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 ;)

Chicago Botanic Garden. Jardin botanico de Chicago

Hola a todos!! Hoy es domingo y por fin tengo tiempo para escribir un poco :). Tenia muchisimas ganas de ir a algun sitio, hacer cosas, ver sitios nuevos, etc. De hecho, me pongo bastante "farruca" si llega el fin de semana y no tengo ningun plan, pero teniendo tan poco tiempo libre, tambien es normal quedarse descasando un poco.
Como sabeis, tengo una larga lista de sitios a los que quiero ir y cosas por hacer. Hoy hemos hecho una de ellas, hemos ido a uno de los jardines botanicos de los alrededores, en concreto al "Chicago Botanic Garden".
Hi all!! Today is Sunday and I finally have some time to write :). I was looking forward to go somewhere, do something, see new places, etc. In fact, I become very angry if the weekend arrives and we don't have plans, but the truth is that we don't have a lot of time.
As you know I have a long list of things to do. Today we've done one of those. We've gone to one of the botanic gardens of Chicago, the "Chicago Botanic Garden" :)
Este jardin botanico es enorme, hemos llegado facilmente despues de 20 minutos en tren y 20 andando. Por suerte el tiempo acompañaba, aunque aun hace fresco. Es gratuito y hay una gran variedad de arboles, plantas de todo el mundo, etc. Hay invernaderos, una sala de arboles frutales y hortalizas, una sala de bonsais, un jardin ingles y la parte que mas me ha gustado, un jardin japones absolutamente precioso!!
This botanic garden is huge. We've arrived there after 20 mins of train and 20 mins walking. Luckily the weather was very nice, even though it wasn't too warm.
You can enter for free and there is an amazing variety of trees, plants and flowers from all over the world. There are also green houses, a room for fruit trees and vegetables, a bonsai exposition (it was closed this time), an English garden and my favorite part, an absolutely beautiful Japanese garden.
Pasamos el dia muy relajadamente, haciendo fotos, caminando entre los jardines, leyendo sobre todos los tipos de flores, etc. Aqui os dejo algunas fotos en las que salimos Thomas y yo y tambien fotos de las flores, plantas, etc.
We had a very relaxing day, we took pictures, walked around the gardens, we read everything about the flowers, etc. Here you can see some picture of us and the flowers :)


Algunas flores :) Some flowers :)


Por ultimo, os dejo las fotos del jardin japones, precioso!
Finally, the pictures of the Japanese garden, wonderful!

Albany Park

Hola amigos!! Se que hace mucho que no escribo, pero creo que no he hecho nada en este tiempo que sea digno de escribir en el blog :), aunque la vida de una quimica da mucho de si, pero el texto resultaria demasiado friky, jeje!!
El tiempo parece que esta mejorando un poco y ayer fue un dia excepcional, hizo calor, unos 28 grados y mucho sol. La pena es que solo fue ayer, pero al menos lo aprovechamos.
Hacia tiempo que no saliamos y este fin de semana lo hemos pasado muy bien. El sabado cenamos en "The cellar", mi sitio favorito de Evanston y ayer salimos a hacer una visita a uno de los barrios de Chicago que queria visitar, Albany Park.
Hi all!! It's been very long since I don't write, but nothing really blog worthy happened lately, even though the life of a chemist can be very intense :). However, I don't want the post to be too freaky, heeh!
The weather seems to be getting better and yesterday it was a super warm day. It was around 28 C and very sunny. Unfortunately, that was only yesterday :) but at least, we did a lot of thigs.
It was long since we didn't go out, so we went to "The Cellar" for dinner on Saturday. It is my favorite place in Evanston and yesterday, we visited one of Chicago's neighborhoods, Albany Park.
Albany Park es un barrio de inmigrantes, donde por un momento parece que estes en otro pais. En realidad, parece que te desplazas a mas de 10 paises :) ya que hay tiendas, restaurantes y gentes de todas las partes del mundo.
Una gran parte de la poblacion, junto con las tiendas y restaurantes, es latina, mejicana en especial, pero tambien de otros paises como Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, etc. La cantidad de restaurantes mejicanos es alucinante, demasiado donde elegir y los supermercados con los productos tipicos mejicanos estan por todas partes.
Albany Park is an immigrant neighborhood and for a moment you think you are living in a different country, well in many other different countries :) since there are shops, restaurants and people from all over the world.
A big part of the shops and restaurants are Latin, especially Mexican, but other countries can be found, like Nicaragua, Peru, Honduras, etc. The amount of Mexican restaurants is amazing, too many choices :) and you can also find stores with typical Mexican products.
Otra de las zonas de este barrio es de Oriente Medio y hay varios restaurantes libaneses, panaderias, restaurantes iraquies, etc. Hay un monton de productos tipicos que eran desconocidos para mi, me encanto.
Aqui podeis ver algunas fotos del barrio. Esteticamente no es lo mejor de Chicago, pero el ambiente es buenisimo, hay mucha gente por todas partes, es seguro y se puede ver todo el rato a gente que viene del centro de Chicago en busca de comida o tiendas exoticas.
There is also a zone dedicated to Middle Eastern countries where Lebanese restaurants and bakeries can be found, as well as Iraqi kebabs. There are tones of products which were unknown for me, I loved it!
Here you can see some pictures of the neighborhood. It is not the most beautiful part of Chicago, but the ambient is super cool, there are a lot of people, it is safe and a lot of people are coming from downtown to spend the day looking for exotic food.

Panaderia libanesa donde compramos baklawa. Lebanese bakery where we bought baklawa.

Restaurante iraqui. Iraqui restaurant

Otra parte de este barrio es mayoritariamente coreano. Hay muchos centros de salud orientales, dentistas, oftalmologos, etc, pero todo oriental.
Cerca de aqui hay tambien una comunidad sueca, si! sueca :) con un restaurante sueco, un parque sueco e incluso un museo. La pena es que no nos dio tiempo a visitarlo todo, asi que esto queda pendiente para el proximo dia :). Ademas, hay un museo camboyano, en memoria de las victimas que murieron durante la guerra y otras partes del parque que nos quedaron por visitar.
Another part of the neighborhood is mostly Korean. There are a lot of health centers, eyes centers, farmacies and other Oriental clinics.
Close to the neighborhood there is a Swedish community, yeah, Swedish!! :) there is a Swedish restaurant, a Swedish shop, a Swedish park, etc. We didn't have time visit everything so we'll go back there next time :). There is also a Cambodian museum dedicated to the victims of the war. We'll go back there to visit the Cambodian memorial and other parts of the park.
Para comer elegimos un restaurante estilo persa ;), muy barato, muy bonito y muy rico. Aqui veis las fotos del restaurante y de lo que pedimos: hummus, dolmeh y kebab :). Despues compramos baklawa en la panaderia libanesa, que rico!! Para terminar paseamos por Lake Shore Park antes de volver a casa. Un dia perfecto!!
We chose a Persian restaurant for luch :) cheap, nice and delicious. Here you see the pictures of the restaurant and the food we orderd: hummus, dolmeh and kebab :)
After lunch we bought baklawa in the Lebanese restaurant, delicious!! To finish the day we went for a walk in Lake Shore Park. It was a perfect day!!