LLWorldTour

On a crisp fall day, you can walk around downtown Chicago and often catch a whiff of cocoa-scented air making the trek to work just a bit easier.  Unfortunately, large cities aren’t known for their sweet smells. Often pungent odors like trash, urine, and exhaust fumes come to mind when we think of the scents of a city. But oh no my friends, not Chicago. The Blommer Chocolate factory, which is not too far from the loop, has been manufacturing that rich, chocolaty goodness for 70 years. Within smelling range of the factory, it’s nearly impossible to find anyone who doesn’t enjoy the rich, brownie-like aroma as they trudge to the office.

And I’ve always been flummoxed as to why the Chicago Tourism Office does not incorporate this amazing fact into their marketing materials: ‘Chicago - it’s the city that smells like chocolate’ or ‘Chicago - a city dipped in chocolate’ or ‘Sweet Home Chicago - we mean that literally.’

There’s always been a buzz about Chicago with its sparkling downtown skyscrapers, the year-round flower-scaped shoppers’ paradise of Michigan Avenue and the tourist-drawing public art filled Millennium Park. But, now more than ever, the ‘city of big shoulders’ is a thriving, sophisticated, cosmopolitan metropolis filled with young urbanites proud of their town and ready to share why.

Why is Chicago American’s hottest city now? Besides rivaling New York and San Francisco for some of the world’s best restaurants and most diverse neighborhoods, there are some new reasons. The Chicago Cubs - okay, dare I say it… they almost went all the way…again.  They have not won a world series in exactly 100 years, were number one in the national league and consistently stayed on top all season. Well, until they lost. “There’s always next year.”

The home to the world’s first skyscraper is breaking new records again. Just as Donald Trump’s new tower is being completed on the riverfront as the second tallest building in Chicago and North America, the construction of another momentous building is underway. Designed by world renowned Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, the new Chicago Spire, at 2000 feet and with 150 floors, will be the twelfth tallest freestanding structure in the world.  The Spire will surpass Chicago’s Sears Tower to become North America’s tallest tower.

Now that the Beijing Olympics are a thing of the past, all eyes are on Chicago as one of the final contenders for the 2016 Olympics-a campaign the city and mayor Daley are fighting hard.In the event of Chicago being selected by the IOC, the 2016 Games will be the first Summer Olympics held in the Americas since the 1996 Atlanta Games. The final selection will be made on October 2, 2009. Currently, Chicago’s rival cities for the hosting of the Games are Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. It is expected that Chicago’s significant infrastructure and public transport system, world-class architecture, renowned skyline, multi-cultural, historical, and pop-cultural contributions will be positive factors as the Olympics bid is weighed.

And to top it all off, the Chicago’s home son, Barack Obama, will soon be sworn in as the 44^th president of the United States of America. No matter what your political affiliation or whom you voted for in the election, this is an exciting and momentous time in the U.S. and in Chicago in particular. Nearly 100,000 Chicagoans gathered in Grant Park on Chicago’s lakefront on election night in hopes of hearing a victory speech - and they were not disappointed. After 2 years of hard campaigning Barack Obama won the election by a wide margin gaining 364 electoral votes to John McCain’s 174.

The world was watching from Japan to Kenya and Iraq to Vancouver.  Now so many eyes are on Chicago and the Illinois Tourism Board is counting on it. In fact, the Chicago Tourism site offers visitors a glimpse of Obama’s Chicago. I was watching from an election party in France, where something like 95% of the population supported Obama. I was anxious and tired and the boring, very conservative CNN coverage (lest they fall into the premature projections like last time) was hard to keep the interest of my French friends. But then at 6am France time, we had a new president and history was made. The citizens of the United States had spoken and I felt such a pride that I have not felt in a very long time. The only thing missing was me…from Chicago.

If you’ve been following along over the past two years on this blogotastic voyage, you may have noticed I’ve mentioned the City of Chicago…oh thirty times or so. Well, maybe not that many, but it’s been a whole lot. I obviously love my adopted home and am now officially not alone in my admiration. Chicago was recently voted numero uno in a survey taken by the residents of the world’s largest cities. That’s right Chicagoans are the most satisfied with their city overall, beating out London, New York, Paris, Sydney, Los Angeles, and Tokyo.

