lalawanderlusterfirstblog-blog - Tumblr blog

lalawanderlusterfirstblog-blog · 6 years ago

Text

My Chicago Trip 2018

My Chicago trip has been the most recent trip of mine. Throughout my journey I was able to see one of my closest friends get married as well as seeing the most breathe taking skyscrapers. In this blog you will find out more about the places I had seen and hopefully this will help anyone who is planning a trip to Chicago. Here is some of the things I had seen whilst I was in Chicago:

Willis Tower – Willis Tower also referred to as the Sears tower, I would strongly recommend this for anyone who has a huge adrenaline rush. From being 1,450 feet up high, this amazing tall building definitely had spectacular views. I was honestly mind blown with how incredible my surroundings were from seeing the buildings, streets and Lake Michigan so clearly. As mentioned before, people who have adrenaline rush would love the glass balcony on the sky deck. However, there was a long queue for pictures to be taken at a very limited time. A total time of one minute was timed by staff and there were only three to four glass balcony areas; it was shocking yet understandable due to the amount of people within one of the biggest tourist attractions. Despite the short time on the glass sky deck every second was very precious and for sure you will be able to take stunning pictures whilst being able to over look Chicago. The Willis Tower was one of my favourite touristy things to do whilst out in Chicago.

360 Chicago – 360 Chicago also referred as The John Hancock Tower measuring at 1,127 feet tall, this is the building famously known to have 360 views when going on edge to feel it tilt, which I felt was super exciting and unique. Although, there was additional charges for the tilt experience and again a tight time of one minute. In comparison to the Willis Tower I felt that the Willis tower was more visually satisfying and worth the cost. From my personal opinion it was a great experience overall to go on the 360 tilt, but my time at the Willis tower had given me more of a thrill by having a wider view and not being distracted from my arms aching when I was holding on to the poles on each side. Also due to safety you weren’t allowed to hold any personal cameras but if you have a go pro and a shoulder strap attached to the device they will be allowed on. For the most part 360 Chicago was a good experience to explore especially with the sun light beaming upon the beautiful Chicago.

Cloud gate - This place is a popular area for tourists to take pictures alongside with the famous bean, which is also called the cloud gate sculpture created by Anish Kapoor the Indian born British artist. The bean is the centre piece in Millennium Park. It seemed like a mission just to get a picture without someone coming in front of the camera as it is extremely busy here. However, I feel like this was a perfect place for a chilled out afternoon. I just loved how there was such a wide space for exploring this area and having all the sky scrapers in your view was just amazing. Also close by is Millennium park and crown fountain, these places are super close by and weren’t as busy. Again these places were a nice touch to my trip.

China Town – China town was effortless stunning, if any of you want to see the oriental influenced buildings, quirky and cool restaurants to have dim sums or Korean BBQ to bubble teas. This place has it all and if any of you love cool sculptures of the zodiac signs China town for sure has it. I really enjoyed spending my time here due to the peaceful vibes I got. This place was large and very chilled out, I honestly felt like I wasn’t in Chicago anymore as the area was so detailed that it left me feeling like I just took a train to a part of Asia. If you want to go out during the day to explore there are tons of great souvenir gifts ideas at a reasonable price. They had gifts such as action figures like Dragon Ball Z characters to Asian inspired cute jewellery. I hadn’t gone during the evening but I have heard from friends there are some cool places to go for karaoke and bars, so if you get a chance to check out China town, there are interesting things to discover over there.

How I got around

Getting around without a car can be really tricky in the large streets of Chicago but there alternatives if walking is out of the question. There is of course the two popular options Uber and Lyft, these were very useful at some points within my trip for example some of my friends lived near the suburbs where there was a hour and half walk for the nearest train, if that was the case there was Uber or Lyft which took around 15-20 minutes to get in to the city and wasn’t too costly and time consuming. While splitting the cost with a friend and using Uber pool this would be a total of $6.50 each. The next option was the straight forward and simple CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) which was similar to London’s tube map. The majority of the places I explored were allocated in the centre places such as Lake, Chicago and Chinatown. Just like the Oyster cards in London there is something called the Ventra card. Once you purchase one for $3, this will get you around without the need of tapping your card out when using the exits unlike London. To sum up, if you’re a regular user of public transport then using trains in Chicago will be very simple and easy if you are nearby to a train station. Otherwise I could imagine how inconvenient it is to get to use public transport if you live around the suburbs with no stations nearby. This resulted you to use Uber and Lyft or renting a car would be very useful.

Food Food Food!

For those who know me well know I am a big food lover. There were numerous options to eat, some of the places I ate was the popular and tasty Peqoud’s Pizza, usually I’m not a huge fan of pizza (I know, very rare) but the pizza out there was super amazing and filling. I mean all the food out in Chicago was generally super sized, but Peqoud’s is a good shout. The majority of Mexican food places were super delicious too and the generic fast food places such as Panda express, Chick-fil-A and Taco bell were highly appetising. Some friends and I went to the Nutella cafe which was a very cosy place and they had not much options on the menu but did sell good standard crepes. The top two foods and drink I highly recommend was in the Heartland cafe with their wide selection of good food, this cafe was very original and incredible. This place is also organic and gluten friendly, what I suggest to get is the unusual but mouth watering Asian BBQ chicken sandwich (includes kimchi!). This was such an impressive place that really caters to all. Also my favourite drink I would get out there was the Abuelita hot chocolate. Just WOW! You can find Abuelita in most Mexican cafes, I feel like this drink takes hot chocolate to another level, please try this drink if you love hot chocolate. I promise you these suggestions won’t disappoint.

Regardless of having such a amazing time in Chicago. I wanted to mention important on going issues that were huge eye openers whilst I was out there. These were the high rates of homelessness and gun crime. Many times we might try to ignore the hard truth about severe problems going on in our world. But as human beings we need to get better at facing the issues and notice that people are trying to survive everyday in a struggle. How do we change? From using the knowledge and seeing these issues upfront, I can only try and make some what difference by noticing there is constant problem in our society and just remembering to try and be a better person. I know there are many people that might feel helpless but from being aware of important topics and not ignoring problems, I always think how we can be better as humans. To sum up, thank you so much for reading my first blog about my recent travels. I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. Chicago honestly has been a massive pleasure to discover and I hope you have found what you were looking for. If you have been to Chicago or have any questions please feel free to share a comment. I hope you stay tuned for daily updates about my life experiences. I look forward to seeing you on my next post.

Love Lala Wanderluster

#blogger #chicago #lalawanderluster

0 notes