Turkish festival. Festival turco en Chicago

Hola!! Hoy os quiero contar mas cositas que hemos hecho por Chicago ;). Esta ciudad es maravillosa y casi todos los fines de semana hay algun evento. En concreto, hubo un festival turco el fin de semana pasado.
Taner, uno de mis compañeros, es de Turquia y el fue el que me invito al festival, que se celebro en una plaza en el centro de Chicago "Daleys Plaza", conocida como el lugar donde se ubica "el Picasso".
Hi!! Today I have more things to tell you about Chicago's events. This city is great and almost every weekend there is different festival or party. Last Sunday there was a Turkish festival and we were there!
Taner, one of my Turkish colleagues, invited us to go. The festival took place downtown in "Daleys Plaza", also known as the place were "The Picasso" is.


Aqui me veis en la puerta del festival, en cuanto llegamos la musica turca retumbaba en la plaza y hubo al menos 10 grupos de baile enseñando todos los bailes tipicos de las distintas zonas de Turquia.
Here you can see me at the entrance of the festival. When we arrived the music was pretty loud and there were at least ten dance groups representing the typical dances of different zones of Turkey.


Por supuesto, habia comida turca, asi que nos comimos unos autenticos kebab y pizza turca. Despues nos encontramos con algunos compañeros turcos y comenzamos a probar todo lo que se ofrecia en el festival: cerveza turca, cafe, dulces tipicos y por supuesto, baklava. Es de los dulces mas deliciosos que he conocido. Nos falto por probar el helado turco, esta hecho con leche de cabra, es muy denso y parece que exquisito, pero llegamos tarde...
There was Turkish food, so we had real kebab and Turkish pizza. After eating we met some Turkish colleagues and then we tried the beer, coffee, sweets and of course, baklava! It is one of the most delicious sweets I've ever tried. We couldn't try the ice-cream. It is a special kind, made with goat's milk, it is very dense and delicious. Unfortunately, we were late to buy it...

Despues de probar todas las delicias turcas, nos dimos una vuelta por todos los puestos de artesania. Habia objetos de ceramica precioso
s y tambien bisuteria.
Sobre las 5 de la tarde se clausuro el primer dia del festival. El consul dio un discurso, hubo baile, musica y una demostracion de la unidad entre USA y Turquia :)
El tiempo fue de lo mejor que se puede desear en Chicago, el festival estuvo super animado, la comida muy buena y lo pasamos genial. Me encantan todos los festivales que se organizan en la ciudad. Espero hacer mas escapadas pronto y que vosotros lo leais!
After eating all the Turkish delights we walked around the market to look at all the art pieces decorated in a eastern style, beautiful.
Around 5 pm the consul gave a goodbye speech after some more dancing, music and demonstrations of the friendship between USA and Turkey :)
The weather was great for Chicago :), the food delicious and the music and dance made the day very entertaining. I really like all the evens that are organized in the city. I hope to go downtown soon and I'll tell you my adventures later!

Cup Cakes

Hoy os dejo unas fotitos de otra de las cosas tipicas de por aqui: cupcakes :). Son una especie de magdalenas de varios sabores y que tienen crema u otros adornos por encima. Estas son de un sitio que hay al lado de nuestro apartamento y se llama "The tiny dog" o "El perro diminuto". Probamos cuatro de las mas pequeñitas, de zanahoria, vainilla, frambuesa y "velvet cake", que es un bizcocho de color rojo que hacen aqui. Eran todas caseras y la verdad es que estaban ricas. Aqui son muy comunes, pero yo no las habia probado nunca, asi que nunca es tarde, jeje!
Today I want to show you something typical that people eat here: cupcakes :). We have similar sweets in Spain, but only the cake, no icing or toppings. We stopped by last Sunday in a cupcake place next to our apartment. The place is called "The tiny dog". We tried four cupcakes: carrot, vanilla, raspberry and velvet cake. They were all homemade and they were very tasty. It was the first time I had tried cupcakes :) but I liked them!

The Willis Tower, Skydeck. La torre Willis, Skydeck

Hola!! Veis esos balcones?? Veis que hay gente? Pues esos balcones pertenecen a la torres Willis de Chicago, el edificio mas alto de la ciudad y la estructura mas alta del mundo gracias a sus antenas :). En breves momentos vereis nuestras andanzas subiendo hasta el piso 103 de este rascacielos y como no, disfrutando de las vistas desde el punto mas alto de la ciudad y sobre todo, de sus balcones al vacio.
Hi!! Can you see those balconies? Can you see people standing there? Those balconies belong to the Willis tower, the highest building of Chicago and the highest structure of the world thanks to its antennae :). I'll show you how was our day going up to the 103 floor and how we enjoyed the view from this point. Of course, we also went on the balconies :)


Aqui teneis otra fotito del edificio, si os fijais bien, se ven los balcones muy, muy arriba.
Here you have another picture of the building. If you look carefully you can see the balconies.


