The Chicago Bean

After spending a day  of sightseeing the Windy City, it was the Bean in Millennium Park that really managed to get my attention. The enormous sculpture is made of stainless steel and is designed to reflect the city's skyline. Both tourists and locals seemed to have great fun playing with it, me included.

One Dollar Ride to Chicago

I am on my way to Chicago, on a one dollar ticket. By booking my tickets in early February I managed to secure a return ticket to Chicago with Megabus for $11.50 - a very decent price for a for a six hour bus ride.

Compared to Greyhound, where a significant amount of the passengers were homeless and a little scary looking, riding with Megabus is more like taking a long-distance coach in Europe. It feels safe, it is clean, and you do not have to worry about anyone stealing your sandwich while you are sleeping. The free wireless, which I am taking advantage of at the moment, is also a great plus.

The only major problem with Megabus is that they do not have that many routes yet. If they did, I would  have been more than happy to backpack across the States with them. Oh, and cup holders would be nice.

Tickets can only be booked at Megabus.com - it is not possible to purchase a ticket on the bus.

Five Hours in Paradise

While I was in Miami I had an obsession about going to Key West, so even when I realised I could only do it as a daytrip, I still had to go. The trip included five hours in Key West and a total of seven hours driving to and from the mainland. It was worth it though. The island is like a Disney project with a twist of madness to it.

Key West is the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys, a string of Caribbean-like islands in southeast United States. The Keys are connected to mainland by bridges, the longest being 10 kilometres long. Key West is known for rum drinking, key lime pie, and is said to be the place those who are too weird for Miami go.

Even I, who is quite used to bridges, found it fascinating to take the ocean road to Key West.

Key West is paradise, at least if you are to believe the many signs scattered around the island. However, a little bird told me that the reason the island in such a pristine condition is because of the Mexican and Cuban immigrants who are up at 5am washing away puke and other horrors. Most of these people cannot afford to live in Key West and some of them even commute daily from the mainland. I guess there is no such thing as paradise.

Pelicans are a common sight in both Miami and Key West.

Key West is actually closer to Cuba than it is to Miami. It is only 170 km from Havana and many Cubans have managed to make their way to Florida over the years.

Ernest Hemingway, or "the due with the wives" as an elderly American gentleman called him, had a house at Key West. It is now a museum, and since they had a spring-break special for students I ventured inside. It turned out to be one of the highlights of my Key West experience. The guide was incredibly funny and the house was filled with six-toed cats. More than 30 cats live on the property and are free to do as they like. All of them are descendants from Hemingway's own six-toed cat.

Memories of Miami

Miami is a beach paradise with upmarket shopping, daiquiri stands on every corner and glamorous, beautiful people doing nothing but tanning and partying. But Miami is also a conservative, Hispanic community with cigar shops, Cuban street art and Haitian food outlets. Throw in a thriving gay community, washed-out hippies and some rednecks, and you are starting to get the feel of the place.

I quite took to Miami. It is quirky, at least if you dare to venture further than South Beach, and I loved the randomness of it all. The city also has a half decent public-transportation system, so it is possible to get just about anywhere. Miami is like most American cities though - spread out - so you need to put in both effort and time to track down the interesting places.

 

This hammerhead shark was the largest they had caught this season. They often just let them go as they are not suitable for food, but the person who caught this one wanted it brought to shore to take a picture. I do not approve of that decision, but it clearly did not stop me from posing with it once it was there.

 

Half the point of going to Miami was because it is a generally warm place that has beaches. It was not really warm enough to swim, at least not by my standards, but the beach was a brilliant place for people watching. I do not know who wrote this or what it means, but it sure looked cute.

Red Bull had an art exhibition where local artists could participate. I quite liked the concept.

I went on a daytrip to the Everglades, a swamp-like area that actually is a very slow running river. All kinds of charming creatures live here, including alligators.

Honky Tonkin' in Nashville

Nashville is the city of country music and people come from all over world to visit the city's honky tonks - bars with live music - and to soak up the history of the place. Since the 1920's anyone who is anything within the country scene is likely to have had some affiliation with Nashville, including Taylor Swift who lived here in her teens. But there is of course more to Nashville than country music. Line dancing, mechanical-bull riding and shopping for tacky cowboy souvenirs are also highly popular activities.

I spent the last weekend of my spring break in Nashville on ANSA USA's annual meeting. It was great fun meeting other Norwegians and to participate in the more political side of ANSA. I am also happy I got to visit Nashville, because the city is like no other place I have been. And that's a good thing.

I spent well over six hours at this honky tonk waiting for my bus to leave. It was not a bad place to wait, and despite being extremely tired, I did not want to leave to head back to Kentucky. The live bands that played were that good. And the only expense was a dollar or two in tips.

Riding in style: the hotel we were supposed to stay at messed up our booking, so they gave us a free limo ride instead. 

Elvis recorded a few of his songs in Nashville and the city does not seem too ashamed to be connected to the king of rock.