Chicago - the Cold and Windy City


Union Station is amazing! 

I arrived in the afternoon and walking from Union Station across the road to find my Uber I had a rather strange experience with a homeless man. He attempted to assist me - I did say a number of times that I didn’t need his help, however, he persisted. Luckily my Uber arrived and he gave me some advice on how to deal with people like that going forward.

Arriving at my new hostel I was quite impressed as there was a restaurant / bar downstairs which means I could stay in for the evening. 

Day One:

The following morning I had to head back to Target to exchange some tee shirts and my jeans that had the security tag left on! Luckily I did because I managed to buy this Lego set that has technically not been released. I also managed to pick up some much more comfortable shoes. 

I then went on a hop on hop off bus tour of the city. Although it was interesting to see the many landmarks I don’t think the tour guides were well trained as they seemed to be running off a script. Plus at one stage tried to suggest people from Poland and the Czech Republic were the same people. Anyway I got off at the Chicago 360 (AKA the Chicago Sky Tower) and saw a good view of the area. Apparently on a good day you can see all four states. 


Chicago Skyline 

I then found the Lego store where I saw a number of sets I could not afford but did make some minifigures. I then got to try some famous Chicago deep dish pizza - looked amazing. However, my sense of taste decided then to stop working. 


Also making some for a friend hence the double up




I then went to see Hamilton - the musical everyone is dying to see. I managed to get my tickets (with a pretty good view) for around $110 USD. However, in NYC they were going for around $600 for a similar ticket. It was a brilliant show, though as it’s completely sung in rap / hip hop it took awhile to figure out what they were saying. I can see why a lot of teenagers enjoyed it.




I had a pretty amazing view!

Day Two:

Today was supposed to be a brilliant day and it was for the most part. I first went to the Planetarium and when exiting the bus I twisted my knee by misjudging the step, it was sore when I did it but didn’t think anything else about it at the time. 

The planetarium was amazing, there was a display about Jim Lovell the man from Apollo 13. There was also a new display about the women from Hidden Figures and also a rock from the moon. What really impressed me was the two shows I saw. The first was aimed at kids (there was a large group of school kids there) that took us on a trip to the various solar systems and planets. The next was all about planet 9 and how it was discovered and what this means for astronomy. What I found fascinating is that you can only see planet 9 it every couple of 100 years and the scientist who discovered it only saw it by chance. 




View outside the planiterum 



A rock from the moon


One of the Apollo capsules 



I then headed over to the Navy Pier as I wanted to check out the tourist shops for a few magnets and postcards. After something to eat I went onto a architecture tour of the various buildings. They were amazing and here are some of them below.








Known as the corn cob buildings 





It was during this trip that my knee started to get really sore. I had decided to skip Navy Pier and buy souvenirs at the airport, however, when standing up I discovered I could not walk. Feeling overwhelmed I started crying and luckily there were some very nice ladies who helped me off and I managed to get an Uber back to my hotel.

Over the next 12 hours it was the worst of my trip so far. I somehow managed to pack my bag and call the airline to arrange a wheelchair to get me to the plane. I was so anxious about my knee I was unable to sleep which caused me even more issues the following day.

To be continued ...

Overall Impressions of Chicago: I would not have visited had my train not ended in the Windy City. However, I am glad I have visited, the people were so much more friendly than San Francisco. Bus drivers gave directions and almost all of them said hello when I boarded. It also seemed much cleaner and there were a lot less homeless people, however, I suspect this might be because it is quite cold there. The architecture is breathtaking, it's amazing to hear about all of the history behind the buildings.

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