La torre Willis es otro de los sitios que aun nos quedaban por ver en esta maravillosa ciudad, asi que otro domingo mas, nos fuimos a explorar mas sitios de Chicago. Llegamos a la ciudad en unos 30 minutos, casi directamente a la torre y tuvimos suerte, no habia ninguna espera para pasar. La ultima vez que probamos, habia una cola de 2 horas ;). Las entradas cuestan 17 $ para adultos, la mas basica, que incluye una visita a un pequeño museo, la subida a la torre y pasar a los balcones. Por supuesto, hay otras entradas mas caras para evitar la cola, etc. En la planta baja vimos el pequeño museo dedicado a Chicago, donde se cuentan cosas de la ciudad, gente importante que ha nacido alli y se habla de la historia de Chicago.
The Willis tower was one of the places we still had to visit in this wonderful city so again on Sunday, we decided to continue exploring more parts of the city. We arrived there in around 30 minutes, we went by train and we arrived almost at the door of the tower. We didn't have to wait this time as in the summer, when the waiting time was of about 2 hours ;). The tickets were 17 $ each and it is the most basic one, including a visit to a small museum on the first floor, going up to the 103 floor and of course, going to the balconies. There are other kinds of tickets just to avoid the waiting time, but the basic one is completely fine.
We first visited the museum dedicated to historical facts of Chicago, important people born here, etc.


Despues montamos en el ascensor, que solo tardo un minuto en subir hasta el piso 103 mientras nos iban indicando la altura de monumentos del mundo como las piramides o la torre Eiffel. La presion en los oidos era bastante fuere, menos mal que solo tardamos un minuto en subir, jeje!
After the museum we went into the elevator to go up to the 103 floor in only 1 minute :). During the short trip, the heights of other monuments and important buildings of the world were showed on a screen. For example, the great pyramid is as high as the 40th floor and the Eiffel tower is as high as the 80th floor. I had a lot of pressure in my ears. Luckily the trip took only 60 seconds :)


Una vez arriba, visitamos otro pequeño museo con mas curiosidades de la ciudad, como por ejemplo, actores, escritores, artistas y politicos que nacieron alli y tambien, muchas de las peliculas que han sido rodadas en la ciudad.
Once on the 103 floor we visited another small museum with more interesting facts about Chicago. We saw which actors, writers, artists and politicians were born in the city. We could also see some of the movies which were filmed in the city.


Por fin pudimos disfrutar de las vistas. En un dia claro, sin nubes o niebla, se puede divisar una distancia de al menos 50 millas, casi 100 kilometros. Es impresionante.
Tambien os enseño algunas fotos que nos echamos en los balcones. La gente estaba un poco asustada y me parecia gracioso, pero os puedo decir, que cuando fue mi turno, me impresiono muchisimo :). Estar a esa altura, con todo transparente alrededor da un poco de yuyu, jeje! Pero fue fantastico ;). Espero que os haya gustado!! :)
We could enjoy the view finally. In a clear day without clouds or mist you can see almost a distance of 50 miles. It is impressive!
Here I also show you some of the pictures we took from the balconies. Some people were a bit scared and I thought it was funny, but when I could go in the balcony I could feel something weird in my stomach, it was very impressive!! So high, on the transparent floor, it is a bit scary, haha! But really fantastic :). Hope you liked it!! :)

Albany Park 2. Tre Kronor

Hola a todos! Hoy os voy a contar lo que hicimos el domingo pasado. Como os dije anteriormente, el barrio de "Albany Park" me gusto mucho, pero nos quedaron algunas zonas por visitar. En particular, me quede con ganas de ver la parte sueca. Hay una pequeña parte del barrio que es totalmente escandinava, con tiendas, parques y lo mejor, un restaurante de comida sueca, noruega y danesa :)
Hi everyone! Today I'll tell you what we did last Sunday. As I told you before I really liked Albany Park, but there were still some parts that we still had to visit. There is a Swedish part of the neighborhood that we wanted to visit. There are shops, parks and the best part, a Scandinavian food restaurant :)
El domingo pasado, entre otras cosas, fuimos a "Tre Kronor", que significa "la tumba" y no es algo tan raro, jeje! Se llama asi porque antiguamente en Suecia, la comida se solia guardar bajo la tierra para poder conservarla, no tiene nada que ver con los muertos :). El sitio es muy acogedor y en la carta se puede encontrar toda clase de platos tipicos escandinavos: arenques, ensalada de patata, albondigas suecas, etc. Esto ultimo es lo que se pidio Thomas y yo, una variedad de huevos llamados "huevos florentina", parecido a los huevos benedicto. Aqui os dejo algunas fotos :) la mia es horrible, es que Thomas no miro muy bien si la foto estaba en condiciones o no, jeje!
Last week we went to "Tre Kronor" which means "The grave". It has a reasonable explanation. Apparently in the past in the Scandinavian countries, it was common to keep the food under the ground in order to preserve it during long periods of time. The name doesn't have anything to do with dead bodies or the cemetery :)
The place is super cozy and all kind of Scandinavian dishes can be found on its menu cart: herring, potato salad, Swedish meatballs, etc. Thomas order the meatballs and I ordered "eggs florentine" kind of eggs benedict. Here you can see some pics. I look horrible, but I leave it for you to see the food.


Albany Park me encanta y poco a poco iremos visitando todos los sitios que nos quedan. La proxima vez, intentaremos visitar la parte camboyana. De momento, os recomiendo ir a "Tre Kronor". La comida esta buenisima y la gente es encantadora ;)
I really like Albany park and I hope we can visit the other parts of the neighborhood. Next time I'd like to visit the Cambodian memorial museum. If you are around the Chicago area, don't forget to visit "Tre Kronor", the food was great and the service was charming ;)