Windswept In Chicago
12th:
After all those hectic days with AS i New York, I needed nothing as much as I needed rest, and getting my pulse down. So the whole day, I did nothing but go out to buy groceries for lunch and dinner, and a bit later I went out and bought a Rough Guide to Chicago. Lonely Planet is bringing out a new Chicago book soon, but in the meantime all bookstores have run out of supply, so I had to go with a different brand, the maps aren’t as good, the descriptions vague and bland, but it has some nice highlights, such as 22 things to do in Chicago.
13th:
Time to do something, but first I had to move hostel, the first hostel I stayed in was wonderful, but they didn’t have any free beds for the 13th when I booked, so for this one night I had to go somewhere else. I got my rucksack stores at the hostel, and took a train some 30 minutes north. Once there I checked in, and went back out to see the city. I down south of Chicago to see the Museum of Science and Industry. There are no metro lines nearby (Chicago both has a Metro and a Metra system, just to keep it confusing), so I took a train to 51st street and walked about 2 miles (3 km) east, first through a neighbourhood with boarded windows, dead parks (dead vegetation) and split by a motorway. I got to a big park, walked through it, and stepped out in a completely different world.
On the other side was the University of Chicago, along with a big campus made out of old classical buildings for the rest of the walk, where I sat down and had a sandwich in a Greek restaurant, and then went on to the museum. The museum is quite nice, but has a few incredibly outdated exhibits (such as the one on Internet, and those involving technology), but the exhibit featuring the actual U-505, a Nazi submarine captured in 1944, was amazing. There is a tour inside the submarine, but when I arrived, the last tickets had already been sold out, to my immense grief. I had though instead paid 5 dollars to try a navy flight simulator, the box you sat inside, moved according to how you flew, so I completely disregarded the mission I was supposed to carry out, and just did barrelrolls, loops and messed about, but hanging upside down, being tossed from side to side etc. is incredible fun.
After the museum, the metro station was of course far away, so instead of going back to the one I came from, I decided to go to one further away, so that I could see parts of Chicago I hadn’t seen before, instead of going through what I had already seen. Unfortunately for me it started to rain; so I sat down in a busstop and waited it out. Eventually it stopped and I proceeded to the metro station, where a peculiar sight met me. A huge white guy, trained to the point where his arms might just burst from the size of his muscles, sat down on a chair and pulled out his pink iPod mini…
Back at the hostel, I bought some food to make for dinner, and stayed there the rest of the evening, mostly talking to an Irish guy.
14th:
It was a clear blue day, so I hoped the view from the Sears tower would be superb. So I bought a discount ticket from the hostel reception (4 USD off) and went there, with my prepaid ticket, I got to zoom past all the queue’s, waiting lines for the information movie and skip the queue to the elevator, and since it was a Saturday, the place was packed with people, so I probably saved over an hour. Once I got up, I was met by a crowd of Amish like people, everyone dressed in those 16th-17th century American farmer clothes, looking down on us (because the rest of them weren’t as pure as them in their faith, or in my case, had no faith at all); only one thing bothers me. If they are so pure and righteous because they live by the old ways as they believe good intended, what are they doing in an architectural marvel, that not only used to be the worlds highest building, but still is the western hemisphere’s highest building and the worlds tallest man-made structure (due to the antenna’s), looking over a beautiful city from the 103rd floor… Doesn’t that go against their beliefs?
The view was gorgeous none the less, unlike Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, the viewpoint is encased in glass, there is no open air view, as the winds are ferocious certain times of the year at street level in Chicago (known as The Windy City), so imagine at 1500 feet up (some 450 meters). As I had hoped it was also a very clear day, so supposedly we could see up to 50 miles away (80 km), that is what they told us at least. Down on the ground floor again, I walked along the waterway of the Loop (the centre of Chicago), until I came to Michigan avenue, one of the worlds biggest retail streets known as the “Magnificent Mile”, where I fell to the pleasure of entertainment and watched Kung Fu Panda, a funny and amusing movie, although I do think Jack Black was rather miss-cast.
After the movie I walked to the Navy Pier, and what a disgusting place that is; I’m sure it used to be charming, but it is just a long line of junk food and screaming kids, I didn’t walk far before I turned around and walked back to the hostel along the shore. Once I got back to the hostel it was already fairly late, so I decided to check my emails and then cook dinner, but while I was checking my emails I fell in conversation with the person next to me, an American named Bob. And before I knew it, it was 2 in the morning, I hadn’t eaten yet and I was just too tired to anything but go to bed. But I had great fun talking to Bob, and I believe it was both ways.
15th:
Cultural time, after waking up just in time to catch breakfast (as per usual), I headed towards the Chicago Institute of Art, supposedly one of the finest of its kinds. Entrance was modestly priced for the states (12 here, as opposed to 20 or more most places), and the museum good. There was a truly amazing photographic exhibition alongside other things, and the permanent collection. Unfortunately much of the museum was closed off due to renovations, including the American art from 1900 to 1950, which I had really been looking forward to see. For some reason I was very exhausted, I had had plenty of sleep (7 hours) and a hearty breakfast, so I really didn’t understand. However I soldiered on, and very much enjoyed the section with sculptures and different objects from the ancient Greece, Italy and Egypt.
The amount of museum closed was enormous, it wasn’t half, but somewhere around 30%, including the parts that I wanted to see most, but such is life.
When I left the museum, I was feeling rather peckish (bananas, cornflakes and toasted bread won’t last forever), so I went to a place called the bakery corner, bought a scramble-egg, bacon, ham and cheese sandwich (sounds like it was designed for me), which I brought back to the hostel and happily devoured while I watched The Golden Compass. At the beginning of my trip, I had listened through the 3 books in the series on my iPod. The biggest problem with audiobooks is that you have to pay full attention, you can’t have it running in the background; lucky for me, there were plenty of busrides for me, so I have a clear memory of the books. Now the movie takes a great book, cuts away 60-70% of it, changes the order in which occurrences take place, dumbs down the story, flattens the characters and cuts of the last couple of chapters, giving it an indecisive end. That it still manages to be a good and entertaining movie, just tells something about the quality of the book…
While I had been waiting for my sandwich to be made, a woman with her boyfriend and I assume brother, had left the place. She had been rolling a baby stroller, but what I discovered was that there was no baby in it, she was rolling around her dog, and I almost cringed in pain, at seeing just how pathetic people get. That dog is more suited for walking, than she will ever be; in fact dogs that never walk fall ill far more easily than humans who never move. People generally have to wear shoes to walk around outdoors, whereas dogs are extremely comfortable with their paws, it just shows a sign that dogs are far more suited for the outdoor world; it’s like those women who carry around their dogs in their handbags, why?
I cooked dinner and met some really cool Irish guys (all Irish guys seem to be), followed by yet another cinema visit, where I watched The Incredible Hulk, quite a good movie, with great acting, and I just can’t help to think about how happy Liv Tyler must be that she doesn’t look like her father. When the movie was done I went back to my hostel and went to sleep.
16th:
At 10.30 a lot of people assembled (10 or so) at the information desk, where an intern from the hostel, Amanda, picked us up and took us for a tour around Wicker Park, a really beautiful part of Chicago where High Fidelity was recorded, so after seeing all the beautiful buildings, learning about the history etc. we saw some of the places from High Fidelity and went for lunch, where I had salmon Benedict, what an amazing idea for lunch!
When I got back from Wicker Park (when the other went back, I stayed around with 2 Irish guys), I took a short break and then went to the Shedd Aquarium, since the previous day, that museum along with two others had been free, and I felt very fortunate that I didn’t have to pay for that gargantuan disappointment. However afterwards I went to the Addler Planetarium, which was a museum about the moonlanding, very good and interesting (and another free place). But most importantly, it offered the greatest view over Chicago’s skyline. When I was done with all this, it was quite late, so I went back to the hostel for an early night, I had to get up early next morning for my flight to Boston.
17th:
ALERT! ALERT!
I woke up 45 minutes late, rushed out of the hotel and had to buy a kitkat chunky so that I would have change for the metro. I made it to the airport, and barely made the check-in in time, but made it. I went through the normal procedure of entering an airport (including removing your shoes) and boarded the plane, off to the Irish capital (Boston).
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 18:14. It is filed under USA.
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