Some people just look like rounders. If you want to be a profitable poker player, you should avoid this at thecasino. A rounder is a player who is always playing poker, every day and every game. They eat, sleep and breathe poker. They think about poker while they are chopping vegetables, filling their gas tank, and dropping the kids off at school. If you had your choice, you’d rather not play against a rounder.

Now, I wouldn’t consider myself a rounder, but I do play poker every day. I think about it a lot, I have conversations with friends, and heck, I write about it. But the thing is, I appear to be normal. I have a life outside of poker. I like music and movies and books. I drink alcohol and am relaxed. I happen to like poker, and that is why I play it. Some people play poker because they can’t do anything else. This is case with one of my friends, let’s call him Stan.

Stan and I went to a new game. It was one of the first nights the club was hosting, so we were there at the onset. We didn’t arrive together, but it’s not like I was Worm, showing up late and lying about who I was in order to take advantage of unsuspecting recreational poker players. When I showed up I said hey to my friend Stan and introduced myself to the table.

Stan, who had been playing for maybe a half hour before I got there, had already set up the “tight-guy” image. He looks kind of nerdy, has glasses, talks a lot about sports, mostly sports-betting, and online poker. He has a personality, but it is hidden a bit by his appearance; everyone knows the importance of a first impression. Anyway, I showed up and played a few hands and right away someone said, “You haven’t play a hand in forever,” directed toward Stan, who was getting very little action. He was doing a pretty bad job about concealing his rounder-image.

Sometimes it’s good to look like the everyman, and sometimes it’s good to have an image. I once had a black friend who used to wear Bob Marley shirts, Rasta hats and Jamaican beads to big poker tournaments to try and get people to think he was a little more laid back and not a very good player. People don’t look at Bob Marley and think “math-player”. But they look at Stan and think this.

Damodar was standing at platform number two of Gwalior City station. He was patiently, or partly impatiently, waiting for a Delhi-bound train known as Punjab Mail. The platform was full of people – a mix of waiting passengers and beggars on job.

Damodar arrived in Gwalior last week on account of his transfer from Delhi, where he continuously served for a span of 10 years. Subsequent to his transfer, he chose to stay at Gwalior and continued to live there alone, with weekly visits to his family in Delhi.

The train arrived about 35 minutes late, though it was repeatedly announced that it would arrive at its scheduled time. Damodar planned to board in “general” coach for the sake of his wallet and since he had minimum luggage with him.

He knew from experience that most trains had two general coach sections – one in the front, just behind the engine, and the other at the end. He chose to board the front coach. When the train stopped, he happily noted there was no crowd near the general coach. He comfortably entered the first coach, only to come face-to-face with a group of Army men sitting inside. One of them quickly inquired of him, “Are you an Army personnel?”
Damodar quickly replied, “No, but I am a government servant,” taking out his identity card and showing them hopefully. His reply created a buzz amongst the Army men until the same guy finally replied, “No, no…no government servant is allowed – only Army men are allowed in this coach. You have to get out.”

He was helpless before them, attempting to argue his point at first to keep a spot on the first coach. Still, they insisted the coach was reserved strictly for Army personnel and weren’t interested in arguing, finally throwing him out of the coach. He sustained the fall with as much dignity as he could muster, then got up and gained momentum to reach the last coach. He regretted even trying to enter the front coach now.

He worried as he took up a marathon run to reach the other coach, situated after a gap of 15 bogies. There was little time left before departure as he took the myriad hurdles ahead, such as carts, porters, vendors and other passengers.

He reached the last coach in time, but this one was not as easy to embark. Both doors bulged with a multitude of passengers – most of them rural people with huge bales on top of their heads consisting of their entire household belongings, as well as small children dangling from their arms. Those children squirmed and wiggled, endeavoring to slip out of their parents’ grips. Meanwhile, the crowd pushed forward into the already overcrowded coach, disappointing him at the thought of such crowded quarters. Damodar finally managed to squeeze into the coach, purely because he had such little luggage.

The train soon left the station, leaving behind many general coach passengers who didn’t have room to board. Damodar considered them lucky, as the state of the last coach inside was horrible. About 10 people occupied each bench usually meant for only four, and standing passengers insisted on moving and pushing themselves them to make more space. Small fights were erupting periodically from the packed conditions.

