Chicago

First of all I must say - I really liked Chicago. This was the first place I've seen in the US, about which I thought that I understood why people would want to live there. Like in some European cities like London, I in a real metropolis, with imposing buildings, and busy ado everywhere. Sitting on the train and looking at other passengers I realised that they did not appear any different than in any other of the world's metropolises. I could have been in Moscow, in Paris or in London, and the people would not look much different. I liked it. But first, I had to leave Knoxville...

The flight to Chicago was easy. My ticket printed again with SSSSS, but this time I got a nice security guy. He quickly checked my stuff and myself, wished me a nice day, and I was off.

The machine was probably one of the smallest planes I ever flew in. It had two rows of seats of one side of the isle and one row of seats on the other. I sat in the second row on the "smaller" side and thus had a window and an isle seat at the same time. When I woke up after a short nap we were already approaching Chicago. The pilot decided to give us an introduction to the city and flew a nice circle around the downtown while tilting to my side. This offered some pretty amazing views of the city. It kinda reminded me of SimCity 4, the type of views was pretty similar. While game views seemed pretty unrealistic to me when I was living in Europe, on this flight I learned that the developers did a pretty good job. The bird's eye view in the game comes pretty close to the reality. Only the reality is much, much more stunning. Unfortunately the pictures shot with my shitty camera did not get anywhere near the real experience.

A train ride to the downtown and a short walk took me to the Hosteling International Chicago Hostel, where I had reserved a bed for the next 3 nights. HI Chicago is a giant hostel and thus cannot offer the home-made-style cosiness so often found in smaller hostels. Mattresses coated in rough waterproof plastic and disallowed sleeping bags might make it easier to ensure a high level of hygiene in the huge facility, but did not exactly add to the user experience. However, these drawbacks are were than made up by the comprehensive offer of free activities provided by the hostel. Every day tour guides show people around some part of town and almost every night there is an organised event. Everything free and usually run by people who know their way around and can tell many interesting things about the area.

After checking-in I spent the rest of the day with buying a new suitcase (US security guys managed to brake my old one when inspecting my checked luggage) and with writing previous posts on this blog.

The next day I started with a long sleep. This was very necessary after the few intense, fun, but tiring days in Knoxville. I did not leave the hostel until early afternoon and then I walked to the Navy Pier where I joined a riverboat architecture tour. Although a little expensive, I recommend it to anyone. I saw some amazing view of Chicago's downtown while enjoying the coolness of the river and listening to some interesting stories about the city. After some lunch and a bus ride I decided that going up the Sears Tower is definitely not worth queuing for an hour and walked back to the hostel. I wanted to get some rest before leaving to explore the famous Chicago night life.

Chicago is famous for Jazz and Blues and when I asked around for a famous location, several people pointed me towards the Green Mill. Indeed, when I arrived there I found Asian tourists taking pictures in front of it. The club is relatively small and still originally decorated like it was in the 1930s when Al Capone used to hang out there (so they say). I am not an expert on Jazz in any way, but the music I heard there was truly great.

Some time after midnight I decided that I should explore a bit more of the city's night life while I was there and headed off to another famous location - Kingston Mines. After a ride on the underground (it runs all night, when will London finally learn!?) and a walk I arrived at this, as I was told, rather famous location. They had two rooms with bands playing great funky Blues music in turns and I was quite happy that I took the effort to get there. Being tired I took a cab home, which to my surprise, was only around 10 dollars or so.

Next day I spent walking around the downtown, and enjoying that summer day's atmosphere. Chicago's skyline is impressive and its skyscrapers are, more often than not, designed with an idea, rather than simply being a giant rectangular block. I went around the parks and along the lake. On that hot and cheerful sunny day it was difficult to imagine that in winter the whole place would be covered in snow. I really liked Chicago.

It turned out that I was lucky. That night Chicago hosted the annual Venetian Carnival, which included a parade of decorated ships and some impressive fireworks. I joined an excursion organised by the hostel and with some other travellers we watched an amazing fireworks display. Afterwards we went for some drinks at the Navy Pier, thought they were expensive and shut down early to anyone. My companions went back to the hostel, but I felt that I could not waste my last night in Chicago and went to the entertainment district just north of the city centre. There was a street containing over 10 bars with music and some clubs, kinda like Kiez in Hamburg, but not quite as big. I spent a couple of quite entertaining hours there and made some American friends for the night.

Next day I checked out of the hostel and went for a last walk around the area which included a stopover for lunch in a rooftop bar. I was heading to the Airport to board a plane that would take me to London. I was quite excited - I have been waiting for that for a long time. But before I was to arrive on Her Majesty's Grounds I was yet to have some adventures...

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