A EUROPEAN ( GREEK ) CITIZEN VISITS U.S.A ( CHICAGO , ILL ) .... short description

So after two years of thinking , i finally decided to visit U.SA for the first time with my mother and sister!i have visited other countries inside Europe but this was my first experience in so many different things. The flight was long and as a smoker i had a difficult time to get over my addiction for smoking but eventually i made it :) . The flight was early in the morning and we had to wake up at 2 a.m in order to get to the airport which is 2 hours from my homeplace. We got in the car with a family friend that would drove as to the airport and full of energy we headed to our destination through the national highway athens -thessaloniki . One hour into the road and the unthinkable happened !!! For some reason the back door of the car had opened while on the road and our suitcases were somewhere in the highway :( After several calls to the police and the nearby tolls we were able to locate them but we were not allowed to get them back cause we had to follow a certain procedure so we arrived at the airport with everything lost besides our handbags ! I can laugh now but back then i was furious and ready to have a nervous breakdown! Anyways, we made it on time for the flight and our first stop was to Zurich and then from Zurich ( after 10 hours ) we landed in Chicago :) I don't remember the name i think it was O'HARE airport or something like that and we met with our family friends that stays there for many years and took the road for Shaumburg village.

Schaumburg village is located in a very beautiful area about half an hour from the airport and almost an hour from downtown Chicago . The population is around 75.000 people and it's a very awesome place to live with beautiful houses and yards and many lakes !

We stayed at very beautiful neighberhood in Schaumburg to our friends and i got a pic of the house itself :)

During the two weeks that we stayed there i hardly saw any neighbors , just some people passing by with their dogs :) The community was very friendly for sure and the people there seemed very calm but i just missed a lot the element of energy and life ! If you are Greek you definitely understand what i mean :) I am still not sure if i liked it better this way but it was very different from what i was used! Another thing that really socked me is the amount of people that eats out every day! For most Greeks , especially in villages that don't have the opportunity to buy junk food from local stores, cooking your meal is essential and not optional and the truth is I myself love homemade food :) Of course i treat myself once or twice every week but my nutritional intake is not from fast food companies! Luckily i had my mother with me and she made some yummy Greek dishes that we all enjoyed , even our American friends :) We even had a Greek night with a whole lamb prepared like Easter day and tsipouro for the toasts :)

Homemade pizza that my sister made from the scratch :)

Things that i loved in U.S.A :

Doughnuts ! OMG , i couldn't stop eating them :) so so yummy

Homemade Hotdogs ! my mouth is watering right now as i write ;)

Burgers! If you know where to buy , burgers can be an amazing experience !

Fries with the skin! First time i taste them, fell in love instantly :)

Onion rings! just wow ! i don't like onions in general but the taste of the onion rings was out of this world ...

We visited many different places and many supermarkets ( huge ones :) ) but my very favorite place was the Aurora market that had so many different stores in amazing prices! If only i had more money :) which i didn't so i had to restrict myself :(

We also visited a german farm which was very cool and very informative about the style of german houses in the past and the way they made their living

It was almost Halloween and some decorations inside the stores were awesome :)

in the German farm :)

The weather most of the days was pretty good

Subway experience :)

After all it was an amazing trip with the ups and downs but still U.S.A is an amazing destination with many differences from the Greek culture but very educational and i m looking forward for the next time cause i will definitely do it again.
On the way back at the first stop of the flight i had the chance to smoke at this cool Camel area that you see down below

Anyways time to stop chatting and get back to my work :)

I know i missed many things from this trip but i m at work and trying to write while citizens come and go and my English are anot the best so forgive me in advance if you see mistakes in the writing ...

Thank you all for your time and enjoy today !