Badshaa’s Blog - Travel and more…

After another hard working week it was time to have another trip! This time it was to Chicago. The distance between Chicago and Detroit is around 300 miles, so close to 500 km. Again no travel partner, thus I took my car, full tank, booked a hostel in Chicago and started my ride on Saturday morning around 6.

Kind of slow driving because of US speed limit… but also because of the deer hunting season… a crash with a deer is bad for the car and the driver… all the way long I saw car parts on the side of the road, deer blood, dead deer etc. But I still managed to get to Chicago in a time frame which shocked my colleagues at work they said “oh you Germans and your Autobahn!!!”

Arrival at parking garage, that was recommended by the hostel (http://www.hichicago.org) which is a nice hostel, good security, great location but not much party going on there….

I checked in, immediately took a map of the city and started my trip with a walk through downtown and the financial district:

The financial district has a really nice architecture…. old style buildings mixed with modern:

Reminds you of the Batman movies….

The destination of my walk was the Sears Tower, also known today as the official Willis Tower;

“Willis Tower, formerly named Sears Tower, is a 108-story 1,451 feet (442 m) skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. At the time of its completion in 1974, it was the tallest building in the world, surpassing the World Trade Center towers in New York. Currently, Willis Tower is the tallest building in the United States and the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the world as well as the fifth tallest building in the world to the roof.”

There are two tall towers in Chicago, the Sears Tower and the Hancock Building….. I went to the Sears tower, as I wanted to go to the tallest building, but my friends told me that the view from the Hancock Tower is also pretty good.

Me at the ground in front of the Sears tower:

damn that building is really tall!

Anyway, I bought the ticket, there was not a long queue and I arrived pretty fast at the viewing platform….and look at the view…unbelievable!

and the best thing about the Sears tower are the glass balconies….

Afterward I went to have a lunch at the famous Giordano’s.

The stuffed pizza is the signature dish of Chicago….. I ordered the smallest version but I could not finish it.

From there I straight went to the coast line, where you can find a fantastic open air concert hall and a great park with a special metallic sculpture and a great view at Chicago’s skyline:

“Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed “The Bean” because of its bean-like shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 feet by 66 feet by 42 feet (10 m × 20 m × 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons).

Kapoor’s design was inspired by liquid mercury and the sculpture’s surface reflects and distorts the city’s skyline. Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate’s 12-foot (3.7 m) high arch. On the underside is the “omphalos” (Greek for “navel”), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections.”

and the open air concert hall:

From there my way took me to the Navy Pier, the most touristic place in Chicago, but also the best place to have a great view of Chicago at night:

“Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot (1,010 m) long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million, equivalent to $89.7 million today.”

training going on….

of course the famous Bubba Gump restaurant:

still waiting until it gets really dark….

better….

picture taken from a ride on the famous ferris wheel:

on my way back to the hostel

the metro system is great, does not need much time to get from A to B….

in the evening I relaxed at the hostel, met some fellow travelers. One of them was Elena. An very interesting person, she is a scientist, originated from Ukraine, studying and working now in Florida and her main work is to grow nano pipes. She does know a lot of stuff and is really interested into science. She went to Chicago for a conference where her university paid the stay for the conference, etc. Anyway we had a good chat and decided to do some sightseeing together the next day.

By the way the breakfast at the hostel was pretty good…I can recommend it!

At the Breakfast I met Elena and we both decided to go to the Grant park with the Buckingham fountain,

“Grant Park (originally named Lake Park) is a large park (319 acres or 1.29 km²) in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The park’s most notable features are Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain and the Art Institute of Chicago. Grant Park is frequently referred to as the city’s front yard. It is bordered on the north by Randolph Street, on the south by Roosevelt Road, on the west by Michigan Avenue and on the east by Lake Shore Drive”

Buckingham fountain, unfortunately turned of, as it was winter…..but check out the cool pics of it in the Internet….

and then we were on our way to the planetarium

“Karel Havlíček Borovský (Czech pronunciation: [ˈkarɛl ˈɦavliːtʃɛk ˈborofskiː]; Borová, today Havlíčkova Borová; October 31, 1821 - Prague, July 29, 1856) was a Czech writer, poet, critic, politician, journalist, and publisher.”

