Sweet Home Chicago

It is another day, and another city. This time the city is Chicago, Illinois. Heard lots about the place and it was one of the first places on the list for the USA from both me and James, but now we can’t really think why. And this was summed up perfectly by a chap sitting outside Al’s #1 Italian Beef (the first Man vs Food place we have managed to get to, although it was not a challenge, it was still a darn tasty sandwich – go for the dipped Italian with hot peppers, very much recommend it!). He asked where we were looking for on the map that we had sprawled out across the table, and we replied that we weren’t looking for anything in particular really, just some good places to go and see some cool stuff. On asking him where he would go to for the best thing in Chicago, he paused, for a disconcertingly long time, and answered along the lines of, “well you will want to go drink in a bar a talk to some hot girls.” Which is a great idea, but given we are on a budget and looking to sight-see rather than get leathered and try our phoney-English accents out on the locals, it didn’t seem the best thing to do. His second suggestion was to see the Chicago Cubs play baseball, but giving no dates or incentive either. So we bode him farewell and set off to wander the streets and see what we could see...

So what bit's the windy bit then??

The “historic” district......wasn’t. The museum seemed a bit samey compared to the Natural History museum we had only just seen in Washington DC, so we mooched on round to the edge of Lake Michigan which was rather pleasing, and vaguely tried to get in the background of a video shoot for a programme on MTV, but very much doubt we will be in it! Our evening meal consisted of a Gyro Meal. Now we had both heard of the Gyro from an episode of Seinfeld, but neither knew what was actually in one. Or even a vague idea of what it was. Could it be a sandwich? Could it be a stew of some kind? No idea. So we sat down to our meal.......and unwrapped a donner kebab, chips and soda. Hmmmmm, again, nobody said this trip would be glamorous, and at least we have tried a Gyro, in the Greek quarter, so I guess the saying “do as the Romans do” applies here.

James decided to try and get us booted out of the hostel almost as soon as we had arrived....

Our coach journey to Chicago had started well enough. A long stopover in Buffalo, and as James has mentioned, you should never judge a city by its Greyhound terminal otherwise I would be slating Buffalo left, right and indeed centre! We left Buffalo and headed to Cleveland for an hour and a half stopover, which was tiny in comparison to the one at Buffalo so we had raised spirits. Sadly there had been a mix-up of some sorts with the drivers and the doors to the coach were shut (full, due to inability to book a seat) with just two people in front of us! Gutted. And had the Indian family of four not pushed in front of us not done so we would have been on the bus and heading to our destination. However, thankfully the Greyhound team pulled one out of the bag and laid on another coach, so we were able to pick out our favoured seats (near the driver and as far away from the volatile chemical toilet as possible) and settle in for the 6 or 7 hour journey. And to top it off we had a female bus driver who was more than likely in a gospel choir in her spare time as when she shouted out the rules of the bus she added onto the end her own little caveat – no foul language. You see, this was not a Greyhound Express coach that we have been used to, and more of an old style school bus, so no PA system, less legroom, etc. And the fact that there was no PA may have been to the detriment of anyone who wanted to get off at Gary, Indiana, for rather than making the scheduled stop the driver simply hollered out, “does anyone need to stop at Gary” and after no reply was ventured she sped on past. It didn’t seem like the greatest place in the world, but I feel sorry for anyone who may have needed the stop and had been asleep or attempting to get in and out of the toilet alive. And I feel sorry for the two (or maybe four) people who didn’t make it back to the coach from a “comfort break” before she just drove off. But all in all I think she has been my favourite bus driver yet. Only just beating guy-who-looked-like-Anders-Breivik.