Chicago - Aug 2009

COUCHSURFING

Chicago Theater

 Finding a host in Chicago took a few tries, but I eventually stayed with a very nice girl named Sylvia who works in theatre. She lives in a large apartment with her roommate, Sean, near Wrigley Field. There was an L station just a few blocks from her place, so I was able to take the train straight there all the way from Midway Airport.

Sylvia was very accommodating to my travel schedule. Sean was home at the time of my arrival to let me in, then Sylvia gave me a spare set of keys so I could come and go as I wanted.

My sleeping arrangement was a very comfortable futon in the living room. There happened to be another couchsurfer there my first night who slept on a mattress on the floor at the opposite end of the living room, but the room was so big that I barely noticed he was even there.

ACCESSIBILITY

Transportation

Chicago has an elevated subway system appropriately called the ‘L’. Many stations are accessible, but not all. The closest station to Sylvia’s place is Belmont, but at the time of this trip they were actually in the process of installing an elevator. So I had to get on/off at the next station Addison, which was only a 10min walk to Sylvia’s.

I rode the bus a few times and they are all the low floor kind with a flip out ramp. No problems there. 

ATTRACTIONS / SIGHTSEEING

Sean, German couchsurfer, and Sylvia
at the outdoor movie festival

The reason I was in Chicago in the first place was because I was on my way from Ottawa to Minneapolis to see a friend from University. I figured since Chicago was on the way, I would stop over for a few days and check the city out.

On my first night, Sylvia took me to the outdoor movie festival in Grant Park where we watched Tootsie. This is the same park where Barrack Obama made his victory speech after winning the 2008 election.

Inside Cloud Gate

I spent the next day on my own exploring downtown. I saw Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), but I didn’t go up because it was cloudy that day. Being a banker and finance major, I geeked it up and checked out the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where derivatives and commodities are traded in the U.S. There’s a free little museum in the lobby, but there’s not a whole lot to see there. The Federal Reserve Bank also had a little museum and between the two places, it was an educational couple of hours out of the rain learning about American finance.

Chicago-style hot dogs from
Gold Coast Dogs

Later on I found Buckingham Fountain. Millennium Park was my favourite part of Chicago. I somehow managed to be alone underneath Cloud Gate and took some great photos. After much wondering, I found some food Chicago is famous for – hot dogs! I had traditional Chicago-style hot dogs from Gold Coast Dogs. I also got some world-famous deep-dish pizza from Giordano's.

Deep-dish pizza from Giordano's

dolphin show at the
Shedd Aquarium

On my last day I spent the afternoon at the Shedd Aquarium which is enormous and has a huge amphitheatre for dolphin shows overlooking Lake Michigan. I found it to be much nicer than the Aquarium here in Vancouver.

For my last night, Sylvia and I met up with some other couchsurfers and took in some campy, local theatre.

I didn’t expect much from Chicago, but I really enjoyed it there. It has some fantastic building architecture and great scenery, being right on the lake. There’s plenty to do and lots of famous food to eat. Who knew this city in the middle of the U.S. could be so fun?

Montreal - Aug 2009

COUCHSURFING

Mont Royal

I was only in Montreal for a couple of days to attend my cousin’s wedding. I chose to stay for an extra night and couchsurf before heading back to Ottawa. I stayed with a girl named Marianna who lived with her boyfriend Mihai. Marianna is from Mexico and Mihai is from Romania. They are both students at Concordia University.

Marianna had a nice apartment downtown. Unfortunately, the bathroom doorway was too narrow for my chair so I had to use a rolling office chair in the bathroom. Thank goodness for those! I slept on a futon in the living.

The day I was there happened to be one of the hottest days of the summer and Marianna had no air conditioning – not even a fan! She also lives on the second floor, so having the windows open means having to hear street traffic. I remember lying wide awake on the futon, not moving, but still sweating.

Overall, Marianna and Mihai were very nice hosts. Marianna pretty much spent the whole time with me. She even made me a hot breakfast in the morning. Mihai only worked the first day and the three of us spent the next day together visiting sights in Montreal.                 

ACCESSIBILTY

Montreal’s metro is not accessible. Actually, there are 3 stations in Laval that have elevators, but that is pretty much useless. The street busses are all accessible, but they have a strange setup because the wheelchair ramp is at the back. So you wait for the bus at the front and tell the driver you need the ramp, then go to the back and board.

I rode the Greyhound between Montreal and Ottawa and for that you must book 48 hours in advance so they can arrange to have a bus equipped with a lift for you. It’s rather inconvenient and doesn’t allow for spontaneous travel, but that’s what you have to do.

ATTRACTIONS / SIGHTSEEING

Marianna and I spent my first day walking around downtown, Old Montreal, and the St. Lawrence River waterfront. It was very hot that day – probably around 30°C. The next day they took me up to Mont Royal. It was even hotter this day. I’d say around 32-33°C.

In the evening, I met up with my high school friend Phil and his girlfriend for dinner in the Latin Quarter. This is a very vibrant and artistic part of the city, but unfortunately most places are not accessible. Either you will find stairs going up or stairs going down to get into most restaurants or café’s. However, we did manage to find a nice Italian place with a level entrance.  