One Army man slept stretched out on the upper berth. This irritated many people, but they were apprehensive to approach him to complain. Damodar, already fueled with anger, took initiative and shook the Army man, waking him up. He said to him hurriedly, “You can sit up instead of stretching, making some space for other people, too.” The Army man did not listen to him and remained stretched. The other passengers, now encouraged, joined in, collectively asking, “How can you sleep? This is not night time, this is day time”

The Army man said impatiently, “I am an Army man and I’ve come from a long distance. I wish for you all not to disturb me.”
With equal irritation, Damodar shot back, “If you are an Army man, there is a separate coach for the Army men at the front of this train where civilians are thrown out.”

The Army man could not argue further and unwillingly settled into a sitting position. Damodar quickly occupied the place. A young lady also followed him quickly, nobody else claiming the place as they apparently thought she was his wife. Still, in the other place left from the soldier’s moving, other standing passengers opted to fix their children.

The young lady gratefully looked at Damodar as if she were thanking him for the creation of the vacancy. In the other sections of the coach, some fights were still continuing but seemed to be receding a bit. People were hopeful to occupy a sitting place once the train reached Agra station, where many people would get off. Many came into an agreement for replacing the passengers who would get down at Agra station.

Damodar, on the other hand, was considering himself lucky to have gotten a place to sit and a beautiful companion squeezed in next to him. He thought it rude should he not speak to the beautiful lady, so he struck up a conversation. He found out that the lady, too, was heading for Delhi. They exchanged the names of the areas they lived, and she told him that her husband, too, was also a government servant. However, talk of her husband didn’t phase Damodar, as whenever the train shifted and they were squeezed together closer, his thoughts turned dirty.

A popcorn vendor appeared after some time, leaping like a monkey because of the lack of walking space. Initially, no one was buying. The vendor became slightly desperate, as if he were calculating the losses in his mind. Damodar was, in fact, looking for something to buy solely to offer to the lady. Since this was the first vendor to appear in the coach, he ordered two bags of popcorn promptly. The vendor happily took out the two bags from the bulky haversack he had and politely handed them to Damodar. A buying atmosphere was triggered and soon many more orders were being made. The vendor’s politeness quickly disappeared, responding to incessant requests with harshness and orders to wait one’s turn. He was now the chief of a monopolistic commodity.

Damodar offered one pouch of popcorn to the lady. Shyness appeared on her face as she refused at first, but Damodar knew how to offer. He repeated his endeavor and succeeded, finally handing her over the bag.

The popcorn vendor jumped to the next compartment of the coach, openly thanking Damodar. The rest of the passengers realized that they were fools. Those who did not buy the popcorn were proud enough to not give into the peer pressure.

Damodar was uncomfortable for some time. He wanted to go to the toilet, but dared not venture such a Herculean task in the crowd coach car. After some time, he gathered the courage and stood up to take the challenge. He used some cues he’d watched the vendors navigate, but still people did not like his movement. They angrily allowed him to proceed, though he was carefully jumping. He saw no sign of the toilet at first – only people and luggage and more people. It was more difficult to intrude now as luggage was piled up further down the coach’s aisle. Finally, someone – he did not know who – gave him a shove and he landed in front of the toilet door.

Outside the toilet lay a huge heap of household bales. People crouched on top of the heap, eyeing him suspiciously. Damodar heard the boisterous sound of a pump stove and wondered to himself. When he peeped inside the toilet’s door, he saw two ladies cooking rice. Tea, already prepared, sat nearby, ready to serve their kin mounted on the heap of luggage. Another toilet was jammed with luggage. At this point, he lost all courage to go back to his seat. He swore to himself never to enter the general coach for the rest of his life.

I am a geologist and love to write my experiences.

It’s true. Travel Agents are treated differently than the rest of us. And the reason is simple: The travel industry is a 4 trillion dollar a year business!

With that kind of money being spent on travel, you can just imagine the competition. The travel industry will spend millions on advertising and they’ll do what ever it takes to get them their piece of the pie.

