Minneapolis, Minnesota

On the way from Duluth to Minneapolis.

"Ohh the traffic really sucks in Minneapolis, that's going to really suck for you on the bike". That was what most people told me in Duluth and on the way to Minneapolis. I took an alternative route to Minneapolis as suggested by Anesa which got me off the interstate, but as I got closer to my host's place the traffic did get pretty nuts. But that's OK, Minneapolis is a good lead up to Chicago, and Chicago is a good lead up to New York City - my biggest worry in the entire USA trip.

Anyway I made it, unfortunately the GoPro ran out of batteries before I hit the big intercity highways of Minneapolis. I arrived at Katelin's place in uptown Minneapolis in the early afternoon. Katelin - my couch surf host - worked as a waitress at a local restaurant very close to her apartment. She lived with her roommate Dustin who was also a waiter (he worked at Perkins). Both were really chill people. Dustin especially, but I think most of the time he had some sort of chemically induced assistance :)

Red Solo Cup, I fill you up.
Only country music fans will get this.

That night Katelin and I went out to a house party for one of her friends. Now, as an Australian who has seen a lot of American movies and TV, I really wanted to experience the classic American house party. You know where they all stand around with red solo cups, drink out of kegs and play beer pong? Well here was my fucking chance!

In the basement there was a DJ and a keg. There was a beer pong competition going on. Everyone was holding red solo cups. There was one problem; since Katelin and I had already bought our own (local Minneapolis) beer, how was I going to live out my American house party dream! The host tried to give me fucking blue solo cup, and I was all like "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BITCH, DO I LOOK LIKE A CHUMP?".

In reality didn't want to cause too much trouble for such a stupid thing so I meekly said "nah, it's cool, I'll just drink from the bottle". Luckily Katelin knew what was up, and exchanged a red cup from the beer pong table for my blue one! Now I could've been an extra in an American Pie Movie!

Katelin and some creepy looking
dude from Moab Utah, apparently.

Katelin and I teamed up to be part of the beer pong competition. For the Australians out there, beer pong is where 2 teams or opponents throw a ping pong ball into cups filled with water at the other end of the table. If you get the ball in the one of the cups it is removed. Remove all the cups from your opponent's side and you win. In the drinking comp the water is replaced with beer and drunk when hit (which is kind of disgusting, seeing where that ball has been). There are other rules but that's the gist of it.

Katelin and I did pretty well in the competition, winning our first 2 matches and proceeding to the semis. And it was close in the 3rd game, down to one cup each! But we think we were gyped! A very drunk but strangely talented Asian girl took over from one our opponents for a period of time and got like 3 cups! We was robbed!

Anyway, I had a great time at the party! Best party yet in America!

Jessica, Case, me, Tessa and Jared.

The next day I set off the the Renascence Festival, which was the reason I decided to head through Minneapolis. Luckily my host in Fargo gave me a call earlier, he had seen that I was in Minneapolis via couchsurfing.org and knew that his Cousin, her husband and some of their family were heading down that weekend to see the renfest. Holy shit is Eric is a great dude. So now I had people to hangout with, which I was pretty stoked about.

The ride to the renfest was fucking excruciating. Probably some of the worst traffic I've experienced yet in the USA.

Case flaunts it in his new codpiece.

Bikers will relate, at some point in heavy traffic your left hand start to cramp up from all the clutching. It was hot, and the traffic was moving at about 2 MPH, stop and start. There was a metric ass-tin of people going to the renfest; way more than I anticipated. I was later told this is the largest renfest in the entire country, figures I guess.

The single advantage of the bike in this situation was that I could park really close to the entrance.

When I arrived, I met up with Jessica and Case, a young couple from a small town in North Dakota. Along with them were their cousins Tessas, 15 and Jared, 12. We wandered around the packed festival. I took lots of photos while Case and Jessica shopped around for renfest attire. Case eventually settled on a pair of leggings, hat and a very subtle and elegant codpiece to augment his current outfit.

Case and I drank a fair bit of beer, and we all eat some "ye old" food (I had the ye old pizza slice). Virtually everyone who put the effort in to dress up were really friendly and enthusiastic people. I love people like this, when they're excited about stuff, you get excited about it as well - it's contagious!

Oh fun story: I tried to take a photo with a beer in my hand, and subsequently spilled it all over my shirt. With no had free, I decided to pass my beer to Jared to hold on while I could wipe away my mess. At that point I realized I just handed a beer to a 12 year old in a public place. In a kind of joking "warning" tone I expressed "And don't drink it!". Holy shit did that poor kid look scared. Sorry Jared! Note to self: Shouting 6'4 bearded guys with foreign accents can be a bit scary to kids.

Photos!

Dude looks serious.

An ent, I'm guessing.

The pickle sells this one.

Fucking packed man.

Ceremonial war tortoise.

Such historical accuracy!

Took me ages to get a photo of this dude.
Never saw him with his helmet off.

This guy looked PISSED when I
took his photo. Not sure if you can tell.

Fabulous!

My happy moment: Finally getting a photo of my sweet
Sun Valley T-Shirt.

We all attended the jousting competition where 4 knights (or trained dudes in armor on horseback) competed against each other  It was commentated by some cool looking mustache dude who was also mounted. It was great fun, the crowd got really into it.

I want the commentator's mo, seriously.

Joust smash!

This guy actually was de-mounted after this hit.

Sword fighting ensued.

Horse photobomb!

Pretty happy with this one.

Fucking knight swagger man.

That guy in the last photo won the whole thing. I commented to Jess that I thought it interesting that the best looking knight won. And I'm pretty sure she thought - at least for the next few hours - that I was gay. I could tell I made an error in my dry humor, but ah fuck it, I just let it slide. She may still think I'm gay come to think of it.

Now some of you may have noticed Jessica's outfit from earlier. Most of you are probably male. After noticing the looks she was getting as we walk through festival, I thought it would be fun to try and capture some of the reactions she was getting.

The outfit.

The typical response.

Flirty pirate is flirty. Side note: The pirate's partner (wench?)
decided to grope Case's ass to make it even.
She then groped my ass for no particular reason at all.

After about 7 PM the festival closed up and we all went our separate ways. I was so grateful to hangout with such a great bunch of people.

After a loooooong ride back home, Katlin and I went out for dinner and drinks. I had my first fish taco, an American-Mexican delicacy (well not really, but they love their fish tacos here). To me fish taco just sounds hilarious, but I have a dirty mind. We then headed out to drinks with her friends, including an aspiring hip-hop artist. The guy had opened for artists such as Aesop Rock and Immortal Technique, both big names in the underground hip-hop scene. So I guess he was pretty big, did you know there is a sizable underground hip-hop scene in Minneapolis? The more you know...

The next day I went to the "must see" attraction in Minneapolis. The world's largest shopping center: Mall of America. This thing was fucking massive, and contained its own theme park. Not just a roller coaster but an entire indoor park. This was even more spectacular than the one I went to in Dubai with a ski slope. Actually that was pretty crazy. 

The theme park inside Mall of America.

Roller coaster in the mall's theme park.

Cool Lego sculptures at Lego world.

Oh they had a massive scrap booking convention going on at that time. But seeing as I was actually not going to buy anything I just had some subway and set off for Eau Claire. Not before randomly meeting a fellow Australian taking pictures of the Lego world sculptures. And get this - she was also from Canberra! North side though so I treated her with utter contempt.

By the way, yes the stores actually repeat a bit.

Fuck me dead I did a lot in Minneapolis!