Madison, Wisconsin

My favorite building in Madison.

On the way to Madison I stopped over in Eau Claire for one night, just to get some down time in a hotel. There's not much to write about there; I just stopped at my hotel, had a very relaxing beer at the hotel's bar and some super spicy chicken pasta. When I left that morning for Madison it was sprinkling rain, but it wasn't too bad. The cold(ish) weather had begun.

Madison is the capital of Wisconsin, and a well know college/party town. The person who put me on to Madison was Kai; the couch surfer from Dickinson, North Dakota. He was very insistent that I must pass through Madison and stay with his girlfriend there (she is a couch surf host). I have to give it to him though, Madison is a beautiful town. It is very open and green with cool bars and pubs. Due to the college being there it has a very happening night life.

Anne (Madison drinking buddy) and I.

Lots of bums though, just FYI.

So I arrived at my hosts place and parked my bike on the grass. My host, Ellie, and her housemate Heather were students at the University. They were a very cool bunch of people, a little older than regular college students which was nice. The apartment they stayed in was beautiful, it reminded me a lot of Rachel and Monica's apartment in Friends - lots of stuff going on but in funky not cluttered arrangement. No-one drove a car, everyone biked or walked.

That night I met up with a couch surfing "meetup", a person who couldn't host but wanted to hangout. Anne had just finished college and was working as a waiter at a local restaurant. She was in the process of figuring out what she wanted to do now that she had finished her studies. We met up at a bar called "Old Fashioned" where I was getting dinner. After a few drinks there we moved on to another bar with a huge beer list, with maybe close to 100 beers available. I had a pretty awesome porter - from memory - and Anne was game enough to try a beer that was over 10% in alcohol. The last place we hit was a really dodgy dive bar, but it was cheap!

View of Madison from the State Capitol building.

The next day I walked around Madison, visited the state capitol building took a bunch of photos. The state capitol building was pretty cool (mind you, all the state capitols in the US kind of look the same, they're a bit like the cathedrals in Europe). In this one I couldn't tag along with a tour group so I just wandered around. I headed up to the observatory where I got to chatting with one of the staff members up the top. He was 80 years old and had been working there for a long time, and let me into the top of the dome from the inside.  

Later on I wandered down to the edge of Lake Michigan and then walked down to the famous "State Street". This is where a lot of the students hung out and contained a lot of food places and bars. Further down I checked out Union Square, which I'm not sure why is such a big attraction, it was just a bunch of multi-colored tables and chairs. I think when there's something going on it might be good, but I was told it was a "must see".

Inside the Capitol building.

The Capitol Building in Madison.

Some fountain looking up to the state building.

Union Square with its multi-colored outdoor settings.

My favorite building again.

More squirrels!

Near state street.

That night Anne and I went out to a Martini bar. I'm not really a cocktail person, but I tried a "dirty" martini, which I know now not to get in the future. It kind of tasted like olive juice, I guess I thought it would have a sweeter or more bitter taste, but to me it was bit salty. I stuck to the whiskey sours after that. We then headed back to that bar with the massive beer list we we tried a whole different set of beers.

Ellie and her cat.

The next day I got to hang out with Ellie a little, she had some free time in the morning. We headed down to the farmer's market (apparently there is a farmer's market every day of the week in different locations) and picked up some ingredients for her soup. I purchased some cheese curds which are an iconic Wisconsin food. They are sort of infant-cheese bits, taken from earlier stages of the cheese making process, and are supposed to squeak when you bite in to them. I used my pocket knife to open the bag and promptly cut my thumb open. Yep, cut myself on a bag of cheese curds, living a rough life.

Finally that afternoon I gave Anne a ride on the back of the motorcycle. She had never done it before and was pretty enthusiastic about having the experience. Luckily Ellie had a spare helmet, and even though I could have legally let her on without the helmet, I feel a bit weird about doing that. Unfortunately we could only ride around the suburban streets and up around the Capitol building as I really didn't know any good rides around that area. But I think she enjoyed it!

That afternoon I set off for Milwaukee!