Showing posts with label Trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trips. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Another Trip!
Oh, I forgot! I'm going to one of my favorite cities next week--Charlotte, North Carolina!
I'll be there for three days. It should be fun :-).
I'll be there for three days. It should be fun :-).
Time for a Big Adventure.
So I officially purchased my ticket to Seattle! I will be in the Pacific Northwest from August 24th until August 31st. I'll also be spending two days in Vancouver, which seems like a brilliant idea since Vancouver appears to be the kind of city I'd adore. (Vancouver Island is denser than Manhattan!)
Instead of shelling out tons of money for hotels that I'll only been sleeping a few hours in, I'm taking a little adventure. I'm going to try CouchSurfing. Have you heard of this? I have friends who swear by it and have done it for years, but I always thought it was kind of risky and strange.
CouchSurfing is a real simple complex--people go on the website looking for a place to stay. People in cities around the world set up profiles indicating whether they can host a person or if they want to visit a new city...and that's it. You set up a connection, and people open up their homes to you.
It's kind of scary, so I'm going to try and establish some relationships now. After two months of e-mailing, I'm sure it will be like friends visiting instead of me sleeping on a random couch. And, if it turns out not to work so well, I'll just budget to have the money for a last-minute hotel if need be.
Anyway, so I fly to Seattle, spend Mon-Tues-Wed there, then take the train to Vancouver on Thursday. (I hear that this train ride is GORGEOUS!) I'll then return to Seattle on Saturday and leave early Monday morning. I won't be renting a car because, well, it's a waste of money. Hopefully I'll be able to find a fun place to rent a bike. AND I sure hope it doesn't rain the whole time!
Now I just need to start learning everything about the area. I did this with my Minneapolis trip, so when I got there I really was able to maximize my time since I already knew my way around.
Any Seattle people out there? Do you have any suggestions for things to do? :-)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The (Verbose) Update on Minneapolis.
I'm in Minnesota. It's amazing.
I'm not even really sure where to start on why I like it here so much, but I guess I can begin with biking. This city is designed with bikers in mind. Due to the plethora of bike trails, I have literally gone all over St. Paul, Minneapolis and even the suburbs via my bike. Beyond even the myriad designated biking lanes along the major streets, there are actual highways set up for bikers. I've hopped along the Midtown Greenway which connects to the Kenilworth Trail, Cedar Trail and a few others too, which can literally get you as far west as Lake Minnetonka (Like 10-20 miles I guess), and as east as Wisconsin. Along the Midtown Greenway there are exits and entrances just like a regular car highway. It's awesome! And even better, there are places you can store your bike, take a shower, have a cup of coffee and walk to the Uptown Transit station (which will connect you via buses anyway in the city).
Aside from this perk for bikers, both Minneapolis and St. Paul are very densely populated. Everything is very close together, yet it's not difficult at all to escape downtown and suddenly enter a moment of serenity while walking around a tranquil lake. It's really amazing how one moment you can be fighting busy city traffic and the next you can be sitting in the middle of a park and feel like you own it.
On Monday I hung out with some friends at Bryant Lake Bowl, a restaurant-slash-bar-slash-bowling alley. I impressed them with a competitive bowling score of 76 (ha!) and quickly learned that maybe bowling isn't my sport of choice.
Tuesday my friend from Ohio, James, and I explored the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, which was simply amazing. We then dined at Bombay Bistro, which has the absolute greatest Indian food I could have asked for (almost all vegetarian, too!). We then perused around Uptown, which is Minneapolis' trendy arts district. We argued over if it was better than The Short North, which I sat it is, he says it isn't. Regardless, they have a North Face store, Urban Outfitters, tons and tons of original local restaurants and it seems to go on forever. (Unlike the Short North which is a few blocks of galleries/restaurants).
