I had landed in Chicago after a direct 14 hour flight from Delhi India and was suitably jet lagged ,Ii wasn't brazed for the chill in the air as it was winter .
I did not feel it in the airport or in the RTA Blue line metro that took me more than 1 hr to Clinton station for my further travel in a Greyhound bus .
But when I wheezed my way up the steep stairs ( strangely no escalator which I hardly expected in USA )and came out of the station and faced the elements the cold hit me as a blast ,I managed to scurry quickly to the icy pavement and fluffy snow to reach the greyhound station around 300 meters away and managed to get into its warmth .
I traveled in the Greyhound reaching Cleveland by 8pm ,
Cleveland too was covered with snow and its pavements glistened with ice .
My daughters apartment was in downtown and not very far from the Greyhound station another 300 meters ,and i slept like a log with my melatonin all in a mess !
Cleveland was the 51 st largest city in the US with a population of around 400000 founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga river ,it was known after General Moses cleveland who was the leader of the group of surveyors drafting the city
its also known as the forest city and its residents called Clevelanders .
It started growing after the completion of the Erie canal and thus its connection to the Atlantic
it grew all along till the sixties when there was an exodus of population to the suburbs a general trend in the US
at the advent of 21 st century Cleveland became known in the medical field and health industry and also in Arts
the public square was the major downtown area which included financial district ,theater area called playhouse square ,
Me and my wife plodded through the snow to the public square and went into a memorial of the civil war where I rightly answered the questions of a very conversant and knowledgeable security cum manager who was keen to know how much of American history this Indian knew !!
the Clevelnad clinic was a well known medical center internationally and were running several hospitals in its name in the middle east etc ,other than this there were the university hospital and the Metro health medical center where my daughter was doing her Pediatric residency
Cleveland is also known for biotech start ups and research
info tech ,industries were all famous in Cleveland
The playhouse area had theaters with Broadway type productions
The most famous museum was the Museum of fine arts ,we would go there the next day in a health line bus ( one of the Bus companies in the city ) and walk through a sludge of snow to reach the museum itself ,we spend a long four hours in its voluminous halls containing art pieces from all over the world ,renowned paintings of the mediaveal periods etc
Later our daughter would pick us up and go to a park in a cemetery ,a huge well kept park with dark foreboding trees ,pinnacles silhouettes of cottages icy roads and not a soul to be seen but tombstones
the stark beauty of the p[lace filled us with delight and we managed to take pictures of a pale peeping sun in the frosty skies as a parting shot to this fairy tale land
dinner was at an Ethiopian restaurant a homely place with bouncy waitresses and music that played in the background of Ethiopian variety ,we sat in a an alcove nibbling into very Indian Samoaas the only difference being the changed word
Later we would be brought the landmark Ethiopian Injera a type of dosa made of Teff grain powdered into a dough and fermented and baked as thin pancakes eaten with different sauces and a meat curry !
On Christmas day we went to the nearby cathedral enjoying the exhilarating white day ,
The cathedral was huge with painted windows and glittering altars ,
slowly it filled with well dressed and well behaved polite locals who had come for the special Christmas mass ,we sat through he ceremony lasting more than two hours with a sepulchral organ chiming in the background the baritone of the bishop in his sermon of the day and the hymns sang with so much devotion that it thrilled our soul
on way back we did see a homeless man huddled in a dirty body bag on the snowy pavement exposed to all the elements the stark reality in the US of A such a rich country with some inequalities on inquiry i came to know that they preferred the street ans elements to a cloistered shelter when taken
Of course I hadn't done justice to the sprawling city this time and hardly visited a very small part of its downtown ,i did not venture into the Lake area or the famed Rock and roll house
Cleveland was part of several entertainment and film ventures and is part of several films too .it had its p[lace in art and literature too
with so many immigrants it had a rich culinary history and variety famed for its Polish and central European contributions and was known for its corned beef sandwiches
Cleveland is known for tis famous basket ball team the cavaliers
Cleveland marathon was an annual event too
1 comment:
Awesome place,looking so beautiful
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