I love Greeley just because of three specific reasons. The first is that my American family lives there, the second is that I lived there, and the third is that I have friends there, my American high school and good memories. But apart from all of that, it is quite boring.
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It does not offer much for teenagers, especially if these come from Europe, where it is legal to drink and party at age eighteen. So when I was there sometimes I found myself bored. One of the places I would often go to is Centerra. This is an outdoor mall with lots of shops and restaurants. I will list some of them below.
Clothing stores:
- American Eagle Outfitters;
- Aéropostale;
- Chico's;
- Claire's;
- DICK's Sporting Goods;
- Lids (hats only);
- Oakley (glasses)
- and more...
Eating places:
- Barnes And Noble's Starbucks;
- East Coast Pizza;
- P. F. Chang's;
- Paciugo Italian Gelato Renaissance;
- Red Robins Gourmet Burgers and Brew;
- Rock Bottom;
But there are also places like Best Buy if you want to buy electronics, Macy's if you are seeking perfumes, or Famous Footwear if you are looking for some shoes.
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I personally spent a lot of time in the promenade just walking. I would stop at Paciugo's to get an ice cream or a coffee and then I would just walk around. In the winter they put out an ice-skating ring and there is even a little flame for people to keep warm (this flame saved my life, I was once there with only a sweater and I was freezing, lol).
I ate at the Chinese place only once but I liked it, I went a few times instead at Red Robins because I liked their burgers. I also ordered a Starbucks a few times while I was roaming around books.
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Before I left the United States, one of my really good friends took me to Build-A-Bear because she told me that she needed to buy a bear, which she did, but she also made one for me. I mean, I was a seventeen years old guy so as you can imagine I do not sleep with teddy bears anymore but I think the meaning behind it was really sweet. I chose a bulldog because our school's mascot is a bulldog, and then I tried to find a perfect outfit but I did not find one I was looking for so I bought a button shirt for my stuffed dog, so it could look a little bit like me, lmao. Consider Build-A-Bear a good place if you want to buy a present for a kid. You can stuff your own animal. All you have to do is pick one (they have a good variety), then you can decide whether you want to put a heart in it (they even have ones that beat! ). I put a non-beating heart (the cheap kind) and my name in it. The lady who works there was joking around by telling me how my dog would come back to me if he got lost because he had my name in his heart, lol. Right after that, you can choose to apply some accessories, buy outfits or simply leave it "naked".
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I think Best Buy is a good place for electronics, they pretty much have all kinds of devices. I bought there a cover for my iPad Air and also my camera. It is a Nikon and I think that now with the same amount of money I spent on it I could have bought a better camera, but it is also true that it has been almost three years since the day I bought it, so new cameras came out and mine now is cheaper than ever. Anyways, the staff is always nice (as almost every shop in Colorado really) and very helpful if you need to make the right choice. I rushed into buying the camera I now own just because they told me that they did not have others and I was leaving for my birthday weekend. I had been in the States already for three months and I did not want to stay without a camera longer than that.
A place I loved to shop at is Aéropostale. It was always very cheap, they always had discounts. My friend and I went there in June, right before our West Coast bus trip. We needed a few t-shirts, some sunglasses and stuff like that. I believe I spent forty dollars, but I came back with a lot of stuff, and my friend spent much more. He had a lot of bags, it looked like he spent a thousand dollars. Now you know why we love it. I bought some sunglasses for five dollars, as cheap as Walmart but nicer: I stepped on them when I was kayaking in Yosemite National Park. Yikes! I am glad I did not invest more money in sunglasses, not worth it!
I hope this gave you some sort of insight of what Centerra and its promenade are like. It is between Greeley and Fort Collins, so there are always people.
- Cristian
