„Turnerfahrt“ to Chicago, New Glarus and Madison

The beginning of a trip is quite crucial, especially when the Megabus drives for 7 hours from Minneapolis to Chicago over night and when there isn’t another one until the next day. Most readers of this blog who know me a bit can imagine that it’s sometimes hard for me to catch a public transport system in time due to the fact that I'm kind of a procrastinator ;-)
Well beware of this and with fully packed backpack (i.a. apples: “an apple a day keeps the doctor away; especially important in a fast food environment), I took a bus and considered myself to be on time… However –neither ever been a boy scout nor having broad experience with bus maps different from the Glarnerbus – it mysteriously happened that I caught the wrong bus which was driving in a completely different direction… Fortunately, I asked a woman – Amy - who helped me out and guided me to the megabus: After several bus changes and a big group of drunk freshmen students making the rush even more thrilling – it took them quite a while to get on and off the bus – the bus driver stopped in front of the megabus, not an official bus stop ;-) That was a close shave… Next Thursday, Amy invited me to join a friend’s CD release party in Dinkytown, think I should offer here some drinks..
Arrived in Chicago on Friday morning, it was time for a starbucks coffee (don’t drink American coffee if you don’t need it) and of course, for sightseeing. Due to the gorgeous day, the view from the Sears-Tower was terrific. In addition, I took an architectural boat tour which Beat Noser – Oberurnen’s village president – recommended. Cruising on the Chicago river on a beautiful day, learning about Chicago’s rich history and world-class architecture and taking numerous pictures of all these skyscrapers, what do you want more?!
In the evening, Lukas arrived in Chicago and we had dinner at bubba gump shrimp restaurant on the navy pier(do you remember him promoting all different kinds of shrimp dishes in the movie? Well, I took a hamburger though ;-)). Back in Naperville, where Lukas lives with his host family, and after a few beers, I slept a bit longer. Lukas had to support his cross-country running high school team but wasn’t allowed to run. Kind of foreigner quota he told me (bad excuse for being slow? We’ll see at the next Turnfest ;-)). The whole day was relaxed, we planned our trip to New Glarus, were eating with his host family and organized our rental car. Adapted to American culture as we are, we enjoyed the evening before our trip watching an American war movie and drinking tasty Miller beer (obviously only me, we respect 21 rule…).
Early in the next morning, our road trip began. I can’t remember ever been driving that long, but with country music on the radio, it was a great experience. We lost our way a couple of times but Lukas the navigator always brought us back on track. And driving on empty streets, rushing the “hills” up and down was a bigger pleasure than monotonous high-ways all the time.
New Glarus isn’t a godforsaken place but still kind of a backwater (Kaff) and not worth visiting unless you’re from Glarus. Unfortunately, it was football-time and we only found one swiss-german speaking person (Mr. Freitag), but his Glarner-Dialekt wasn’t striking if not absent at all.. In general, we’ve noticed that most people on the gravestones are of Hinterländer decent (Freitag, Streiff, Elmer..). We didn’t find any Stuckis, seems that we weren’t forced to emigrate, survival of the fittest ;-) After driving that long, we decided to go a bit further and stop by in Madison, a beautiful student city surrounded by two lakes... After coming back to Chicago Airport in order to return the car and taking the train to the city, I caught the Megabus at the Union Station (this time, I was too early but the bus was delayed by half an hour). Arrived at 7 a.m. in Minneapolis, I ate my last apple, took a shower and attended the first class at 8.15, back in university life…
All in all, it was a fantastic Turnerfahrt-Weekend, many thanks to Amy, Lukas’ host-parents and Lukas making this happen!

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