After dropping James off so he could take a nap, I met up with my friend Sean at Chino Latino, an incredible restaurant that serves enormous portions of Mexican and Asian food. The restaurant itself was beautiful! After dining there (for four hours, literally), we explored St. Paul and I'm amazed at how it gets such a bad rap! St. Paul is a beautiful city, and I'm excited to learn more since most of the things I've done have been Minneapolis-based.
Wednesday I hit up the Birchwood Cafe, a great local restaurant that serves vegetarian and vegan food. It was so sweet! It reminded me a lot of North Star Cafe, just far more cheaper. (In a good way. Is it me or is North Star way overpriced?)
After breakfast I did a four-hour bike ride all around town. It was snowing, but luckily it didn't stick so basically the ride was just cold but doable. As previously stated, I did everything via my bike! It was simply fantastic!
That evening I met up with my friend Kevin for dinner at Spill the Wine, which was a beautiful restaurant with delicious food. They even had a great happy hour--$15 bottles of wine! After a great dinner, we headed over to the world-renowned Guthrie Theatre, which was awe-inspiring to say the least. We saw The Gentlemen of Verona and what a perfect performance it was. I absolutely loved it.
The interesting thing about The Guthrie is not only its three theatres, numerous restaurants and countless bars, but actually the massive structure that makes up the building. The architecture is just breath-taking! And to make it more impressive, there is a bridge called "The Bridge to Nowhere" which lets visitors view the St. Anthony Falls. Although I had heard of them, I had no idea what I was in for. I can't even begin to describe what a site it is--simply incredible. I was astounded by the falls!
After dinner we met up with Kevin's boyfriend, Kareem, and had drinks at the Minneapolis Eagle. It was great-- 3-for-1 special! Talk about a cheap night out!
That's been the trip so far. I think the world of this city and I can't wait til I'm packing my bags and moving out here! :-)
Oh, and PS, can we talk about Galactic Pizza, the pizza joint that delivers pizza in waay coolz space gear? Seriously. I couldn't make it up.
I'm not even really sure where to start on why I like it here so much, but I guess I can begin with biking. This city is designed with bikers in mind. Due to the plethora of bike trails, I have literally gone all over St. Paul, Minneapolis and even the suburbs via my bike. Beyond even the myriad designated biking lanes along the major streets, there are actual highways set up for bikers. I've hopped along the Midtown Greenway which connects to the Kenilworth Trail, Cedar Trail and a few others too, which can literally get you as far west as Lake Minnetonka (Like 10-20 miles I guess), and as east as Wisconsin. Along the Midtown Greenway there are exits and entrances just like a regular car highway. It's awesome! And even better, there are places you can store your bike, take a shower, have a cup of coffee and walk to the Uptown Transit station (which will connect you via buses anyway in the city).
Aside from this perk for bikers, both Minneapolis and St. Paul are very densely populated. Everything is very close together, yet it's not difficult at all to escape downtown and suddenly enter a moment of serenity while walking around a tranquil lake. It's really amazing how one moment you can be fighting busy city traffic and the next you can be sitting in the middle of a park and feel like you own it.
On Monday I hung out with some friends at Bryant Lake Bowl, a restaurant-slash-bar-slash-bowling alley. I impressed them with a competitive bowling score of 76 (ha!) and quickly learned that maybe bowling isn't my sport of choice.
Tuesday my friend from Ohio, James, and I explored the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, which was simply amazing. We then dined at Bombay Bistro, which has the absolute greatest Indian food I could have asked for (almost all vegetarian, too!). We then perused around Uptown, which is Minneapolis' trendy arts district. We argued over if it was better than The Short North, which I sat it is, he says it isn't. Regardless, they have a North Face store, Urban Outfitters, tons and tons of original local restaurants and it seems to go on forever. (Unlike the Short North which is a few blocks of galleries/restaurants).
After dropping James off so he could take a nap, I met up with my friend Sean at Chino Latino, an incredible restaurant that serves enormous portions of Mexican and Asian food. The restaurant itself was beautiful! After dining there (for four hours, literally), we explored St. Paul and I'm amazed at how it gets such a bad rap! St. Paul is a beautiful city, and I'm excited to learn more since most of the things I've done have been Minneapolis-based.
