luosteve的部落格

第一次飛芝加哥，就和nice的台籍組員飛~連同幾個港crew大家相約抵達的隔天一起到市中心走晃。  

It’s my first time to operate ORD flt and I’m so glad to have flown with nice Taiwanese crew. We, together with some Hong Kong crew, promised to have an outing together on the morrow after we arrived.  

 

這個班真的是個適合安排一下當地遊覽的好班，雖然機上的服務累（一大堆狂吃的乘客+長時飛行），但在芝加哥當地有兩個整天和兩個半天可待，可以好好休息，悠閒的四處走馬看花。  

This flt surely deserves an arrangement of a local sightseeing. Though a tiring flt it is (a number of devouring passengers and long flying time), two half days and two full days compensate its exhausting nature. We may take a good rest and go on a leisure sightseeing.  

 

頭一次飛豬加溝，不幸的是~要出門的那天就碰到陰雨綿綿的天氣，貼心的台籍阿姐還一個個打電話問大伙出門的意願，看看是否要改隔天出遊。不過，我們幾個還是選擇就當天吧，早逛完早結束，以免夜長夢多。於是乎，三位台crew+兩位港crew一行人浩浩蕩蕩地結伴從飯店坐shuttle bus到Lombard火車站搭車到Downtown市中心觀光囉。(來回車票要價每人九塊五十分美金) 

On my first time to Chicago, unfortunately, I came across a crummy drizzling day. A considerate Taiwanese FP called us tour joiners one by one to ask our intention for the outing for the day or for the next day. Well, many of us still stuck to our original plan, cz we just wanted to have our tour quickly finished for fear of any additional worries. So, 5 of us (3 Taiwanese crew + 2 Hong Kong crew) took the hotel shuttle bus to Lombard train station and rode the train bound for downtown. (The round-trip ticket charges us 9.50 USD each)

 

因為天氣不好再加上不時下著雨，無法很盡興地逛太多地方，我們的衣服、我的相機包都溼了。因此這天的行程只鎖定兩個就好，簡簡單單的精緻知性之旅~~走訪「Millennium Park（千禧公園）」+享用知名的左丹奴「Giordano’s厚餡批薩」。 

Owing to the bad and rainy day, we could not freely visit many places and our clothes as well as my camera bag were wet. Only two targets were aimed for our sightseeing, so simple, compact and informative, covering the hang-out in Millennium Park and a taste of the famous Giordano’s stuffed pizza pies.  

 

說到芝加哥，就非得到千禧公園瞧瞧不可，這裡可是包含了無人不知無人不曉的芝加哥兩大地標—Cloud Gate藝術大豆子和Crown Fountain皇冠噴泉。  

When it comes to Chicago, Millennium park is a must-visit spot, involving its two world-wide renowned landmarks-Cloud Gate and Crown Fountain.  

 

Cloud Gate是一個高達三層樓的鋼製雕塑品，芝加哥人又稱它為「The Bean大豆子」，因它外貎就和豆子沒兩樣。這雕塑品出自世界聞名的藝術家Anish Kapoor之手，是全美第一個公共藝術作品，由168塊不鏽鋼片透過高度外部拋光無縫技術組合而成，重達100公頓。  

Cloud Gate is a three-story steel sculpture that has been dubbed "The Bean" by Chicagoans, because of its legume-like shape. The sculpture is the first public artwork in the United States by world-renowned artist Anish Kapoor. Composed of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It weighs 110 tons.

 

皇冠噴泉是個互動性的公共影視藝雕塑品，它位於兩座透明玻璃磚塔之間。這兩座塔有15公呎高，透明磚內使用發光二極體（就是俗稱的LED啦）來播放數位短片。在某些時侯，水柱會從塔的前側噴出。為了呼應這種效果，影片的某些片段會出現人臉，當人臉上的嘴都起來的時侯，水柱就會從嘴中噴出。這是個非常有趣的藝術品，很多訪客喜歡和噴泉照相。很可惜這次來的時侯是雨天。  

The Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture. The fountain is placed between a pair of transparent glass brick towers. The towers are 15m tall, and use light-emitting diodes, the so-called LED, behind the bricks to display digital videos. At a certain moment, water is spouting through a nozzle on each tower's front face. To achieve the effect in which water appears to be flowing from subjects' mouths, each video has a segment where the subject's lips are puckered, which is then timed to correspond to the spouting water. This is a very interesting artwork and visitors like to take pictures of the fountain. Too bad it’s not a right time for me to come here on a rainy day.

 

天氣真的很不好，拍大豆子和噴泉時沒有藍天白雲陪襯，無法拍出好照，所以我們隨興地小逛了一下就差不多要去祭五臟廟啦。 

We could not come up with great pictures for Cloud Gate and the Fountain with blue sky and white clouds as the background due to bad weather, so we just made a whirlwind journey before we rushed for our lunch.  