The first-of-its-kind study measured how people actually feel about living in their city and took the views of 8,600 people living in 14 cities around the world. And it’s even more important now as fifty percent of the world’s population live in cities.

The survey was done by Veolia Environment, the world’s largest environmental services company. And coincidentally, Veolia recently announced that Chicago will be the home of their North American Headquarters. Smart move Veolia – considering you will have cool, happy employees working for ya. Chicago’s Mayor Daley said, “…Chicago can meet the needs of any company in the world from the largest to the smallest and Veolia’s decision further strengthens our reputation as a world-class city.” Amen to that brother. Oh, and go Cubs!

For the first time in my life, I am one of ‘those people’ I always see in the middle of the day lingering over a latte and a laptop at Starbucks. I always wondered who they were and how did they manage to be doing virtually nothing in the middle of a weekday? Now I am one of them. A freelancer. A writer. A vagabond. Slightly jobless and ever so slightly homeless and it’s great.

But it did take me a few days to transition back to this life again. After all my adventures over the last year and a half and all the new relationships I’d forged, after one ‘catch-up’ drink here with old friends, would anyone really care? I had been growing anxious for my return to Chicago. I was excited to see old friends and just a bit trepidatious since it meant kind of an unofficial end to my ‘round the world’ travels. But nothing prepared me for what I really did feel once I was actually in my favorite city. Everything was the same and everything had changed. Nothing seemed different and yet I was different and the little life I had here was no longer here ready for me to just jump back in. Or was it? In some ways, it was like time stood still. While I was off having the most amazing experiences of my life and making more friends than I ever have in such a short time, everything here was pretty much status quo. It was like I never left except for one thing: the life I had assembled for ten years in Chicago had dissolved into the city air. Of course I am being a bit dramatic (I have to keep you interested dear reader); many of my friends were here doing pretty much the same thing they were doing when I left and it was great to see them. The “Ferris wheel” that was my life with my different groups of work/neighbor/activities friends on the ride in different carriages with me in the middle of all the spokes had been broken down and dismantled. Everyone had gotten off and gotten on other rides or even gone to other amusement parks and random traveling carnivals. I felt like after I said all my ‘hellos’ to friends, maybe I’d start to feel down. But I realized that I could settle back down and reassemble this ‘Lubin Ferris Wheel of Fun’ in no time and all would be fine. Although some riders really did up and run away with the circus including one of my best friends who had moved back to Germany while I was gone and the ex-boyfriend, whom I did everything with and went everywhere with, was now in another relationship. Even though I managed to wrangle him out for a beer one night, he was simply just not around. I haven’t missed being in a couple at all, but I have to admit, coming back to Chicago was like a slap of reality. I was out in the world being footloose and fancy free and not in a position to miss it.

But before I could get too sad or nostalgic for the ‘old days,’ I was falling in love with my city all over again. Not only was I catching up with old friends, but also meeting new ones. I was finally meeting some folks who’d contacted me through my website from articles written about my trip or various links on the web. They’d written me over the last two years while I was away, like new pen pals, and now we could actually meet face to face. Meeting lots of new people was one of the best things about my travels so I really enjoyed keeping this going even in my hometown.

When I first returned to Chicago, I have to admit, I was a tad let down–not sure why–but it was a combo of things–missing my trip, having a very, very delayed reaction to my break-up with my ex-boyfriend (after five years of being together in Chicago, I associate a lot of the city with him), and just general stress that comes with the place you actually call ‘home’.

But after a few days of self-wallowing, the sun came out—-literally and figuratively—-and I realized it was springtime in Chicago. There is no better time to enjoy Chicago than in the spring—the enormous lakefront is alive with cyclists and joggers, restaurants put out their alfresco sidewalk tables and chairs, and the Cubs’ season starts.