Wednesday I hit up the Birchwood Cafe, a great local restaurant that serves vegetarian and vegan food. It was so sweet! It reminded me a lot of North Star Cafe, just far more cheaper. (In a good way. Is it me or is North Star way overpriced?)
After breakfast I did a four-hour bike ride all around town. It was snowing, but luckily it didn't stick so basically the ride was just cold but doable. As previously stated, I did everything via my bike! It was simply fantastic!
That evening I met up with my friend Kevin for dinner at Spill the Wine, which was a beautiful restaurant with delicious food. They even had a great happy hour--$15 bottles of wine! After a great dinner, we headed over to the world-renowned Guthrie Theatre, which was awe-inspiring to say the least. We saw The Gentlemen of Verona and what a perfect performance it was. I absolutely loved it.
The interesting thing about The Guthrie is not only its three theatres, numerous restaurants and countless bars, but actually the massive structure that makes up the building. The architecture is just breath-taking! And to make it more impressive, there is a bridge called "The Bridge to Nowhere" which lets visitors view the St. Anthony Falls. Although I had heard of them, I had no idea what I was in for. I can't even begin to describe what a site it is--simply incredible. I was astounded by the falls!
After dinner we met up with Kevin's boyfriend, Kareem, and had drinks at the Minneapolis Eagle. It was great-- 3-for-1 special! Talk about a cheap night out!
That's been the trip so far. I think the world of this city and I can't wait til I'm packing my bags and moving out here! :-)
Oh, and PS, can we talk about Galactic Pizza, the pizza joint that delivers pizza in waay coolz space gear? Seriously. I couldn't make it up.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Chi-Town Visit!
I leave for Chicago in less than 5 hours! My bags are packed, my house is cleaned, my trip confirmed...seems like everything is in place!
Well, minus the windstorm that knocked over a tree and thus killed my power.
I'm writing from the SEL (Science and Engineering Library @ Ohio State) and luckily this mammoth of a building is keeping me nice and cozy. However, The Oval is tore up from the winds, trees are uprooted everywhere and also my car almost got trampled by a tree (my car was about five feet from being smashed!).
I'm leaving this evening for Chi-Town via the Megabus. My roundtrip ticket cost me $30! On top of that, I'm trying to have the cheapest yet greatest vacation ever. How much am I bringing? You'll think I'm crazy, but I'm only bringing $100 for four days in Chicago. I'll be living off of Ramen and a flask of Kamchatka, but I don't care. I'd rather be poor and have my bills paid than live lavishly without electricity! And fortunately I'll be staying with my good friend Michelle, where I'll be able to cook my Ramen and pasta-san-sauce, so I'm certain between all the great (free) things to do in Chicago, I'll be quite content.
And lastly, I'll be blogging a lot over the next few days. Why? Oh, because I won't be able to afford anything else!
Well, minus the windstorm that knocked over a tree and thus killed my power.
I'm writing from the SEL (Science and Engineering Library @ Ohio State) and luckily this mammoth of a building is keeping me nice and cozy. However, The Oval is tore up from the winds, trees are uprooted everywhere and also my car almost got trampled by a tree (my car was about five feet from being smashed!).
I'm leaving this evening for Chi-Town via the Megabus. My roundtrip ticket cost me $30! On top of that, I'm trying to have the cheapest yet greatest vacation ever. How much am I bringing? You'll think I'm crazy, but I'm only bringing $100 for four days in Chicago. I'll be living off of Ramen and a flask of Kamchatka, but I don't care. I'd rather be poor and have my bills paid than live lavishly without electricity! And fortunately I'll be staying with my good friend Michelle, where I'll be able to cook my Ramen and pasta-san-sauce, so I'm certain between all the great (free) things to do in Chicago, I'll be quite content.
And lastly, I'll be blogging a lot over the next few days. Why? Oh, because I won't be able to afford anything else!
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