Dinkytown is an area right by campus. I found an intersection of two streets that were interesting and fun. There were a few used book stores, some restaurants- Vietnamese, Chinese, a pasta bar, Jimmy Johns, a pizza place, a Greek diner, a falafel place, and a few coffee houses-, a smoke shop with hookahs and pipes, and a vintage clothing store.
I used to have discerning tastes when it came to clothing (whether my sense was good or bad, who's to say, but at least I knew what I liked), so used clothing shops used to be a whole lot easier. Now, not so much, but somehow I did manage to find 3 dresses to try on. I do wish I could find a cute, simple, kimono-style vintage dress that would fit me. There was a short black one that I would have loved, and that I totally could have rocked, but it was a size four... and it was a "back then" size 4 which is probably today's size zero now. I'll have to keep looking. What I did find is a darker purple belted-waist dress from the 70's (vintage tag, no shoulder pads, 70's look so that's my best guess) with goldish detailing around the belt. It's pretty cool and I think I can pull it off. We'll see if my brother says he likes it when I get to Cali. If I decide to wear it, I'll post a photo.
I left the shop and I was about to head out when I spotted an interesting place at the end of the block. It's called the Kit Cat Klub and it looked interesting. I walked in and felt very awkward because there were two guys just standing there in the front, and I know I looked like I was looking for something. One was checking ID's and I felt a little weird coming in just by myself. They asked me if I was meeting anyone, and I told them no, that I wasn't from around there, and that I just saw it and wanted to check it out. I'm glad I did. I wish I got a better photo though.
So you can kinda tell that it's a cute spot from this photo, but it's difficult to see. There were actually several rooms. That photo was taken just as I was sitting at the bar. There were several lounge spots- couches, etc in that room, but you can't really tell.
I was basically the only one in there at first so I chatted a bunch with the super nice bartender. I decided it was a good spot to write postcards, so I filled out about six. We got to talking about traveling, and he gave me some hints for Montana. He told me about some of his own travels and said he wished he could do more, but he has a wife in school and a 2 year old. We also talked about the economy and how tough it is these days.
I think one of the things I enjoy the most about traveling solo is meeting people that I know I'll never see again, but really enjoy talking to for a few minutes. I thought about that while living in Morocco, meeting tourists and Moroccan nationals, and getting to spend a few minutes in their company perhaps not even ever learning their first names. It's a fascinating part of life that we rarely think about until we step outside of our comfort zones- outside of the familiarity of home, friends, and even just with people we see all the time, even if we don't know them personally.
After I left that bar, I drove down an avenue called Hennepin to see if anything caught my eye. The bartender at the Klub mentioned there was a lot just off that street. I didn't see much until I reached downtown. I saw a few promising restaurants and hadn't really had much to eat, so I decided to stop. When I actually got out of the car after paying eight dollars for parking, I realized that most of the places that I saw were, in fact, bars of the meat market variety, and I wasn't terribly interested. For those of you from Indianapolis, you'll know what I mean when I say it's like going to Rock Lobster on a Saturday... or really like any of the bars downtown- the Have a Nice Day Cafe, etc. I just really didn't want to go into one of those places with loud music and a crowd searching for some action.
After passing a few of those bars and, even worse, strip and topless joints, I saw some classier looking places up the street. I ended up walking into such a bar called the Elixir. I liked what I saw... lower lighting, but not too low, music not too loud, people chatting, bar stools available, and tables in the back. I sat at the bar and asked the bartender for a drink and the best place to get moderately priced, good food around the area. He immediately replied "here" and handed me a menu saying the other places were either not worth mentioning or really expensive. Whether or not that was true, the menu looked just fine, but I wanted something small. I ordered some jalapeno poppers.
A guy sat down next to me and started chatting with the bartender. They turned out to be friends, so we started talking during the bar's busier moments when his friend couldn't chat. I mentioned my road trip, and he said he used to live in New Orleans, and wrote down a list of places to check out. He headed off to work shortly after (his name is Chad and he's also a bartender downtown), and I start chatting with Jeff who made me a Mojito. He said he's lived in Minneapolis for most of his life, but he moved down to the Caribbean for two years. I didn't ask him why, but he definitely made a good Mojito. Before I left, Jeff made a list of places for me to check out in Minneapolis. I wish I had time to try them, but because I was sick, I didn't even have time to check out one.
Even though I had carefully been counting the number of drinks I consumed and the amount of time in which I consumed them, I thought it was best to cut myself off regardless just to make absolute certain that I'd be able to drive back to the hostel. Nothing worse than getting stuck in an unfamiliar city by yourself far away from your place of temporary residence.
I headed back to the hostel and arrived feeling really great about my evening. I chatted with the hostel employees, Charlie and George, for awhile, and then met a British guy passing through who had just been in the cities where I was headed. We chatted for a bit as I ate a more substantial dinner, when I started feeling quite ill. My head started pounding severely and I felt nauseous. I ran upstairs and got sick, and then came back down feeling just a little worse. I was sad to cut our conversation short because he was so nice, but I just couldn't stand to talk. I ran out to my car in the middle of the night to find the bottle of Pepto, the wonder drug, I thankfully purchased while I was staying with my grandmother. This morning I finally felt okay enough to take Tylenol for my head. I'm so glad that's over.
Stay tuned for an account of my time at the Mall of America, and some video blogs about the hostel and the roller coaster. Have a good night!
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