What a great time to be alive. I re-immersed myself in my city: caught a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, went to a friend’s barbecue, wandered around the phenomenal Millennium Park, caught a couple flicks at the International Latino Film Fest, joined the Chicago Couch Surfer group for a pub crawl in Bucktown, picked up the Emmy award I’d won while I was away (!), and caught up with old and new friends nearly every day and night doing various lunches, dinners, and/or drinks. Before long, I had reclaimed Chicago as my own and once again, had no regrets.

Most that know me today probably think of me as a city girl and rightly so. I love living in the ‘hoods of Chicago—very diverse and brimming with ethnic eateries of all kinds (if you also know me, you know it’s all about the food!). But for the first Eighteen years of my life I grew up in quite a rural, wooded suburb of New Jersey. Yes, NJ has its rural woody side! We lived on the edge of the woods, with tall leafy oaks and elms, where we would often go play and literally swing from the vines. There were no street lights on our hilly street and I would sometimes gaze up at the night sky full of twinkling stars while crickets chirped happily all around. The trees and stars are probably what I miss most about living away from a city.

Manhattan was only forty-five minutes to the east of our house, but we rarely went there. The times we did it was mostly to visit the grandparents. My mom’s parents lived in Brooklyn so we’d drive over the double-decker George Washington Bridge, pass what my brother, David, and I called the tower of “Dr. Shrinker,” which was an ABC TV show in 1976, (the tower itself was actually the High Bridge Water Tower, built in 1872, for the Croton Aqueduct), and through the borough of Brooklyn to the neighborhood of Canarsie. Or we’d be visiting my other Grandma, Esta, who then lived in ritzy Grammercy Park and now in, the ‘it neighborhood of the moment,’ Chelsea. We’d drive through the engineering marvel that is the Lincoln Tunnel where our radio would die out and David and I would shout out when we whizzed by the “New Jersey/New York” border line painted on the white tiled walls of the tunnel. After eight thousand feet of riding under the Hudson River, we’d shoot out into the stinging daylight of New York City to be welcomed by the ubiquitous and grungy ‘squeegee guys.’ These ‘working men’ would just start cleaning your windshield whether you wanted it or not with a filthy rag (anything for a buck!), which would usually make the glass dirtier than it was when you arrived in the Big Apple just moments earlier. Like many things that have been ‘cleaned up’ in NYC, those squeegee guys are no longer there. At least the nuisance is gone, although, maybe now they’ve resorted to something more illegal, yet more profitable, like selling crack.

We would head straight to my grandmother’s apartment building without passing ‘Go’ or ever stopping for some good New York pizza (the best!). So I really wasn’t a city girl at all. And of course the New York City I saw of the 1980’s is not the same city it is today. Even though I was only ten years old or so, it really was a scary place back then—graffiti everywhere, sirens wailing at all hours, and some of the worst crime in the world. But all that has really changed. Times Square, once a nasty home of drugs and ‘triple-x’ peep show houses, is now the center of entertainment and is a shiny mini-Disney World. Like many areas, the 80’s were a rough time, in large part to the cheap drug, crack. And, like many cities now, downtowns and old warehouse districts are being rebuilt, refurbished and rehabbed.

It wasn’t until I was in college and landed a few internships in New York City at WCBS-TV News and “Late Night with David Letterman,” that I began to appreciate the ‘city that never sleeps’ for some its finer offerings. I discovered it had neighborhoods—virtual villages where people could feel part of a smaller community. And I started discovering some of the best food I’d ever had. Growing up, we rarely went out to eat except for the occasional Chinese Food take out (a favorite food of Jews everywhere), the rare pizza slice, or a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich at diners like “Bud’s Family Restaurant” with my mom for our weekly ‘Wednesday-night-divorce-court-approved-dinner.’ So when I first tried Penne with a tomato cream vodka sauce, or sun dried tomatoes, capers, and pesto or some amazing spice infused mashed potatoes from Union Square Café, I was amazed and delighted at the enormous food world that awaited me (and my stomach!). Even just something simple like fresh basil was new and so lovely to me. Of course I also had some great street food too—juicy gyros, falafel pitas with tzatziki sauce, and lest I forget, the best hot dogs, pepperoni pizza, and bagels known to man.

