If you were kind enough (I couldn’t find any
better word other than this) to take a look at my previous posts, it is quite
typical for me to begin a new post with one or few words apologizing for my
slacking in my commitment of updating my life through this platform (geez,
commitment is such a heavy word!). In fact, I have several unfinished writings,
which ended up in my laptop stored in a folder named “blog” and I never even
bother to check (let alone finish them) again. I’ve been thinking a lot ever since
graduation that I want to somehow spicing up this blog into something, you
know, more informative? but to decide the right topic or content was as hard as
moving my ass to actually begin to write something. I need to be honest that I
don’t know many blogs to read (or is it just me too lazy to find?) and I feel
like I should start looking for one. If you happen to know any good blog,
literally any blog be it about travel, foods, fashion.. please enlighten me.
Alright folks, let’s jump into the real thing I
actually wanted to share. As the title implies, it’s going to be my 4 days and
3 nights “adventure” in the wind city: Chicago, IL. Seriously, though, if you
think this is going to be very inaccurate (because the trip happened two years
ago!) just so you know that I’m trying my best here. Looking at the pictures
taken during the trip is enough for me to reminisce those days (because it is A
LOT of them) and, well, my intention here is not to give away any tips and
tricks. Nonetheless, I’ll be glad if you’re willing to walk down this memory
lane with me.
It started with four exchange students in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota, wanted to travel somewhere less-snowy for the spring
break. A few options came up, started from the East (such as how about New
York? How about Boston?) to far West (don’t you guys want to go to LA? Disney
Land? How about San Francisco?). For about two weeks, we roughly made plans
with our limited knowledge about other cities in the US. I don’t quite remember
how Chicago became our final decision. After some planning, and calculating,
and sometimes arguing, we made (actually, a quite good) travel plan.
Here is the thing, Sioux Falls is not that big
of a city (even the airport is smaller than the airport in my hometown) so the
domestic flight from there to any other cities costs a lot. For that reason, we
decided to take a bus to go to Chicago. Based on our little research, we could
either take Greyhound, or Megabus. Megabus is cheaper than Greyhound, but
Greyhound is the only bus available in Sioux Falls. The plan is we were going
to use Greyhound from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis, then go on with Megabus to
Chicago. Before you wonder why would we do that, why don’t we take Greyhound
straight to Chicago, I’ll give you an insight of how far the price difference
is. I bought a round trip ticket, for both Greyhound and Megabus. A round trip
ticket from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis was in total $112 with Greyhound. A
round trip ticket from Minneapolis to Chicago was only $41! Sioux Falls –
Minneapolis was like four hours and Minneapolis – Chicago was almost six hours
(and passing a few states). I tried to compare the two but I didn’t find any
significant differences. One was as comfortable as the other, the only
difference is Megabus is a double decker bus. However, it’s important to note
that it was my own experience, I think other people could have different opinion.
The trip began on January 28, 2016 at 10.00AM
to Minneapolis. We arrived at Greyhound station in Minneapolis around 5PM and
we got a few hours before our next bus to Chicago. We decided to stroll around the city. We were
hungry and randomly picked a bar with a pizza sign in front of it. I forgot the
name of the bar and I feel bad about it. They had a quite decent pizza and they
served very good chicken wings! They deserve a recommendation. If you could
find the place just from the pictures I took there, please go and give it a
try.
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| The bar which I don't remember the name |
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| Just a glimpse of Minneapolis |
We were intentionally picked a night trip to
Chicago, so we could sleep on it. According to the plan, we will arrive around
5AM and we could go straight to our room in the hotel we had booked a few days
prior. Everything went according to plan up until we arrived at Holiday Jones,
the hotel we booked for three nights. We took a taxi from the Megabus stop to the
hotel, and we arrived around 5.30AM. The hotel looked dark from the outside,
and the taxi driver told us to negotiate with the receptionist so we could get
in before the check-in hours. I guess he did that because he saw our tired faces
(I did look super messed up, my sweater, my coat, and my scarf were in
mismatching colors). Turned out we
couldn’t do that because the guests before us hadn’t checked out yet, and the
only thing the receptionist could do is to allow us to leave our bags at the
hotel. Thank God for 24 hours Starbucks right next to the hotel, we waited
until 7AM there with a cup of hot chocolate. It wasn’t long after I put my butt
down on a wooden chair in Starbucks that I noticed something was wrong with my
phone. The screen was shattered, there were a lot of shards of glass in my coat
pocket. I dropped my phone from my lap as I got off from the taxi. Too much for
a first few hours in Chicago, eh?