The planetarium was actually quite nice! It is a good plan, especially when the weather is not that great. As you know Chicago is known as the windy city…..During the main session in the planetarium and afterwards, there was a question and answer session, guess who asked over 10 questions? My friend Elena, she was embarrassed by her self, asking so many questions, but it was fun and most people enjoyed it. The real fun fact was that the guy, doing the session was actually also a science student and also participated at the conference where Elena took part. I swear guys, for some 15 minutes I felt like in a episode of The Big Bang Theory, but it was fun and I learned a lot! @Elena, hopefully we meet some other time again and discuss more about culture, living and the sense of life

From the planetarium, we did some more walking along the Michigan Avenue (the main major shopping street of Chicago). Actually there are some great stores which one should visit, such as the Garmin stor (navigation systems and a lot of other toys for us guys!) and Giradeli’s sweet store.

From there we went back to the hostel. I took my stuff from the hostel locker, went to the garage to get my car, got the gas tank full and started the ride back to Rochester Hills, where I arrived around 11 in the evening. I would definitely visit Chicago again if I could.

Until the next trip!

Kawe

So,

after a hard but very interesting and funny week of work I started my Saturday with a day trip to Detroit City.

“Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded on July 24, 1701, by the Frenchman Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. Its name originates from the French word détroit for strait, characterizing its location on the river connecting the Great Lakes.”

But as it is also known as the city with the GM headquarter, Detroit really suffered from the crisis. The world even call it the dead city. Well but I was still curious to explore the city. My colleagues at work gave me some advice on where to go, not to go, where to park my car etc. One thing all of my colleagues had in common, all were wondering why I was going to visit Detroit….

Anyway, street name of parking garage programmed into the navigation system and lets start the ride to Detroit. The ride was quite comfortable and the city did not had that much traffic. I parked in the parking garage of the famous greektown casino, which is quite famous in Detroit (and it is a safe place to park your car.)

Actually I had chosen a really bad time for visiting Michigan and Detroit….. The winter months are always quiet, not much going on except Christmas parades, as the whole state has to deal every year with masses of snow. I learned that Detroit has a lot of festivals and culture highlights going on in the summer…. My bad luck, but still the city had to show some nice places:

GM Headquarters:

Beautiful old buildings that remind me of the scenery of Gotham City in Batman….

The great Hart Plaza:
“Philip A. Hart Plaza is an open, mostly hard-surfaced park in downtown Detroit, Michigan, along the Detroit River. It is located more or less on the site at which Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac landed in 1701 when he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the settlement that became Detroit. In 2009, the Detroit-Wayne County Port Authority opened its new cruise ship passenger terminal and dock at Hart Plaza, adjacent to the Renaissance Center.“

And Mr. Cadillac

The tunnel to Canada was a Gateway to freedom to many slaves during the slavery in the United States:

A look over the Detroit River to Windsor, Canada:

I enjoyed a really nice walk along the promenade of the Detroit river:

Afterwards I went to the Greektown casino. The town was pretty empty, no one working on Sunday, but where are all the people? Well I found them all in the casino… I can’t believe that so many people are gambling… the casino was packed and it is not the only casino in Detroit. I just tried out the slot machines and won some dollars, which was enough for me… I am not that big gambler….Walking through the streets of Detroit downtown and especially Greektown was a bit intimidating… a lot of homeless people and wanna be gangsters… you could see people dealing with drugs, I also saw from some distance a robbery where three police cars arrived etc…. Detroit is not the safest place to live….

After the casino I went to a store which is called Fishbone’s. A great restaurant, that serves all kind of foods….but it is specialised in the seafood based on the cooking traditions of the southern states. Well I must admit that I took a chicken burger…but boy that was the best chicken burger of my life!

Unfortunately I couldn’t find some people to hang out with in Detroit or to go for some clubbing…therefore I took my car and made my way back home… It was a nice day trip and Detroit is not that bad…

I also did not had time to see more of Detroit but recommended are also the Easter market (lots of good food), the art museum (I am not that big fan of an art museum). Close to Detroit are the Ford museum (I visited it in January 2010 (highly recommended), there will be later a blog post about it) and I also went to the Detroit autoshow (also covered in a separate blog entry)

Stay tuned!

My flight to Detroit was quite relaxing. I first flew from Duesseldorf to Frankfurt, as I was visiting my family before I vanish for 3 months

Then from Frankfurt I had a direct flight to Detroit. It took me around 9 hours. Also we can add 6 hours of time difference (Eastern Standard Time vs. European Central Time).

Actually everything was well prepared. After landing in Detroit I was surprised by the empty “international” airport. Took my luggage, went to a public phone and dialed the number of the taxi company which then would pick me up. Soon the car arrived, the driver was already screaming the name of my companies name… the ride from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport to my place in Rochester Hills takes about 45 minutes by car…. And I can tell you, it was a hell of a ride….