 

看一下地圖，從公園這裡走幾個街區就可以到Jackson街，雖然在雨天走路很不方便，但當大家看到Giordano’s餐廳時，興奮地歡呼起來。我們快速地進入餐廳，找個位置坐了下來就開心地討論要吃啥吃啥。  

餐廳網址(我們這次是到 Jackson街的分店) Restaurant Website (Jackson st.) http://www.giordanos.com/locations.html  

Looking at the map, it’s just a few blocks away to Jackson street from Millennium Park. Despite the inconvenience of walking in the rain, when we reached Giordano’s, we all shouted and jumped for joy. No sooner had we entered the restaurant than we chose a table to happily discuss what we were going to eat.

 

也許是大伙太餓了（雨天走了那麼多的路再加上不時想著美味的厚饀披薩），不管三七二十一就點了一份Leaning Tower（三層塔家庭號組合餐）~有水牛城雞翅、炸摩札瑞拉起司、和炸綜合蔬菜及透抽圈。這還沒完，我們還點了一份家庭號的左丹努本店沙拉、最後當然還少不了今天的主菜--「傳奇厚饀批薩派」（點的是起司加蒜味青花菜口味，14吋大Size的說）。  

We must be so hungry (a long walk under rain and tasty stuffed pizza in mind) that we right away ordered a Leaning Tower (a combination with any three different starters served “family style” on a three-tier tower), including Classic “Buffalo Style” Wings, Fried Mozzarella Cheese, and Calamari “Fritto Misto Style”. This was of course not the end. We then ordered a Giordano’s House Salad and our Entrée-“ the Legendary Stuffed Pizza Pie”(Cheese + 1 Ingredient (Broccoli & Toasted Garlic), sized 14”)

 

菜一上桌、先拍照再說。吃了第一口前菜後，哇~驚為天人，可能是大家都餓昏頭了，太好吃了。一口生菜沙拉、接著一口的透抽圈、再來一口起司條、緊接著水牛城雞翅（這個雞翅太鹹，有點不合大伙胃口），嗯~真是人間美味。  

Picture-taking came first as soon as dishes were served. When we had our first bite of the appetizer, wow~we were all amazed by how tasty they were, which might be due to the fact that we were starved. A bite of salad followed by a bite of calamari followed by a bite of Mozzarella cheese followed by a bite of Buffalo chicken wing (the wings were too salty to suit our appetite). Yumm~the food was so heavenly.  

 

最後的壓軸-大批薩來啦！看到它時，真的有點後悔，它太大了。服務生在批薩送來之前會先發盤子，她是個讓咱們感覺受過「軍事訓練」的硬底子女性，說話幾乎是命令式口吻，而且嗓門大到我們不敢插嘴。當她先送盤子過來時還特別叮嚀：「Don’t touch the plates. Wait for me to deal with them, alright？(請別動這些盤子，等我來處理好嗎？)」送上批薩，女服務生很專業地為大家裝盤，還特地擺Pose讓大伙拍照，看到這牽長絲的厚餡批薩，哇~邊想著它的美味之外，還考慮到待會吃得完嗎！  

What came the last but best was the Great Pizza. The first time when we saw it, we felt kind of regret to have ordered it because it’s unbelievably BIG. The waitress brought the plates to us beforehand. She sounded like a tough woman who had been disciplined in military. She always used the imperative tone of voice when talking to us, and the volume of her voice was so high that none of us dare to interrupt her. Having delivered the plates, the waitress added that “don’t touch the plates. Wait for me to deal with them, alright?” When the pizza was served, she professionally portioned for us and did not forget to pose for a picture. On seeing the thick stuffed pizza pie with its stringy cheese, wow, not only did we think of it’s deliciousness but we also considered whether we could consume it all or not.

 

果真美味到讓我們無話可說。但吃了其中一片就很飽了，我最後應觀眾要求，多下肚了一片，剩的我們就請服務生幫我們打包，哇～吃飽喝足的感覺真爽。看看時間也差不多了，我們最後還是得在大雨中，撐著小傘歸航。  

The pie was undoubtedly delicious, but with just one piece we could be totally stuffed. Well, in response to the other crew’s request, I took one more piece and they had the leftover packed to go. Good…it felt so good to be full. Finally, it’s about time to leave. We had no choice but went back to hotel carrying umbrellas in the rain.

 

這次因為天侯不佳之故，無法逛得盡興，芝加哥其實還有很多其它的知名景點沒有逛到，還有不少美照沒有拍到，下次我還要換班來飛，把錯過的補回來。  

Because of the bad weather, I could not enjoy myself to the full. There are actually a lot other famous tourist spots waiting for my visit and there are a number of beautiful pictures waiting for me to take. I will definitely swap for another ORD to fly and pay a visit to what I have missed this time.