Wednesday
Arrived in Chicago. Immigration was super-fast! Colour me shocked; I ended up having to wait for my luggage. Unthinkable.
It helped that they actually had sufficient people manning the desks, as well as a kind of pre-check booth before you actually spoke to the immigration officer.
So, yeah, I got out and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amilyn picked me up and it was good.
Thursday
A bit jetlagged, but this is fixed with the application of coffee. From Starbucks. Which is pretty piss-weak, even if the coffee itself isn't bad.
On the other hand, the cup of coffee was huge:
In Australian cafes, this is a large size coffee. In America, it's the smallest size they would let me order.
An example of comparative cup sizes - these are Canadian sizes, but they apply to Australia, too:
A 'regular' coffee to me is the 'extra small' size - 8oz. A 'large' is the 10oz - now the 'small' size on the Tim Horton's diagram. The smallest size that Starbucks would let me have was the 12oz. Needless to say, I didn't finish it.
Thursday night, I went with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ailelie to the Geek Bar in Damen. Didn't get any outside shots of the bar area, alas. The picture below of the cars is taken from the L station at Damen.
Damen feels pretty much like Sydney's Newtown, except with more donut shops. It's got a lot of hipsters, a lot of burger joints and donut places, and a certain vibe that has that twenty-to-thirty-something feel about it. So, Newtown.
Friday
I was hoping to meetfrea_o on Friday, but she had personal things come up, so that was a no-go. Maybe next time (or when she comes to Australia; for serious, if you ever come to Australia, I will happily arrange to meet up and take you places to eat or walk or cycle or tourist or museum or whatever).
Anyway, instead of meeting Frea, in the morning I went cycling withamilyn in the streets around her place. And, believe it or not, it was fic research! (In the comics, Maria comes from Chicago and I have a fic that requires a bit more neighbourhood knowledge of the area.)
There were streets that seriously need upgrading, and, at one point, stairs.
We weren't expecting the stairs.
It turned out needed a day where I could fall asleep on the bed around 2pm and be woken up at 6pm to go to dinner. Which was Ethiopian at Ras Dashen. If you can do slightly spicy, and you're not going to be picky about the food, I highly recommend Ras Dashen.
The 'pancake' is used to pick up chunks of the fillings (meats, pulses, cheese, vegies) and eaten. There's cheese, beef, lamb, chickpeas, lentils, cabbage, spinach, and carrots&potatoes in that picture, plus probably a couple of other things that I've forgotten.
And it was all delicious.
We went for dessert at a frozen yoghurt bar. Where I asked for a rocky road (chocolate frozen yoghurt, choc chips, and marshmallows) with Raspberries...and didn't get any raspberries. Boo.
I spotted bacon chocolate, but didn't buy any. Apparently the bacon isn't so good at keeping it's crunch in the chocolate.
It occurs to me that much of my photography tends to be food related. :) Sorry. A bad habit from Sydney, where I don't really take photos of the scenery/things because it's all familiar. Food, on the other hand, is always new and interesting, wherever you go in the world. However, on Saturday I went to Elgin and took lots of photos of not-food things, so wait for that!
Today (Monday), I'm meeting witheverbright_mourning. Tomorrow will be quiet (and writing), and then Wednesday is Atlanta and DRAGON*CON!
Arrived in Chicago. Immigration was super-fast! Colour me shocked; I ended up having to wait for my luggage. Unthinkable.
It helped that they actually had sufficient people manning the desks, as well as a kind of pre-check booth before you actually spoke to the immigration officer.
So, yeah, I got out and
amilyn picked me up and it was good.Thursday
A bit jetlagged, but this is fixed with the application of coffee. From Starbucks. Which is pretty piss-weak, even if the coffee itself isn't bad.
On the other hand, the cup of coffee was huge:
In Australian cafes, this is a large size coffee. In America, it's the smallest size they would let me order.
An example of comparative cup sizes - these are Canadian sizes, but they apply to Australia, too:
A 'regular' coffee to me is the 'extra small' size - 8oz. A 'large' is the 10oz - now the 'small' size on the Tim Horton's diagram. The smallest size that Starbucks would let me have was the 12oz. Needless to say, I didn't finish it.
Thursday night, I went with
ailelie to the Geek Bar in Damen. Didn't get any outside shots of the bar area, alas. The picture below of the cars is taken from the L station at Damen. Damen feels pretty much like Sydney's Newtown, except with more donut shops. It's got a lot of hipsters, a lot of burger joints and donut places, and a certain vibe that has that twenty-to-thirty-something feel about it. So, Newtown.
Friday
I was hoping to meet
frea_o on Friday, but she had personal things come up, so that was a no-go. Maybe next time (or when she comes to Australia; for serious, if you ever come to Australia, I will happily arrange to meet up and take you places to eat or walk or cycle or tourist or museum or whatever).Anyway, instead of meeting Frea, in the morning I went cycling with
amilyn in the streets around her place. And, believe it or not, it was fic research! (In the comics, Maria comes from Chicago and I have a fic that requires a bit more neighbourhood knowledge of the area.)There were streets that seriously need upgrading, and, at one point, stairs.
We weren't expecting the stairs.
It turned out needed a day where I could fall asleep on the bed around 2pm and be woken up at 6pm to go to dinner. Which was Ethiopian at Ras Dashen. If you can do slightly spicy, and you're not going to be picky about the food, I highly recommend Ras Dashen.
The 'pancake' is used to pick up chunks of the fillings (meats, pulses, cheese, vegies) and eaten. There's cheese, beef, lamb, chickpeas, lentils, cabbage, spinach, and carrots&potatoes in that picture, plus probably a couple of other things that I've forgotten.
And it was all delicious.
We went for dessert at a frozen yoghurt bar. Where I asked for a rocky road (chocolate frozen yoghurt, choc chips, and marshmallows) with Raspberries...and didn't get any raspberries. Boo.
I spotted bacon chocolate, but didn't buy any. Apparently the bacon isn't so good at keeping it's crunch in the chocolate.
It occurs to me that much of my photography tends to be food related. :) Sorry. A bad habit from Sydney, where I don't really take photos of the scenery/things because it's all familiar. Food, on the other hand, is always new and interesting, wherever you go in the world. However, on Saturday I went to Elgin and took lots of photos of not-food things, so wait for that!
Today (Monday), I'm meeting with
everbright_mourning. Tomorrow will be quiet (and writing), and then Wednesday is Atlanta and DRAGON*CON!Tags: