grkboiler's VirtualTourist Home Page

My name is Nick (also called Niko by most of my friends). I am a Greek-American. I grew up in Northwest Indiana, and currently working in accounting and promotion for the Hellenic Museum & Cultural Center in Chicago.

To clear up the meaning behind the name GrkBoiler, the Grk stands for Greek and the Boiler is for Boilermakers, the mascot of my school, Purdue University.

I have lived pretty much my entire life in Northwest Indiana. It is an industrialized area with lots of steel mills, a huge oil refinery, and plenty of other factories. I haved lived in Gary, Merrillville, and Valparaiso, Indiana (with a short stint in Melbourne, Australia and college in West Lafayette, Indiana at Purdue). I now live in Munster, Indiana, which is about 25 minutes south of Chicago (without traffic of course).

I spend my week working in Chicago and on weekends just hanging out. If its football season, I drive down to West Lafayette, Indiana and go to Purdue football games. I am also found at every Chicago Blackhawks home game in the 300 level of the United Center (please don't laugh - we're getting better).

I am a very big sports fan and like to attend sporting events everywhere I go. Hockey, football, soccer, baseball, basketball, Australian football, and Formula 1 are my favorites.

I also love music, especially Greek music (rebetika - my favorite).

I will begin some very much needed updates to my Cabo San Lucas page after my visit there at the beginning of April 2006, and adding a few tips to my Tampa and Tarpon Springs pages along with some tips from a week in Nashville in July 2006. Also a trip to Modesto, CA in October 2006, and Detroit and Milwaukee in Feb. 2007, and LA in Feb. and March 2007.

I have been saying this for over 2 years, but when I am ready I will work on my West Lafayette page to give a tour of Purdue University.

As far as my Chicago Page, that will never be finished. I will be adding stuff to that constantly, or when I have time.

Possible move to Southern California in the works.

My return to Greece is set back yet another year!

I have been on all kinds of different types of trips - family vacations, road trips, cruises, organized tours, and backpacking. I am a backpacker at heart. I enjoy having the freedom to see what I want when I want, and saving cash in the process. This is important because I am very into culture and history and love to learn everything I can about a place I visit, not just sit on a beach or take pictures of things organized tours tell me to see. I hate being at the mercy of others when I travel.

I ended up on this site by accident, but I am really enjoying it. I hope my tips can be useful, and I will try to update them every once in a while. If you see a mistake or something about my tip has changed since I've written it, please tell me. And please don't use any pictures without permission (even if they aren't that great).

As far as my tips, I don't care about ratings and rankings, I write about things how I see them and if you disagree, thats fine with me. I am doing this just as much for myself as a journal of my travels as I am to help others.