Why? Well first of all my taxi driver was bald and looking a bit crazy. Then the talks started, he tried to program his navigation system via voice and ended up with cursing it endlessly. Then after talking and swearing with people on the phone, he told me stories of the holy land of America of course by using the words f***, a****, and so on. Then he told me about his trips to Windsor, Canada, which is just a couple hundred meters through a tunnel from Detroit. Why did he told me about it? I don’t know, he just started talking about that prostitution is illegal in Michigan, legal in Windsor and so on and so on. During the talks I was really surprised that we did not ended up in some car accidents, or a police car chase with helicopter and cameras….

Well in the end we made it to the apartment. But first we had to pass the gate. Unfortunately the gate key was not working…. so after a car of a resident passed the gate, this crazy head pushed to gas pedal to an edge, ran the car through the gate while it was open and stopped with a drift like you never have seen before. This guy should really work for the police or some gangs….seriously…

Alright, the area where my apartment was, was a quite small safe area known as Oakwood, River Oaks North apartments. This is not usual for the average European. You must know that the living areas are quite separated and located far away. Thus you have small communities living in a secured or less secured area.

Anyway the apartment is quite big, one large living room, kitchen, bathroom with tub, storage room, a walk in closet, a large bedroom, bedroom and living room with a nice TV :-)  and a nice terrace toward the forest.

Here are some pics:

The day I arrived, it was already close to midnight, thus the pictures are from another day. The first interesting thing that happened to me the 2nd day in the US was, when I encountered three deers in front of my terrace…. You must know that the most accidents in Michigan happen with deers.

Of course my company also rented a nice car for me, because without a car….you can do absolutely, and I really mean it…absolutely nothing in Rochester Hills. You even have to take your car to get rid of the garbage bag. So this was my nice car for 3 months:

In a nice covered parking lot, helped a lot when it was snowing….

So day 2 was a Sunday, thus after waking up I checked in the Web where the groceries stores and the company are and then went for a nice ride. I am glad that the car was delivered with a navigation system I shopped at Trader Joes (a tip from Bruce and his wife Susan) which is basically the “Bio” chain of Aldi. Great shopping, good prices and good service with all the packing/bagging. We need something like that in Germany. Although it really took me some time to get adjusted to the sizes of meals, groceries etc. as in the US everything is bigger.

Day 3 was my first day at work. Luckily the company was only 3 minutes (by car) away from my apartment. This is what the company looks like:

and as an average office worker in the US you don’t get an office, you get a cubicle! The thing you know from watching American movies….

Thats my cubicle!

So I was welcomed and introduced to my colleagues by Bruce. Given a security badge to access the company and then after setting up the IT, mobile phone, land line etc. Going out for some lunch with the boss Bruce. One thing which I noted at the lunch which is unique for the US, free refills of soft drinks at most of the restaurants….

As the cantine was really bad (everyone said this) I often went to get my food at places around the area, subway, etc. But my favorite store was Panera bread….great soups and sandwiches. You should check it out when you happen to be in the US.

As first days went by, I was in the routine, working on US and German tasks, learning the American way of working and living… for example don’t take the question “Hi, How are you” not seriously….. short answer and short re-question. And I also got ready for the next weekend to visit the city of Detroit.

So what happened next after my trip to Zürich?

Well as some of you guys might know, I also started working within the international department of my company. Therefore I am engaged in supporting a couple of countries regarding internal IT etc.

As part of my new full time position I was also offered a foreign development placement, where I could again expand my horizon I immediately took the opportunity, asked my boss where he would like me to work and after much consideration we decided to go for the US! At the beginning I was not quite sure about this, as I am a big Asia fan and I always wanted to work and spend some time in Japan and China. But in the end one always knows, it does not matter which country you visit

So I packed my things. My destination would be a Rochester Hills, a suburb of Detroit in the State of Michigan. My new boss, Bruce was looking forward to it! So was I, that’s why I started immediately with the preparation of my travel, documents, visa etc. All went well…..

So here some Information about Michigan:
“The State of Michigan is located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe word mishigama, meaning “large water” or “large lake”"

That sounds quite good, but it was a bit different when I started thinking about Detroit. The motor city, city of cars, which nowadays is called sometimes the dead city, due to the crisis that hit GM and other car companies. But even this could stop me from going there

And here some information about Rochester Hills:
“Rochester Hills is a city in northeast Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 68,825. The 2008 census estimate places the population at 69,014. The City of Rochester in bounded on the north, south, and west by Rochester Hills. Rochester Hills is an affluent suburb on the northern outskirts of Metro Detroit. Most residents work in or around either Detroit or Flint, due to its near equal proximity to each.“

So in my next posts you will read about my time in Rochester Hills, the work and social life there, and of course about my trips to some other places in the US