Atlantica - 01.09.2000, Side 32

30 A T L A N T I C A
When asking around for the trendiest
part of Minneapolis, everyone men-
tioned the so-called Uptown. It’s the
Minneapolis version of Greenwich
Village, trendy, urban and filled with
coffee houses, galleries and great food.
Shops range from funky and inexpen-
sive to more sophisticated stores
aimed at yuppies. Restaurants are
often vegetarian and health-conscious,
and here you will find several yummy
juice bar chains, serving all kinds of
fruit and vegetable juices and energy-
boosting smoothies.
Another charming little area to dis-
cover is Dinkytown, the University of
Minnesota’s college town. Second-
hand clothing shops, coffee houses
and quaint gift shops add colour to this
mainly pedestrian area. Get a good
start to the day at Al’s Breakfast, reput-
edly the best breakfast in the city. This
tiny sliver of a greasy café has been the
same single-aisle diner for more than
45 years. Locals swear by the blue-
berry and blackberry buttermilk pan-
cakes, omelettes and Eggs Benedict
smothered in a delicious Hollandaise
sauce.
I spent over an hour browsing
through the second-hand books at
Cummings Books, which features two
rather unfriendly talking cockatoos in a
large cage in the window. Here I found
a wonderful array on topics ranging
from art, photography, literature and
science to the more bizarre occult
tomes that were ominously confined to
downstairs shelves. Tempted, I picked
up an ancient-looking work on black
magic, but was too scared to open it,
let alone buy it.
ON THE ROAD
On my second morning in the mid-
west, my photographer had the idea of
driving to the South Dakota Badlands,
about 1,000 km west of Minneapolis.
“Yeah, sure, why not,” I had sleepily
agreed the night before, so we set off,
bright and early at 5 a.m. Now, I would
not recommend this drive to someone
who did not have a few days to spare
on their Minneapolis stay. I had three,
and by driving through the day and the
next night I was certainly making the
most of them.
The long drive to the Badlands
National Park passes great expanses of
fields and farmland, and quaint little
towns where the clients at the local Mc
Donalds are all dressed in cowboy
boots and hats. This is the real
America, the America of open spaces,
grassy plains, sunburned farmers and
Indians. Once across the Missouri
River, the landscape changes dramati-
cally to dark green hills and rockier
scenes. A little further are the amazing
great plains, where we spotted herds
of buffalo grazing in peace on these
protected grasslands. And suddenly,
out of all this green, rise the Badlands,
bizarre land forms that resemble some
alien citadel. Their sand-coloured for-
mations trace the horizon, pointing
jagged teeth at the sky.
The Badlands got their name both
from the Indians who used a word
meaning the same thing, and from the
French trappers who called it “Les ter-
Snow, the assistant at Cummings Books, converses with the talking cockatoos.
THE TWIN CITIES
Winters can be l-o-n-g in Minnesota, and the Minneapolis solution to
braving the chilly temperatures and snow storms is: don’t. Buildings in the
downtown are linked with enclosed “skyways” one level above the street.
This system connects at least 500 stores and restaurants, as well as two
major downtown shopping malls, the Minneapolis Convention Center, the
Target Center sports arena and the Historic State Theater.
Weatherproof Walkways
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