It’s a known fact; the travel industry survives on the business supplied to them by Travel Agents. And because so much of their business relies on Travel Agents, the travel industry treats these Travel Agents like royalty!

In all honesty, if a travel related business or vendor is not known and utilized by the country’s travel agents, their business will suffer tremendously. In other words, travel companies need Travel Agents to survive…their business depends on them!

And most people don’t know that becoming a travel agent is quick and easy if you know the secrets. In fact, with our exclusive insider information contained in the Travel Industry Secrets, you’ll actually become a licensed Travel Agent in about twenty minutes…it’s that quick and it’s that easy!

When you become a Travel Agent, new doors are opened and courtesies are extended to you, that everyday folks aren’t privy to. Like I said, travel companies need travel agents and when you become one of them, you’ll be showered with discounts and gratuities by way of deeply discounted and even free travel benefits.

Just imagine setting sail on a Caribbean cruise this winter while everyone back home is shoveling snow and staying indoors, trying to keep warm. And not only are you enjoying the balmy breezes of the Caribbean, you’re doing so for just $35 a day while the occupants in the cabin next to you are paying upwards of $200 each day for the same cabin, the same food, and the same service.

Or maybe you just want to fly home to visit your relatives. Instead of paying $600 to fly across the country like you did last year, your ticket is discounted to only $285. And just before you board, you hear your name over the airline’s loudspeaker, calling you to the ticket counter. As you approach, you are notified that your discounted coach ticket has just been upgraded to first class. Now, your $285 dollar coach ticket has a value of over $1,500 simply because you are a licensed Travel Agent.

So, you arrive at your destination and make your way to the rental car agency. Before you left, you booked a standard size vehicle for 50% off the published rate. Once at the counter, the rental agent advises you that you are entitled to a free upgrade and they ask if you’re interested….

These are just a few of the courtesies that you’ll find extended to you when traveling as a licensed Travel Agent. But they get even better.

You see, the travel vendors – airlines, hotels, tour operators, car rental agencies, cruise lines, etc. recognize the benefits of having travel agents being familiar with the products they are selling. Its for this very reason that in addition to favorable rates and discounts, these same vendors also offer free familiarization trips to resort destinations, free dinners, free shows, and free cocktail hours to learn about vendor offerings.

Just imagine…a couple weeks after receiving our priceless information, you get an invitation for you and a guest to spend an entire week at an all-inclusive resort, absolutely free. Normally, this experience would run a hefty $3,000 per couple. But this resort wants to pamper you and create an experience of a lifetime for one reason. So you, as a Travel Agent, will refer your “customers” back to them.

Do I Need to Sell Travel to get in on these incredible Discounts?

If you want to earn an extra income selling travel to friends, family members, or even customers, you’ll be licensed to do so.

Besides the extra income, there are a great many other benefits to being “in business” as well. There are also great tax advantages. For example, you can deduct such items as your computer, the space in you home from which you operate your business, your telephone line if you use it for business, and more.

In fact, just working part-time can make you a great second income…but its not required. When you become a licensed Travel Agent, no one knows how much, if any, travel you sell. Selling travel is not required to get in on the benefits.

Go and see the Ultimate Manual while it is legally available! http://travel.selfsecrets.com

If you do not know about betting room risks and possibilities, read on.

Video Poker

To clarify terms, a casino is a structure that offers betting. Here, customers will hopefully bet at slot machines or trying out some other betting games. Casino games as a rule include logically determined likelihoods governing them that safeguard the gambling establishment has the upper hand above the gambling aficionados. A large amount of betting establishment games can encourage you to become far too infatuated very quickly. An example is the infamous one-armed-bandit, a coin operated instrument with 3 or more drums that pirouette if a bar on its side is tugged. The instrument regularly pays referring to a set arrangement of pictures observable on the front panel of the machine. Unfortunately, gambling saloon games present a delusion of manageability, thereby deluding the gambling devotee — the punter is given decisions, but in actual fact they cannot realistically match up the gamer’s handicap. This is precipitated by the betting saloon never paying the full sum as expected. This philosophy is continuously seen at work in well known casino games such as five card stud, craps, roulette or blackjack.

