Grand Canyon

Definitely a must see in the USA :)
Impressive, and pictures will say more than words :)

Nothing beats the feeling of sitting at the edge of a cliff in the grand canyon :D

Update: Some more pictures (Including Sunrise, Hiking)

Death Valley the 2nd

While I was in the Death Valley for the 2nd time I did stay longer in the south.

Minneapolis 2

I already booked the flight from Minneapolis to LA, so took the greyhound back to Minneapolis over Saturday to Sunday
night and crushed at a friends house. We visited Downtown and later the Mall of America, a HUGE mall.

There is even a fun park in the middle :)

Chicago

Chicago was my best city experience in the USA and probably my best city experience whatsoever.
The Hostel was more confortable than most Hostels I have seen in Europe. However, it was a little bit
more expensive (32$) but for Chicago this is quite cheap (nice single room at loop is 1700$ a month!).
The infrastructure included couches, pool, ping pong, kitchen and fridge to use, laundry and a lot of free events.
I got to know more about the USA, Australia, Canada, Russia, Travelling itself...

At the Chicago loop, there are a lot of Universities. Therefore, you can meet a lot of students all around the city.
Public transportation is better than in the rest of the USA and affordable.

Also, the local people I have met were very friendly.

The following things you can see in Chicago, listened highest to lowest priority (in my opinion).
- Sears aka willis tower (Touristic but the highest skyscraper in the USA). Tip: Go shortly before sunset to see
  the view at day and night.
- The loop (Downtown) incl. Millenium Park (The Bean)
- Navy peer. See the Skyline and the huge lake.
- Jazz / Blues Club. Unique experience :) Check also for current Music festivals in town.
- Eat a Chicago pizza and Chicago Dog (Hot Dog).
- Planetarium, or better it's surroundings. Best view of the skyline in my opinion.
  Surrounding includes a very cool small beach and an open park (not as beautiful as lincoln though).
- lincoln park (and perhaps zoo). More beautiful than the usual parks...
  Lincoln Square is also the place to go out in the weekend ;)
- Library at the south border of the loop (different than the libraries I have seen in Zuerich XD :P)
  Offers e.g. free piano practice possibilities, also for tourists :)

Greyhound and stuff you probably don't wanna know...

Bus kommt an: Leute kommen rein, gewisse warten fuer den naechsten Bus, so laeuft das hier...
Sorry uebrigens fuer die fehlenden Umlaute - ein Problem war, dass mein Laptop kaputt gegangen ist.
Dank einem sehr netten und hilfreichen Kollegen in der USA konnte ich ihn einschicken, und habe
mir einen guenstigen neuen gekauft. Maybe I should also write in English, right? Did totally forget that ;P Anyway you cannot sleep very good in the Greyhound, but who needs sleep :)
It's a great way to get from city to city!

I am back online, currently in Chicago

Hallo KollegInnen,
Hallo Internet,

Sorry fuer die lange Wartezeit, aber ich musste viele Dinge erledingen und erkunden ;)
Schuld fuer die laengere Pause ist vor allem, dass die Zeit wie im flug vergangen ist.
Mit Freude blicke ich auf die naechste Woche, Chicago. Im Moment bin ich gerade an der Greyhoundstation in Minneapolis auf
meinen Bus am warten. Werde ueber Sonntag nacht fahren (9.25pm - 5.40am).
Vorfreude gibts auch schon wieder fuer die Westkuste, welche ich ja bereits besuchte...
Dazu in den anderen Posts ein wenig Kurzgeschichten ;)

ps: Bin gut angekommen (yay Sonnenaufgang :) ). Hostel sieht gut aus (hichicago.org)

Minneapolis and Epic Meal Time

Minneapolis was great! In my opinion, I could see more of the "real USA" which in my opinion differs most from our culture (Switzerland) in the following way (If you get bored you can skip this list ;P)
- Go by car rather than public transport (e.g. drive in for food or even for a bank visit :) ) btw. gas is cheaper here (not always in california though).
- Eat in a restaurant. The same Food is not much more expensive in the low to mid budget restaurants than in the
  supermarket. Btw. the food is greate here ;) especially meat is cheap and of high quality (steaks, rips, seafood near cost)
- In addition, it seems to me that the variety of authentic food is much larger here.
  You get really good chinese, japanese (sushi), mexican, indian and of course american food here.
  We have even eaten perugian food here. Instead of cooking seafood, it is put into "lime juice"
  and served with it. The resulting "tiger milk" can be drinken e.g. as shot against hangovers we learned :)
  If you add wodka it gets a panther shot :)
- Eat leftovers, use the microwave. The portions in most restaurants are HUGE. Therefore, leftovers
  are taken at home much more often.
- Most houses are built "cheaper" e.g. have less isolation. The reason for this is claimed to be the
  shorter duration for which the buildings are built (not more than 10 years). Nevertheless some people will
  stay longer but building different will cost you much more...
  You need much more energy to heat such buildings of course.
  Especially in Minneapolis where it will get cold (less than -20 Celsius).
  However, this is accepted as normal here but takes all "take care for the environement" actions and
  events seen around in a different light XD

I stayed in an appartement of a really kind friends.
It continued to write a little bit on my blog, go shopping (laptop since the other broke),
send the broken one to Asus repair in California... In the evening,
eating and drinking was the plan. For instance, a nice all you can eat restaurant serving premium meat of all kinds
on my birthday (post event for las vegas ;) ). And all kinds of different food.

In addition, I looked at the Downtown of Minneapolis and it's history of mills, a huge fitnesscenter,
and visited a lovely small town called Stillwater to see the typical "small america village."

Finally, I got a chance to visit the company where my friend works wich produces mills. Was impressive!

Then I took the Greyhound, all alone, to a hostel in the middle of Chicago!