I continued my city love affair when I moved to Chicago six years later…and here more new foods revealed themselves to me—Japanese Sushi with fresh morsels of maguro, flavorful Indian rice biryani and samosas, Middle Eastern cous cous, and the amazing saganaki, spanakopita, and charcoal grilled octopus of Greektown.

Melbourne, Australia is also an epicureans dreamland. It has the third largest Greek population after Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece. Over half of the city dwellers here have a parent that was born somewhere else in the world. Waves of immigrants have brought major cultural influences from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The city sits on and around the banks of the Yarra River and is chock full of different ethnic neighborhoods. In one night in Melbourne you could dine on cuisine from any corner of the globe.

My first week here I had a cold Australian beer at Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream outdoors in the Botanic Gardens, shopped the rows and rows of colorful stalls of fruits, cheeses, and knick knacks at the huge Victoria Market and strolled through Fitzroy, the city’s bohemian enclave where every other establishment on happening Brunswick Street is a café. And, of course, I ate—Malaysian Penang Curry in ethnically diverse Fitzroy, rich Italian gnocchi on Lygon Street in Carlton, the thriving Little Italy neighborhood, sizzling Turkish lamb souvlaki, and Indonesian Nasi Goreng (fried rice) in St. Kilda. It’s a good thing I was walking so much or I’d be as big as a house. Melbourne already seemed to have a friendlier, down to earth vibe that was missing in Sydney and as a former suburbanite turned city gal–I knew I was going to like this lively, colorful, and tasty town.

I’m in a metal capsule hurling through the atmosphere towards the equator. It still hasn’t sunk in yet, but this has to be one of the coolest AND hardest things I’ve ever done. I know I will get used to it, but I also know that the first few days (hopefully no more) will be the hardest. But it’s not like I haven’t gone through similar feelings before. I went 800 miles away from home to College in
South Carolina and didn’t know a soul. I cried for the first week or so when I got to my hot, sticky, non-air-conditioned dorm room. I missed my high school boyfriend terribly. I hated my new, odd roommate from Georgia (who’s father happened to be the lawyer for James Brown—but that’s another story I don’t even know). It wasn’t even half way into the semester when I was already applying to transfer to universities ‘back home’ like Rutgers and the University of Delaware.

By the way, does anyone know ANYTHING about
Delaware?? It’s like the secret state. I must go there on my next
US tour. I mean I literally lived in the state just to the north of it (NJ for all you geographically challenged) and never heard a peep out of it. I know where I’m from it was a bit overshadowed by the huge lurking metropolis just to my east, but c’mon…not even one news story? It’s kind of like
Canada. Eh?Anyway, I was accepted into the
University of Delaware and Rutgers, but come my second semester at USC, I’d already started having fun and decided to stay.

I also took a huge leap of faith when I moved to Chicago and only knew about two people there—one was my friend Jim who with his girlfriend at the time (now wife), Jennifer, took me out for one of my first dinners in Chicago at Rosebud on Rush. And they just took me out for one of my last dinners too. To this day we remain great friends.

Chicago was a bit easier of a transition—I had a great new job at ABC and I loved the city in an instant. Plus it was good to be back in “yankee” territory again. Better food, cooler people, and…windier wind.

As the time ticked down on my days in Chicago it slowly started to hit me and I began to “feel” what I’d been telling people I was about to do. It’s much easier to SAY you are traveling around the world for a year than to know what it FEELS like to actually do it! The last days were also filled with so much stress—packing, selling car, renting condo, cleaning, etc., that I didn’t even have time to sit and reflect on what I was doing. I packed up all my stuff and put it in those big crates that they just haul away to some far off warehouse (in this case Libertyville). Slightly unnerving to see all your belongings being fork lifted down the street.

My final week in Chicago friends took me out to dinner every night. It was as if I was on death row waiting for my execution and I was getting to pick my favorite meals. The last 6 nights in a row consisted of Thai, Sushi, Middle Eastern, Italian, Indian, and finally, Greek. Opa!!