Texas hold’em poker is really a highly popular casino game. The patrons, holding partially screened hands, are placing bets into a pot in the center that is ultimately given to the last gamester in possession of the best set of cards. (And yes, the best bluff can win too!) Like blind poker, blackjack is also an immensely fashionable casino pastime. A generous portion of its renown is by virtue of its particular mix of luck and smarts & choice making, and a practice named “counting”. The aforementioned is a highly complex technique in which gaming enthusiasts can significantly skew the odds of the game to their own profit both by betting and strategy decisions in correspondence with the hands shown. Craps is the name of another well-known casino wagering game based on the throw of 2 dice. Aficionados wager on the end result of 1 roll, or on a string of rolls on 2 dice. Contrary to blackjack, there just isn’t any proven bona fide killer system people can apply to improve the chances. Roulette is another incredibly popular casino based gambling pastime — a croupier whirls a roulette wheel incorporating a set of exactly 37 (classical roulette) or, alternatively precisely thirtyeight (Vegas roulette) distinctively tagged chambers in which the ball must settle, thereby marking the winning number If the gamester happens to set their stake on any given number and is successful so it’s actually successful, the repayment is going to be thirty five to 1, the original bet proper will be returned. Hence, it’s multiplied by thirty-six.

It’s strongly recommended that you try to be very very guarded because each of these casino games are rightly particularly addiction forming. Too many lives have been ruined as a result of addictive gambling and even if it definitely can be a lot of fun, do try to balance your gambling.

Debt isn’t necessarily a problem. Millions of people have mortgages, loans, overdrafts and credit card debts that aren’t the slightest threat to their financial stability. Debt becomes a problem when it becomes unmanageable…

So how can you tell a debt is becoming unmanageable? There’s no fixed amount of debt which is dangerous, as it depends on how much you earn, spend and need. However, there are certain warning signs, such as paying your household bills with a credit card because you need to (not just because it’s convenient), or never being able to pay off your credit card debt, or putting off paying bills until you receive the final demand.

Taking action
Once you’ve spotted a potential problem, the important thing is to take action sooner, rather than later. Start by getting some professional debt advice and seeing what the adviser recommends.

Once you’ve explained your situation, they’ll take a look at the figures and help you decide if you can bring your finances back in line by making a few cutbacks, or if you need to go further. They may suggest a professional debt solution, such as debt consolidation or an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement).

Debt consolidation
If you’re paying off multiple unsecured debts, you may be able to pay them all off with one large loan known as a debt consolidation loan. This can come with a lower interest rate than the loans you’re paying off, especially if they’re high-interest debts such as credit cards.

Debt consolidation also gives you a chance to re-think the way you’re repaying your debt – for example, if you’re worried about keeping up with your monthly payments, you could arrange to repay the consolidation loan quite slowly, reducing the amount of each payment. Of course, repaying the debt more slowly would probably mean it costs more in total, as it would spend longer accruing interest.

IVA
If you owe around £15,000 in unsecured debts or more and there’s simply no way you can keep up with your debt repayments, an IVA could be the answer.

It’s an agreement between you and your creditors: basically, you agree to make regular, fixed payments (as much as you can afford after taking your essential living costs into account) for the duration of the IVA. In return, your creditors agree to accept those lower payments, not to take any (further) legal action against you, and to write off any outstanding debt at the end of the IVA. In most cases, this is five years.

An IVA will, however, affect your ability to get further credit for a period of six years. And before it can start, it must be approved by creditors who collectively ‘own’ 75% of your debt.

