I arrived in the US to meet Dylan after leaving Cuba. What a contrast to arrive in New York City. The next day was my 30th birthday, and what a great city to celebrate in. We had bagels for breakfast and spent the day shopping - exploring East Village, Soho and Chelsea. We had an amazing dinner at a French restaurant and cocktails at The Dead Rabbit cocktail bar - rated as the best bar in the world in 2016.
New York City skyline from the rooftop of our hotel
The next day we met Caitlin and Sam at Grand Central Station and took a train to a surprise location. After two hours we arrived in Poughkeepsie, a small town in New York state that straddles the Hudson River. From there we hired a car and drove about 45 minutes to the charming town of Stone Ridge where we stayed in the beautiful Hasbrouck House. That night we enjoyed a meal at the onsite fine dining restaurant Butterfield and plenty of good wine. The next day we explored the Hudson Valley area, taking a small hike to a frozen waterfall, doing some wine tasting and later having cocktails and dinner in the nearby town of Kingston. It was a short visit but wonderful to celebrate my 30th birthday with friends.
Dylan with a piece of clear ice from the river
The next day Dylan and I headed back to NYC to take a flight to Chicago, where we would spend a month before heading home, via Hawaii. Chicago was the last long-term stay on our year of diginom adventures. It felt appropriate that we should spend the last month of our year of travel in Chicago, a city we have long considered as our second home.
Dylan lived here for one year about 5 years ago and I visited him there a few times. It was his time away (and our struggle through the challenges of a long distance relationship) that confirmed for both of us that we wanted to be together indefinitely.
At the time, I had really liked the idea of moving to Chicago, but had just spent 6 years studying to qualify as an Australian lawyer (and that qualification wouldn’t allow me to practise in Illinois). So it was an easy decision for me to remain in Sydney, where I would be able to work. In the end, it was an easy decision for Dylan to move back to Sydney too. He didn’t want to be in Chicago if I wasn’t there with him. But for a time, it was a special place for us. It was the time we really grew up, and grew together.
Chicago skyline from the river
Other than the sentimental place it holds, it is also a beautiful city in its own right. It has the feeling of a large city like NYC but the downtown area is compact, making it really easy to walk around and see the best places. The architecture is stunning. The streets are clean. The public transport is good. The people are friendly and the food is great - both the good stuff and the shameful classics - deep dish pizza, Chicago dogs and Italian beef.
But the clincher for me is the skyline. It is arresting. Looking back at the city from the lake is the most beautiful city view I’ve ever seen. The view from our Airbnb apartment was amazing too. I loved looking out across the skyscrapers every morning when they were covered in mist, and then again at night, when they became towers of twinkling light.
The view from our Airbnb apartment in Chicago
Apart from the views, the apartments in downtown Chicago have great facilities. We had a good gym in the building, as well as a heated indoor pool and sauna. It was great because it meant we didn’t have to go out in the cold too often. I also found a great yoga studio only two blocks from the apartment so I was able to practise regularly. I bought a monthly pass and was going at least four times per week. I’m looking forward to finding a studio in Sydney to continue.
During our time in Chicago we met up with one of Dylan’s work colleagues from when he used to live there. We went out for dinner and drinks with him and his fiance on our first weekend in the city, and also went to their house for dinner another weekend. Our friends Eric and Whitney drove up from Ohio one weekend to visit us as well. We went out for dinner and to the Comedy Bar. It was great to have people to spend time with. It really felt like we were living there. Like Vienna and Edinburgh, we felt really settled in Chicago and didn’t quite feel ready to leave. Although this time, knowing we were leaving to go home to Sydney made all the difference.
We had also booked to go to New Orleans, a famously vibrant city located on the Mississippi River in the southern state of Louisiana. It’s a place that I’ve always been distantly fascinated by and really wanted to go to. The strange melting pot of French, African and American influences has produced its own unique culture. As a result, the city is famous for its creole food, music, unique dialect, vibrant nightlife and of course, Mardi Gras - a Carnival celebration with music, dance, masks and costumes, marked by processional parades of unimaginably fantastic floats. So we were up at 4.45am on the day to take our flight when we received an email from the airline informing us that the flight was cancelled. There were no alternative flights that day and flights later in the week and the next week were so much more expensive because it was getting closer to Mardi Gras.
After much deliberation, we decided to cancel the trip entirely. It was already a very expensive holiday for just 2 days and we decided it wasn’t the best use of our money. We got our flights and hotel refunded. The takeaway lesson: never book with Spirit Airlines. Still, in more than 10 months of travel, with 30 flights taken, to have only one bad experience with flights is fairly good going. But now, I have an even greater desire to get to New Orleans one day, and that was a feeling I thought I had lost. So that’s something.
To make up for our missed New Orleans trip, we went to some fancy places in Chicago that we weren’t otherwise going to go to. One was an exquisite speak easy cocktail bar called The Office, located in the West Loop. It was very intimate, only seating about 14 people. The drinks were exceptionally good and the service was flawless. As well as a normal cocktail menu, they also specialised in aged and truffled spirits. Dylan tried a 1oz amaro infused with white truffle for a mere $38. Needless to say, we otherwise stuck to the normal menu and bartender’s choice.