So, where was I? Oh yeah, on a plane to Costa Rica. As we climbed altitude and broke through the clouds, a bright luminous full moon came into view. Gotta be a sign.I hope my transition time into this trip does not take a semester. I don’t think it will. Many people have said to me that ‘I’m living so many others dreams.’ While many have also said what I’m doing ‘takes a lot of guts.’ So the way I see it, those two things don’t exactly mix. I think in fantasy this is a dream trip for many. But in reality, the packing, leaving everything, quitting, saying good-bye for a year is way too much a risk for most. I had thought about doing this a while back, but even for me it was too much. But then this year…my plan seemed to slowly evolve right before my eyes and before I realized it—I was going to do it. Kind of like most other big decisions in life—you never really know what the outcome will be until you do it.

(ding) “The captain has just turned on the saftey belt sign, please raise trays and seat backs to their upright and locked position and fasten your seat belts as we prepare for landing. Gracias”

So…here I go.

After several showings, I just sold my sweet 1989 Red Honda Prelude Si. 5 Speed, sunroof, fast, fun, economical—this was my favorite car…Well, only car…ever!
I had listed it on Craigslist about a month ago and had all kinds of interest, but no actual cash.

I bought this car in 1992 when I was a sophomore in college. It was my first and has been the ONLY car I’ve ever owned.

My mom and step dad found it a newspaper ad. It was at a BMW dealer where a NJ lawyer had traded it in for a more ‘lawyerly’ BMW.

It was perfect for me…and has been ever since! I drove it around South Carolina (where I went to school) for several years and it helped me out on several road trips back north to New Jersey. Then, in 1998, it carried me to my new home of Chicago. I drove it a lot less here. Let’s just say when I moved here 9 years ago it had 91,000 miles on it. Now it has 104,000. That’s about 2000 miles a year. Not much, huh?

It suffered a bit here thanks to the harsh winters and street parking it had to endure in Chicago. Little Prelude even got hit once while parked–classic hit and run. A nice neighbor actually saw the whole thing, but I could never get the people to admit it.

She’s got a few minor dings and scratches now, mostly due to parallel parkers riding up on the hood. Someone even stole my “H” emblem off my hood once. I pictured some guy wearing it around his neck–nice bling!

One year I even contacted the original owner–the lawyer from NJ. I know I’m a bit odd, but it was fun writing to him ten years later to tell him his old car was doing just fine. He actually wrote me back and said he thought he had made a mistake trading it in and missed the peppy prelude!

Of course, you know I have all the maintenance records in alphabetical order in the glove box. And I’ve been told the interior looks brand new. I’m not one to junk up the inside of my car. Like some, I never used it as a storage locker.

So, at least five people had already told me, “I’ll take it.”
But for some reason or another, they never did. Some just didn’t show up. One totally wanted it and accepted it at my price, then turned around a day later and said he wanted it for $500 less…after already agreeing to buy it! One said her son didn’t want red after all. One said it was overpriced. One wanted his mechanic son-in-law to check it out, but it wouldn’t be for another week.
But finally ‘a nice Jewish boy’ came along and gave me a $200 cash deposit. I wanted to secure a sale, but wanted to keep my car until the day before I left the country. After he test drove it and literally kicked the tires he said he would take it. I honestly got teary eyed! I did not expect that. I mean it’s a car for god sakes! But it’s been with me for fourteen years and just kind of confirms all the changes I’m making. So we signed a ‘letter of intent’ two weeks ago and I just watched him drive away in it. For the first time, I was nervous about driving it. I could just imagine something happening to it in the last 2 weeks I owned it even though I never got in an accident in 14 years. I couldn’t have sold it to a better guy—he even called me the following night to jokingly give me my “daily Prelude update!”

It was an awesome car, fun to drive and served me better than I could have imagined.

Okay. Here’s the thing. I quit my job. I’m slowly going broke each day. I used to always say, “money comes in, money goes out.”
But now I guess it’s just “money goes out.” So as I hit the road, airspace, and waterways of the world to explore further recesses unknown I also am hoping to make a small amount of cash along the way. How, you ask? Well, the first ideas are more conventional considering my line of work. I have contacted some production companies in hopes of being able to do some freelance producing of segments for travel shows and the like. I have also written to a slew of travel magazines (i.e. Budget Travel, National Geographic Traveler, etc.), as well as chick mags like Marie Claire and Jane. I’m hoping to write some articles about your average-girl-in-the-world and the not-so-average things she encounters circumnavigating the globe. Oh, and of course, I will be taking tons of photographs and would love nothing more than to publish some of these.

