There & Back Again

It’s sad to say but I’ve found Chicago to be a dull city. Pleasant, clean, tidy and airy, but bland. You could argue otherwise—there are plenty of museums, galleries, theatres and miles of brand name shopping and fine dining; I just feel that the city is a little lacking in character, in soul. I may be being unfair but I was more than happy to hop on the train out of there to the airport this morning.

We arrived here off the Amtrak on Friday morning after a long, tiring journey from the sweaty South in to the crisp, cool and windy North. After 4 rather uneventful days we’re leaving for the last leg of our tour of the States, New York. Our plane’s already been delayed a couple of hours due to the weather over Manhattan, which doesn’t bode well. I hope to Christ it clears up for our short stay there; it’s poetically ironic that the day we leave the Windy City the sun’s decided to finally show it’s face, whilst we’re wasting our time trapped in a stuffy Airport departure lounge.

I’ll keep my summary of Chicago brief, as there’s no point trying to drag it out. When we arrived we dropped our bags off at the hostel whilst waiting for our beds to be prepared for check-in and went to scout out the city. We were both weary, sweaty, smelly and bedraggled from a lack of sleep and washing on the long overnight train journey. Starbucks, probably my least favourite coffee house back home, has actually turned out to be a sanctuary over here; dotted on every bloody street corner, they’re a shelter from the overwhelming sun or wind, a source of rehydration, recuperation and of course free wifi! We found the obligatory ‘bucks on a corner and went in for a caffeine hit and to get our bearings. I’ll give Chicago one thing—it’s a very easy city to navigate.

We spent the rest of the day, and the subsequent weekend, walking around the city pretty aimlessly, just soaking up the atmosphere, the sights, sounds, smells, skyscrapers and citizens of this big city. It is indeed a very nice place—the air blown in from Lake Michigan is clean and fresh, the skyline an engaging sight from any angle and the people smart and friendly. There’s just no buzz, no attitude. As a tourist diversion we visited the viewing observatory atop the John Hancock building to see the city and surrounding state from above—boulevards stretching from the heart of the city straight for as far as the eye can see into the hazy horizon. Beautiful, but also boring.

The highlight of our stay in Chicago has to be meeting the legendary Buddy Buy in his very own bar, ‘Legends’, on Saturday night. Although we didn’t exactly get to have a one-to-one conversation, this being a crowded bar of fans on a Saturday night, it was however cool to shake hands and acquaint a Blues icon. The cool old bastard even took over the stage to croon for a while, which may have explained the crippling cover charge.

No trip to Chicago would be complete without a slice or two of authentic deep pan pizza. Well we sure got our share. After queueing for well over half an hour on Saturday night at Gino’s East, which must be one of the popular pizza kitchens in the city, we got to sample the real deal—deep is definitely the right word to describe these monsters of crust, cheese, cheese and more cheese! Even sharing a pizza we couldn’t finish it all and ended up leaving the restaurant, overfed and cradling our stomachs, with a carry-out of leftovers that I ended up leaving by a bin, hoping a hungry tramp might stumble upon it.

On Sunday we grabbed dinner at a bar on Navy Pier, originally seeking shelter from the wind and being enticed by the menu and smells from the kitchen. The top of the doorframe in the restroom somehow fell on top of Ash, causing no damage but scoring us a free meal on the house—success! Yesterday we took a bus down to the Museum of Science and Industry, for something a bit different. Thanks to Ash sleeping in due to a lack of sleep during the night we lost a few hours but for whatever reason that day entry was free, which was a consolation. Ash has struggled to sleep in the dorm rooms, being a light sleeper anyway, and has thus become progressively grumpier by the day—it’s becoming a bit of a bore now; time’s proving that it can get tedious spending every minute of every day with the same person, regardless of who they are. I think we’ll both appreciate some time apart from each other when we get home.

The museum was an enjoyable diversion, although evidently tailored more towards children it helped the day pass. Having come down with an unhealthy cough accompanied with the lack of sleep, Ash suggested just staying in last night. In the interest of saving my last, rapidly depleting, funds I agreed. But by 9pm the tedium and claustrophobia of the hostel, the annoying slamming of the puck on the air-hockey table and the yelps and pathetic remarks from the stupid teens fucking around in the hostel common area began to drive me nuts so we hit the local sports bar, feeling instantly relieved. We got pissed and slept better—this seems to be the only workable solution.

We drank it away. That was Chicago.