The truffle infused amaro at The Office
On our last weekend in Chicago we went on an architecture walking tour that we found though Airbnb Experiences. Chicago is famous for its architecture and we decided we should take a tour to learn more about the iconic feature of the city we love. Many of the original structures of the city were destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, with the most notable exception being the beautiful castle-like Water Tower. But as a result, Chicago buildings are noted more for their originality rather than their antiquity. While the tallest buildings in the world are no longer in Chicago, it is considered to be the home of the modern skyscraper, with the first ever skyscraper being built in this city in 1885 - the Home Insurance Building.
Beginning in the early 1880s, architectural pioneers in Chicago explored steel-frame construction which allowed buildings to increase dramatically in height. Unfortunately the Home Insurance building is no longer standing in Chicago, as its demolition predated the building preservation movement. Fortunately though, a number of other buildings from the glorious 1890s era of the city were saved. At this time, Chicago was gaining in wealth and was preparing to show itself to the world at the World’s Fair in 1893 and as a result, there are some exquisitely decorated buildings in the city from this time.
The Chicago Cultural Centre is a beautiful example. The building was originally built as the city’s first public library. The collection of books outgrew its home and has since moved, but the interior still reflects its original purpose. The ceilings are carved of marble and adorned in millions of tiny tiles of Tiffany glass that form into exquisite patterns and the names of literary giants. And in the centre of the large upstairs hall is the world’s largest Tiffany dome: a magnificent glass dome made of thousands of pieces of coloured glass that shimmer as the light catches each one.
The Tiffany glass dome in the old Chicago public library
Those buildings built a little later, during the business boom of the roaring 20s, were clearly influenced by the art deco movement gaining in popularity all around the world at that time. The foyer of the Board of Trade building is an astounding example from this period with its geometric shapes, bold contrasting colours, metallic elements and mirrors.
Original metallic mail boxes in the foyer of the Board of Trade building
After a month in Chicago (braving the Chicagoan winter) we spent 4 nights in Waikiki, Hawaii as the final destination of our year of travel. We stayed at the Moana Surfrider hotel - a beautiful hotel resort located right on the beach. Each morning we enjoyed a peaceful breakfast on the hotel veranda overlooking the ocean under the shade of an enormous banyan tree. We did a little shopping (predominantly at the Tommy Bahama store) and spent some time relaxing by the pool and on the beach. But we also did some more strenuous activities as well. We walked the Diamond Head trail, which is a moderate walk to the top of an extinct volcano crater that provides stunning 360 views. On one side you can peer into the vast crater and on the other, look out across the iridescent blue waters of the Pacific and along the coast of the island.
View over Waikiki from the top of Diamond Head Crater
On the last afternoon before our departure we went on a guided nature hike to the Manoa falls - walking through lush forest to reach the tallest accessible waterfall on the island. Our guide was a PhD student at the University studying botany biology so he was full of information about the plants. The forest was reminiscent of a Jurassic world, and unsurprisingly, many scenes from the TV show Lost and the Jurassic World movie were filmed there. It was wild and beautiful.
On the Manoa falls trail
Now we’re at the airport, waiting to board our final flight home. Since we left Sydney on 25 April 2018, we’ve taken 33 flights, been to 22 countries and 38 cities, stayed in 21 different Airbnbs and 25 hotels, and been away from home for 320 days.
As you know from my last blog post the travelling has not always been as dreamy as it sounds: there were many mundane days, some tough days, and a lot of longing to be settled in one place. But of course, the every day life we created in each new destination was also punctuated by some incredible travel experiences - wine tasting in Rioja, safari in Africa, watching hundreds of hot air balloons ascend in Bristol, sailing on a catamaran around the Dodecanese Greek islands, exploring the Scottish highlands, snowboarding in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world, seeing the northern lights at the Ice Hotel and immersing ourselves in many of the world’s greatest cities.
And of course, what is travel without the food. We had some unforgettable food experiences as well - experimenting with pintxos in San Sebastian, learning how to make paella in Valencia, filling ourselves with the best pastries, baguettes and cheeses of Paris, eating fondue in the Swiss Alps, learning how to make wiener schnitzels in Vienna, discovering the real baklava and Turkish delight in Istanbul, consuming endless tacos, tortas and corn chips in Mexico, and indulging in breakfast bagels, deep dish pizza and the thickest of thickshakes in America.
And then there were the cocktail bars. I don’t know how many cocktail bars we went to, but we aimed to visit one in every city, constantly in search of the best ones. We love this activity so much that Dylan has created a page here dedicated to the best that we’ve found from all over the world. We ended our global cocktail exploration by trying to find the best Mai Tai in Waikiki. The trouble with strong cocktails is that everything tastes good after a few, so we’re unable to present a conclusion on that one.
One night in Waikiki we were planning to go to a fancy cocktail bar, but we had an hour before it opened so we found a bar on Google maps that we thought we’d stop in for a drink or two. When we arrived it was immediately apparent that it was a karaoke bar as the bartender was mid-tune when we walked in. As we were looking around while we waited for him to finish his song, it became apparent that it was also a gay bar. We ordered two Mai Tais and became immediately engaged in conversation with the other patrons. It was small and intimate bar - all the customers knew each other and they seemed quite fascinated that two random tourists had arrived at their bar. They all chatted to us and bought us shots and drinks. The drinks were only $5 and were extremely generous with the alcohol content. Three hours later, and many many drinks deep, we were belting out a “Land Down Under” duet and had totally lost interest in going to the fancy cocktail bar.
We loved the little bit of Hawaii that we experienced and are keen to get back to experience this little slice of paradise. It’s been added to the ever growing list of places that we want to experience on this incredible planet. While the official diginom adventure has come to an end for now, our wanderlust has definitely not.
