Traveller: 7 Continents, 90 Countries, 871 Days Overseas
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Sunday 9 January 2000
Highlights: Birthday Present (LOL)
We left our terrible Hostel and killed time walking around the city. As it was my birthday Jon splashed out and got me a Burger King Meal!
We spent a while at the public library using the free internet before catching the first bus on what would be a 25 hour journey crossing another time zone as we head west.
Saturday 8 January 2000
Highlights: Art Institute of Chicago, ‘Second City’ comedy club
After our extremely long day yesterday (little sleep on the bus) we slept in to about 1 pm, which due to the time zone change felt like noon.
There isn’t a great deal to do in Chicago during the day unless Museums appeal and we had recently seen a lot of them. We did however enjoy the excellent Art Institute of Chicago. In particular they had a brilliant 17th to 19th century French collection with many Master from our European countries.
We then visited the ‘Second City‘ comedy club for their production of Chicago 4.0 and afterwards a comedy improv performance. Both were enjoyable but after the excellent New York shows we had high standards. We got back to the hostel around 2 am.
Friday 7 January 2000
Highlights: Jazz and Blues music, the view from the Sears Tower
Leaving last night from Buffalo we arrived in Chicago around 10.30 am. Today marks the half way point of the trip. We ended up staying at the Arlington House Hostel which turned out to be a real dump. It took a while to find a working hot shower (two floors above us).
Thursday 6 January 2000
Highlights: The stunning Niagara Falls.
Today we set off for the beautiful and stunning Niagara Falls. The Falls actually divides Canada and the USA which meant my first ever visit to Canada happened today!
You can see the Falls from both sides but the Canadian side offers the most magnificent views while the USA side is more side on. Nature has. Related an awesome sight and even from the top you still get sprayed with water. Seeing frozen water around the Falls was hard to comprehend, I mean the water is moving so fast how can it freeze in the stream, I guess it just gets that cold. The ice added to the beauty of the place.
It was weird walking into another country. I had to wake up the Canadian guard in order to get my passport stamped. In Australian leaving and crossing into another country is such a big deal, but not at a USA – Canadian crossing obviously.
We caught a movie, the excellent ‘Being John Mavovich’ and caught the 11.30 pm overnight bus to Chicago.
Wednesday 5 January 2000
Highlights: Free falling snow!!
The bus arrived at 7.15 am, surviving another overnight bus trip we found out we couldn’t check in to the hostel until 3 pm 😦 This gave us a chance to explore Buffalo. The major Mall bans anyone under 18 during the weekday, hard to imagine this anyway else, I guess they don’t want mallrats and are encouraging school attendance.
At 9 am we noticed people buying pizzas, quite unbelievable. We visited the local Library, not for learning but for the free internet to check emails and replies. It’s getting easier to connect with home with free internet.
We then bought $4.50 tickets to watch the ‘Green Mile’. Not a bad movie but it tries a little too much at times to play on your emotions.
We have revised our future schedule dropping Cheyenne and Salt Lake City and adding Santa Fe and probably Denver. We have also added an overnight stay in Deadwood switching from Rapid City in South Dakota.
It then snowed!!! The first time in my life I got to watch snow dropping from the sky. Something I so wanted to see on Christmas Day in New York had finally happened. In Australia you have extremely hot December and January but you watch movies with snow at the same time. I run outside like a little kid, watch snow flakes on my tongue, it was pure joy…… for about 10 minutes then I realise just how cold it has to be to snow :). Still what an experience!
Nathan's Insights 