San Francisco - June 2009

COUCHSURFING

Lye's house in Oakland

For my first couchsurfing trip, I decided to take a short 4 day trip to San Francisco. This was my first time to California and it started off as quite an adventure. I had requested to stay with a number of hosts, but the only one who accepted was Lye. He didn’t live in San Francisco, but rather Oakland which was easy to get to on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). The BART line I needed to take went directly from SFO airport to Oakland and his house was only 4 blocks away from the station.

with Lye at the Ferry Building

I talked to Lye once on the phone a few days ahead of time just to confirm all the travel details. He lives with his wife in this beautiful house and I was supposed to stay in a guest house they built in their backyard. Lye told me beforehand that they were flying in from Boston on the day of my arrival. When I arrived at his house in the early evening, no one was home. I called him on my cell phone and he told me their flight was really delayed and that he wouldn’t be home until the middle of the night.

So here I am, a very long ways away from home on my first couchsurfing trip, and just about ready to spend the night on some dude’s porch. I was starting to regret joining couchsurfing. But while on the phone with Lye, he directed me to a spot around the side of the house where he hid a spare set of keys for the house, and car! He apologized profusely for not being home and told me to go ahead inside and make myself at home. He also said if I needed to go anywhere, I could use his car! I was quite taken aback by his trustworthiness.

Now there were 4 steps to get inside, but they were really wide steps so I was able to bum it up and pull my chair up with me. It was absolutely gorgeous once inside. There was a spare bedroom with its own bathroom! It’s like I was staying in a bed and breakfast. Lye felt bad I was all alone so he called his friend and asked her to come by to check on me. We chatted for a few minutes, but then she had to go so I was on my own again.

I relaxed for a bit and ate dinner, and I tried to wait up for Lye to get home, but I was very tired so I went to bed. I woke up the next morning and that’s when I actually met my host! So essentially, I had the keys to his house and car, I slept in his house, and I did all of this before even meeting him!

Anyway, Lye is a great guy and I hope no one ever takes advantage of his generosity. He was very helpful at planning things to do while in the city. We went out for dinner one night, and he took me on a driving tour of San Francisco. Even though things got off to a rocky start, he turned out be a great and memorable host.

ACCESSIBILITY

Transportation

Overall, pubic transportation in San Francisco is very wheelchair friendly. BART is mostly accessible, but not every station has elevators so keep this in mind when planning your trip. Be sure to purchase a Red Ticket for people with disabilities that will get you 62.5% off regular fares. Big savings!

I never rode the subway so I can’t make any comments on that, but from what I saw they look accessible.

Street Cars have a ghetto accessibility system. Every stop has these concrete ramps and a platform at the top specifically for wheelchair users. When you’re on the platform, you wave down a street car and then the operator manually folds out a metal ‘bridge’ for you to wheel into the car. Once inside there are the usually straps and tie-downs. It may seem old school, but it gets the job done!

Cable Cars are completely inaccessible. There’s no way for a person in a wheelchair to get on. These are ridden mostly by tourists because when you think of San Francisco transit, you think of the historic cable cars. You can still get around pretty well using other forms of transit.  

ATTRACTIONS / SIGHTSEEING

other couchsurfers I met up with
at Pride Parade

Before leaving for San Francisco, I had joined the SF Couchsurfing group and I learned that a bunch of CSers were getting together to watch the Pride Parade on the day of my arrival. That morning, I pretty much went directly from SFO airport to downtown and met up with other CSers to watch the parade. I ended up spending the whole day with people I had just met and it was a blast. I even met one girl there who was from my hometown of Ottawa.

Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a complete must for any person of any ability when visiting San Francisco. Not only is it free, it’s completely accessible. You can wheel across and back without ever encountering any steps. Keep in mind that it can get windy, foggy, and cold (even in July) on the bridge. Be sure to bring a jacket!

Alcatraz

The highlight of my trip was taking the Alcatraz tour. I thought an old prison would be a nightmare for someone in a wheelchair, but it turned out to be one of most accessible places I’ve every visited. It costs around $26, including the ferry and audio tour. If you can, buy your tickets in advance online and avoid waiting in the long lineups. However, if you’re disabled, you can just skip the lineups anyway. The ferry was no problem, but I couldn’t get on the 2^nd level where you can enjoy better views. No big deal.

Once on Alcatraz Island, everything is fairly flat and really easy to get around. The main cell building is at the top. You can either take a tram that only seniors and anyone with limited mobility can take, but I chose to challenge myself and push all the way to the top.  

  

The main cell block is very flat and even has a modern elevator to get to the 2^nd level. The only obstacle was a few steps outside in the courtyard, but other than it was extremely easy to enjoy the entire prison. No trip to San Francisco is complete without seeing Alcatraz.

horse zodiac in Chinatown

Chinatown is a popular tourist attraction in SF, but I didn’t have anyone to show me around, so I just strolled around aimlessly on my own. The main street is steep in some sections, but otherwise it’s very clean and there are many cool shops and restaurants.

Union Square is a great downtown meeting place. You can just grab a seat here and relax here with a cup of coffee while enjoying the free Wi-Fi courtesy of Google. There are stairs but you can get to the various levels by just going around the outside, along the sidewalks.

stupid sphinx in
Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman’s Wharf is an over the top tourist trap. For some reason, it’s a major tourist attraction and I have no idea why because there is nothing authentic or unique about it. When you think of a fisherman’s wharf, you might think of a pier where you can buy fresh, live seafood off a boat, but not here. Instead, you get tacky souvenir stores, stupid museums like Ripley’s Believe It or Not, out of place sculptures, and an amusement park that’s a total rip off. It reminded me a lot of the over-the-top section of Niagara Falls. Check it out because you kind of have to, but don’t spend a lot of time here.