Let me tell you about Holiday Jones. It is a
two-star boutique hotel located in 1659 W Division Street. My friend, Tinker,
found this hotel while randomly searching for a cheap stay in Chicago (before
you ask why we didn’t use Airbnb, to be honest with you we didn’t know about it
when we were on this trip). I forgot how much exactly the room costs for three
nights, but I remember we had to pay around $34 each. The room we got has two
bunk beds, and shared bathroom. The breakfast was also pretty decent and got a
lot of variations each day (I remember having bagels with cream cheese every
morning during my stay, and it felt so… American). The interiors were pretty
and unique, and the view from my room wasn’t bad at all. However, you need to
lower your voice during your stay, because even if you speak in the
considerable tone (well, at least, that’s what you thought) you can be heard to
three rooms away. It is a great location too because you got Wendy’s,
Starbucks, CVS, Burger King, even a gym nearby. Most importantly, the nearest
subway station is only 5 minutes away by walk. (Head over to their website to see the rooms, I didn't take many pictures there).
We planned to use a CityPASS for this trip. I
don’t remember how much the price was, but I look it up and it says it is $106
for adult so I guess it was just around this amount. A CityPASS gives you
tickets to Chicago’s most visited tourist destination, and in some cases,
you’ll get a special admission and you don’t have to wait in line with other
tourists. There five tickets including Shedd Aquarium, Skydeck Chicago, The
Field Museum, and the other two you have to pick one between Museum of Science
and Industry or 360 Chicago, and between Adler Planetarium or Art Institute of
Chicago. You can purchase it online prior to your trip on its website. My
friends and I decided to pick 360 Chicago and Adler Planetarium (after having
some little bit arguments lol). We tried our best to go to places other than
the ones included in CityPASS. We went to Chinatown on our first night in
Chicago (because we decided to take a rest in the day, I mean, it was almost 10
hours of a road trip all the way from Sioux Falls, in January).
The reason why we decided to use CityPASS is
because after we calculated the price of admission tickets from each place we
wanted to visit, the price CityPASS offered is cheaper. But I know that it
makes this trip very tourist-y (with aquarium, museum, and all), so you don’t
have to purchase one if maybe you wanted to plan the trip on your own. It was
our first trip together in the US, we weren’t brave enough to go to less
tourist-y places in the middle of winter. Chicago might be less snow-y than
Sioux Falls, but the wind was crazy.
We hop on and off to places mostly with the
subway (well, it’s not exactly a subway.. more like a train called CTA). I got
a 3-day pass (72 hours) for $20, and it was super easy to get one. In the train
station there will be a thing called Ventra Vending Machine and you will get a
Ventra Card. You can also use the card for bus. Chicago train route is not as
complicated as the New York subway route, after a few rides I could get used to
it. It didn’t save me from embarrassment though. One day I got a little
confused on which line should I take to go to Cottage Grove station and decided
to ask the information lady (is this correct?). Instead of saying “grove” I
said “groove”. Please note that it was my first month in the US, so can we let
this one go?
Before I went to this trip, my roommate, Katie,
told me to try Chicago deep dish pizza because it is a must. I almost forgot
about it during the trip and decided to randomly picked a place to have the
pizza in the last night we were in Chicago. We just came back from Skydeck
Chicago and just searched “deep dish pizza near me” on Google. We went to
Giordano’s Pizza at 223 W. Jackson Blvd., the one that just a block away from
Skydeck. Turned out, it was one of the best place to have deep dish pizza.
Lucky us! I didn’t try the pizza from other places, though. I can’t really make
a comparison, but I definitely recommend you Giordano’s. If I ever get a chance
to go to Chicago again, I’ll come back to Giordano’s. They serve a great deal
of variety of deep dish pizza, but we obviously opted for the cheesiest one. My
friends also ordered the bacon BBQ chicken deep dish. And I picked their BBQ
chicken wings for starter (what’s with me and my chicken wings obsession?!).
I think there are a lot more to discover in the
city, which four days are not going to be enough. I actually looked up some interesting events through Facebook events (you know that one feature Facebook has that shows you events in a certain location, right?) during my trip, but never made it to any single one, and kind of regretting that. Maybe I should come back in the summer, or
spring (and make sure I didn’t drop my phone again because traveling with
cracked screen was irritating). The trip was supposed to be a spring break, but
a blizzard in Minneapolis welcomed us when we wanted to go back to Sioux Falls
(we had to postpone our trip back to Sioux Falls for two nights because of the
blizzard).
Despite the crazy, freezing wind, Chicago was
great. I’m glad we decided to go there for the break above all the options. The
people were nice (especially the receptionist at Holiday Jones, she was really kind!), and I made plenty of unforgettable memories with my friends.
I still listen to Frank Sinatra – My Kind of Town until today, and it reminds
me of the excitement, feeling nervous in Megabus, having arguments with travel
mates, everything.
My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of people too
People who smile at you
My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of razzmatazz
And it has all that jazz!
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