So, now for the unconventional ways to make money. How can I get this blog sponsored? Some of you may have heard or seen www.wherethehellismatt.com.
This guy travels all over the world, dances for a few seconds in each locale and posts them on his website. It’s oddly charming and BAM, he’s sponsored by a gum company and they pay for his next trip. Now he’s freakin’ famous with a possible show deal in the works. So…what praytell can I do??
Here are some of the bad ideas some friends and I came up with that I can’t do (for obvious reasons):

• Get arrested in each country and post my mugshot—obvious issues
• Show my boobs in each country—this could lead to the aforementioned arrest
• Take a picture with a famous person in each country—too much work
• Kiss someone on the cheek in each country—idea of Jen Ward. I liked it at the time and started with her and her husband at the Cheesecake Factory in Old Orchard. Kind of fitting huh—cheesecake pics at Cheesecake Factory…hmmm…maybe they’ll sponsor me.

But I fear all the odd implications or just plain hijinks that could ensue from kissing complete strangers. Or it could just promote total world peace and harmony and land me the Nobel Peace Prize. Ya think? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
I’m looking for YOUR ideas. Got any? Send ‘em in. Just post to the comments section of this post.

Well, not exactly, but it was party time! Last night was my big send off party. This was my ‘world tour shower,’ so to speak. Or maybe it was more of a ‘world tour bachelorette party?’ Either way it was a blast. So fun! All the cool kids were there. Just want to give a shout out (can I do that?) to everyone for coming and celebrating with me. Thanks for all the beer (anyone thirsty? I started out with 2 cases and ended up with 3!), wine, booze, assorted treats, gifts, and those nifty LLworldtour.com lanyards. I expect everyone to be wearing their work ids on those come Monday morning!

Thanks again…you all gave me something to look forward to returning to!

LL

Today I rolled back into ‘sweet home’ Chicago after 2 ½ weeks on the road, living out of one big backpack. I guess this was just a small taste of what I’m about to experience.

So here are some fun stats from the US world tour:

• States visited: 10 (making my life total 39)
• Miles Driven: 4,783
• Total Cost of Gas: $368
• Cheapest Gas Stop:
  • First week (before prices went down a bit): Delano, MN: $2.65/gal
  • Second Week: Geneseo, IL: $2.48/gal.

• Total Cost of Rental Car: $455
• Total Cost of Lodging: $587
• Cheapest Motel: (Besides Mom’s—which is free for me!) Budget Host Inn–Julesburg, CO (5 miles east of NE border): $42.35
• Most Expensive Motel: Best Western—Minneapolis, MN: $100
• Number of Speeding Tickets: 1

Where I’ve Been:

#1. I booked my tix for the first leg of my journey yesterday and it turns out I WILL be able to stop in New Zealand (wasn’t sure if I’d go there, although, many people have told me how amazingly beautiful it is) for free since my flight stops there anyway. So I will stay for 10 days! So on my way home I’m reading this book called “Adventure Divas” by Holly Morris—a Globetrekker Host and also a TV producer (yes, I’ve already emailed her. I also emailed the Dancing Matt guy and he wrote me back—but I digress) and it just happens that the chapter I’m on is about her trip to New Zealand! Meant to be.

#2. I’m also very excited about my journey down to Chile and Patagonia. On Saturday I showed my condo to a couple –the wife has traveled around the world twice and her husband, of course, just happens to be from Chile and has tips for me.

I love when things like this happen! Sadly for them though, I did not rent them the place. They had 2 kids. That’s 2 kids too many for my condo.

I just have to mention I went running on the Lakefront Path this morning and was just running along and smelled the fresh cut grass and looked up at the pretty trees and smiled. I smiled while i was running?!?! I know, odd considering I simply despise running, but I truly love this city and it’s nice to have these moments when you feel lucky to be alive and healthy!
That’s my ‘carpe diem’ moment of the day!
LL