There are two alternatives for filing bankruptcy as a single person or married couple, chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy. Chapter 7 is often called liquidation as all of your valuable property that is not exempted is sold in order to pay off your debts. Exempt property is that property that the government allows you to keep in order to live your life normally, like a car, clothes, furniture to sit on, etc. States are allowed to set different bankruptcy exemptions, as well as a set of Federal exemptions that can be used in some states.In order to be able to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, have to be an individual, not a business or farm, you must take a credit counseling course from an sanctioned agency within the 180 days before filing for bankruptcy relief, and qualify the means test which is filed with your petition.In a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, you will have to file schedules that list your creditors, assets, earnings and bills. Copies of tax returns, pay stubs and credit counseling certificate will also have to be filed. Bankruptcy filers who are married must provide the spouses information even if they are not filing bankruptcy together so the bankruptcy court can determine your ability to pay the debts.When finishing your petition, you will have the option to continue paying and saving your property if you are able to, such as your house or car, by making a reaffirmation agreement with the company that holds the debt. By reaffirming the debt you are recognizing that you intend to make payments. If the trustee approves your reaffirmation agreement, the creditor may have rights to collect payments and repossess the property even after your bankruptcy discharge.When you file your ch 7 bankruptcy documents you will have to pay up a filing fee of $299. This fee can be paid in installments, up to 4 no later than 120 days after you file. Once you file, the bankruptcy stay is in effect, creditors cannot call, collect or file lawsuits. Each of your credit companies will be given notice that you have filed bankruptcy and given a chance to respond. A 341 meeting will happen within 20-40 days. During this group meeting, the creditors and trustee can ask you questions.In the next 10 days the trustee rules on whether your case is abusive. If your case is presumed to be abusive you will be given a chance to refile under chapter 13.Your assets that are not exempt are then liquidated and profits go to creditors. Once liquidation is completed, you are granted a discharge wiping out your debts.

One of my favourite supplement companies is Gaspari nutrition. You can attend most any gym and you will discover muscle builders utilising Gaspari nutritional supplements. Gaspari is a supplement company that has a allegiance to formulating first-class products at reasonable prices.

Contrary to some supplementation companies they do not produce a infinite number of supplements. At times supplement companies develop so many mutations of bodybuilding supplements that it becomes difficult to recognise what to use and when to use it.

These supplements are first-rate and in addition you’ll not be disappointed. Do not take my word for it. Go to your local gym and begin to inquire some of the bodybuilders would what supplements they are taking. I’ll place money down that a couple of them will say they are taking Gaspari nutrition products.

Their Holodrol liquigels are outstanding. Their IntraPro Whey Protein is outstanding. Novedex XT Testosterone Booster is brilliant. In fact, Novadex could be the best the industry has to offer. It seems to e that few people have anything terrible to state about Novadex. Different people will have different results. Even so, Gaspari nutrition seems to have a well-deserved reputation for superior products.

If you are considering trying a different product line and have not tried Gaspari nutrition, consider this product line. If you have never utilized any supplements before and are considering trying to take some bodybuilding supplements to take your training to new levels, then Gaspari nutrition is a good company to start out with.

An appreciable number of fledgling traders get bemused when the theme of debate gets down to exchange rate insider terminology, nonetheless the insider terminology really is fairly straightforward. Consequently whether you are an individual or a company seeking to change foreign currency; below are a few unambiguous and uncomplicated explanations that may without much effort destroy nearly all of the obfuscation & make the often misunderstood process of earning money through exchanging foreign currency a great deal more straightforward.

Beginning at the start with the most straightforward of explanations an exchange rate is the price at a particular country’s money may be swapped into another’s. And so, for an example the exchange rate would be the quantity of Aruba Guilders you would receive in exchange for every single India Rupee.

Fixed exchange rates are of course recognised by the term ‘pegged exchange rates’; pegged exchange rates are useful to stabilize the current value of a countries currency; particularly at moments when that currency is changing in value a lot; this helps to support business & investment.

Floating exchange rate – this is when a national currencies exchange rate is worked out through natural market powers. This is a much more hazardous way to conduct business but additionally this is the scenario wherein you might have the chance to turn a profit,

You should furthermore overhear talk of animals in currency; a bull is an individual who predicts that market prices will go upwards conversely a bear is a person that thinks market prices will fall. A bull market is a market where values are actually moving up conversely a bear market is the opposite – a marketplace where values are going downwards

A currency broker is someone that acts as a middle man in-between yourself and the market place – brokers are regularly in a position to really obtain you the choicest price when you are looking to purchase or sell. Here is a site you can begin your research if you’re looking to exchange foreign currency.

The dollar rate is the value that one unit of any currency has against one unit of the US Dollar; this is a very useful barometer for a currencies current value.

