#sologetaway

[govnaben]

Walking around Vienna! #sologetaway #Austria #Vienna #Beautiful (at Vienna, Austria)

[mattycoles]

There's no place like the desert, when you just need to get away. #desertcalls #sologetaway

[paperibbons]

first day of flying solo

I can only pen my thoughts down for the first day of my solo getaway since there’s no one around me to talk to hahha.

I am so tense and nervous all the time. Haha anxiety when I need to be aware and alert all the time haha. oops. feeling like I constantly need to watch out of my surroundings, my belongings, and people around me. And the shady/dark neighbourhood when night falls Even some people in the hostel I’m in seems quite strange. Haha. I probably need to loosen up a little for tomorrow onwards.

So today because of the time difference and the delay, I only arrived at my accomm at about 5 pm, and headed out to Chicago Loop right after (the downtown part of Chicago). Right outside the subway was the sparkling, dazzling Chicago Theatre. (I love sparkly stuff so it was amazing) Can’t wait for the tour I’m taking there tomorrow!

And then I aimlessly walked in search of some food - ate at Wow Bao which was surprisingly shiok their guo tie (pot stickers), didn’t eat very much, but I’d like to go back there again. My first impression of the Loop was that it was old, dull looking buildings like New York but with quite intricate architecture, not clean and stinks some parts and definitely not as colourful as San Fran. I stared at the low rustly metal overhead bridges and many traffic policemen at almost every junction. Went into a cafe to leave the cafe feeling impressed with the design of their disposable coffee cups. I knew then there must be much beauty and art in Chicago to be discovered. Then I came across the Chicago Cultural Centre. It was so beautiful on the inside, the architecture of the Glass Dome inside was great - I didn’t quite fully understand the detailed history of it but it was the conflict between defence and learning (library) purposes that ended up being built for both. Also they had a cute exhibition of graphic art behind the Valmor products. So interesting to see how their graphic design changed the advertising and design industry in Chicago in response to the modernity of that day and age - targeting people of colour and catering cosmetic products for this underserved group of people. And the start of the commercialization of values like love, luck, magic and success. And to see the contrast of so packed/informative ads in the past, compared to the minimalist trend of the present. The use of key recurring colours and uniform fonts, it seemed like there was a really good way they could place those words aesthetically, really like it!

After which I walked to Grant Park and finally saw the Bean!! Really interesting piece of art. Lol touristy me. Also the visibility was really bad; less than 1 mile so photos weren’t that great. And then it was almost time to catch my musical! Caught Book of Mormon show at the Bank of America Theatre. Again the golden details and intricate carvings and hanging chandeliers of the theatre - this was even more beautiful than the one I’ve been to in New York. I bet opera theatres/musical theatres in the Europe would be similar to this. 

And then my night ended. Took the train back to hostel. Still wary of people even the people in my room. One lady was pretty drunk and spouted some creepy things to me that I couldn’t make sense of. Another reason to keep alert. Hopefully I can get to sleep well tonight. :X 

And. Wanna try going out for a drink with hostel people tomorrow. Gogo! Must try new things.