This is obviously by no means an exhaustive list – merely a starting point; but with a little more studying you might be markedly on your way to now becoming a financial expert in no time at all.

Small Belgium is an embodiment of the Old Europe with its cozy cities, small houses and quite life rhythm. It’s a country with great cultural heritage, architectural monuments, and delicious national cuisine.

Brussels is a capital of Belgium and with its population of about 1 million is a relatively big city. It’s a cultural and political center of the country. Brussels is called “main gates” to the country. Here cross all the main routs inside the country and abroad.

The name of Brussels means “marsh city”. The first settlement was founded here in VI century on the way between Cologne and Bruges. During Hasburg rule it was the capital of the Spanish Holland. In XIX it became the capital of the independent Belgium.

Nowadays Brussels is mainly a city of businessmen and diplomats, a headquarter of European Union and NATO, it an interesting place for tourists too. It’s luxurious, cozy and historical city. The center of the city can be divided into two parts – Upper and Down. Upper town is full of broad boulevards and magnificent buildings. In contrary, downtown presents a labyrinth of narrow medieval streets around one of the most beautiful squares in Europe – Grand Place.

Almost all the attractions are situated within four blocks. Here you can see one of the most unusual and discussed fountains of the world – “Peeping boy”, visit numerous museums devoted to the history, art or something else. Various shops offer the most traditional Belgian souvenirs – chocolate and lace.

Brussels is a bilingual city – both French and Flemish are in use. In fact the French is used mush wider, but nevertheless all road signs and signboards should be duplicated.

On the outskirts of the city raises Atomium – a sophisticated structure covered with the aluminium panels. From its top on approximately 100-meters height opens an unforgettable panorama of Brussels and its suburbs. This building was established for the international fair of 1958 and symbolizes the structure of atom.

City hall building appeared in XV century – it took almost 50 years. A century later Royal palace was created. Now it houses municipal museum. Saint Michael is considered to be a saint patron of Brussels – its statue crown the spire on city hall roof and the most respected temples in Belgian capital is Saint Michael’s Cathedral.

Yesterday I woke up at 5:00 am Chicago time and I figured I might as well get ahead of the crowd at the Arlington House Youth Hostel and take an early shower. At 6 am I was already on the Internet, recording my first impressions of this exciting city and by 6:30 am I had left the hostel. It was still pretty dark outside and the sun was just slowly starting to come up.

I walked through the quiet Lincoln Park neighbourhood all the way to the Lake Michigan Shoreline where the cool wind was just howling off the lake. Joggers, bicyclists and power walkers were already out in full force. I strolled around for about 15 minutes, but when the wind got too strong I decided to take a bus and head south to a neighbourhood called “Old Town”, near North Street and N. Wells Street. It’s a tidy, well-kept neighbourhood of historic homes and the location of the Second City Comedy Club, a place that has spawned so many comedic talents.

After a brisk morning walk around Old Town I hopped back on the el-train and went to check out downtown. I got off in the Loop and headed out towards the openness of Michigan Avenue and Grant Park. Interestingly the wind in between the buildings
in the Loop was much stronger than in the open areas just off the Lake Michigan Shoreline.

Michigan Avenue and Grant Park are one of the areas where Chicago’s beauty is most striking. Daniel Burnham’s city plan of 1909 that preserved a huge amount of green space right on the shoreline of Lake Michigan was a brilliant decision, and visitors and local residents alike benefit from the huge green zone between the Loop and the lake. Grant Park’s beginnings actually date all the way back to 1835, when foresighted citizens, fearing commercial lakefront development, lobbied to protect the open space. Burnham’s vision of the park as a formal landscape with museums and civic buildings became reality: today Grant Park holds 3 of the city’s most distinguished museums: The Field Museum of Natural History, the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planterium.

The Buckingham Fountain is the centerpiece of Grant Park, the city’s grand “front yard,” and it is set within a handsomely landscaped garden, one of the city’s finest examples of a Beaux-Arts-style landscape design. It is an exact replica of the fountain in Versailles, just twice as large, and with those measurements it is one of the largest free-standing fountains in the world.

At the north end of Grant Park is Millenium Park, at an investment of $495 million Chicago’s most ambitious public undertaking. Unsightly railroad tracks and parking lots were turned into a multi-media outdoor entertainment area during the last few years. Among Millennium Park’s prominent features are the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States; a winding mirror clad bridge over Stetson Street, designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry; and “Cloud Gate” (“The Bean”), a hugely popular sculpture inspired by liquid mercury, designed by British artist Anish Kapoor. On this beautiful sunny morning, the reflections of the city’s skyscrapers had an almost surreal feel to them.

I still had about an hour and a half before my friend Linda would arrive at the Randolph Street Station, so I decided to head north on Michigan Avenue towards two of my favourite buildings: the Wrigley Building and the Chicago Tribune Tower. The Wrigley building serves as the headquarters of the Wrigley (chewing gum) company and was built in 1920 by the company’s founder, William Wrigley Jr. It was the first of a series of landmarks at the southern end of the Magnificent Mile.

The design of the Tribune Tower was the result of an international competition for “the most beautiful office building in the world,” held in 1922 by the Chicago Tribune newspaper. The various competition entries proved extremely influential for the development of skyscraper architecture in the 1920s. The winning entry, with a crowning tower with flying buttresses, is derived from the design of the French cathedral of Rouen and gives the building its striking silhouette.

The area around the Michigan Avenue Bridge and Esplanade looking westwards along the Chicago River is an absolute mecca for an architecture buff like me. You’ll find a mixture of classic skyscrapers, many of them built in Art Deco Style, as well as more modern skyscrapers built over the last 30 years. This has to be one of the most impressive urban vistas in existence anywhere.

I continued to walk west on Wacker Drive and walked past a number of the north-south streets that connect the Loop with the areas north of downtown. I wanted to capture another fascinating building: Merchandise Mart, an impressive building at the north bank of the Chicago river between Wells and Orleans street, was built in 1931. At that time, when it was constructed by Marshall Field and Company to replace H.H. Ricardson’s Marshall Field Wholesale store, it was the building with the largest floor area in the world and today it is the second largest building in the United States after the Pentagon.

A short hop on the el-train later I got off at Randolph Street to pick up my friend Linda who was scheduled to arrive at 10:25 am on the South Shore Railway Line. We have known each other since we are 10 years old (almost 30 years!) and grew up in Austria, and Linda herself moved to the United States a few years ago. We hadn’t seen each other for 2 years and this was the time to reconnect.

Linda arrived a few minutes late and after a heart-felt greeting we headed off to the Chicago Cultural Center to try to pick up a 3-day transit pass. Much to our surprise we were told that the closest location for multi-day transit passes was the Marriot Hotel at 549 North Michigan Avenue, about 20 minutes walking north of where we were. We were a bit surprised that it would be so inconvenient for visitors arriving in the Loop to purchase transit passes, but off we went with Linda’s suitcase in tow and we were finally able to pick up our coveted 3-day transit pass at the 2nd floor gift shop of the Marriot Hotel.

We decided to get rid of Linda’s luggage and headed north towards the youth hostel on the bus. By that time it was about noon and we were both voraciously hungry. So we plunked ourselves down at a cozy spot called the “Pasta Bowl” on Clark Street and I had a really delicious gorgonzola pasta that I absolutely devoured.

From there we went back to the Arlington House, dropped off Linda’s luggage and rested for a bit since we were both pretty tired after this hefty lunch. At 4 pm we got going again and headed down to the Golden Mile, Chicago’s main shopping area along Michigan Avenue, north of the Chicago River. The place was absolutely hopping with people. We picked up a little gift for Linda’s daughter at H&M and then headed up into the John Hancock Centre, Chicago’s third highest building.

The view from the John Hancock Centre was amazing and the sun was just getting ready to set. Chicago’s skyline is impressive, crowned as it is by the Sears Tower. After our high altitude excursion we strolled along Michigan Avenue and for dinner we headed back into the Lincoln Park area where we had a very filling Mexican vegetarian burrito dinner on Lincoln Avenue.

Exhausted from all this exploring and eating, we went back to the Arlington House to crash in our bunk bed…

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions(http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest(http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.

“Life is a Journey Explore New Horizons”.

The article with photos is published at Travel and Transitions – Travel Stories