The Windy City

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I discovered while there that Chicago being called The Windy City confusingly has nothing to do with actual wind, despite the fact it is actually very windy. It is in fact something to do with the crooked politics that has always been associated with Chicago.

Crooked politicians aside, Chicago is a really cool place. Not cool as in temperature, it is sooo humid and muggy and generally had quite unpleasant weather. Crooked politicians and bad weather aside, Chicago was really fun to stay in, despite being busy, expensive, and hard to navigate. Crooked politicians, weather, busyness, high prices and a confusing downtown area aside, Chicago is awesome!

I arrived at about 10pm in the evening, with no reservation. I had tried but they were only allowed to book a certain % of the rooms, and had to leave the rest available for on-the-spot booking. As I was travelling alone I was told that I'd be able to get a room no problem, alas, I did not. Accommodation problems asi - (OK I think I've milked this joke enough now). The guy at the desk was really friendly and ended up just giving me a private room for the price of a dorm bed, which was nice.

The next day I went on a walking tour, which as usual was a great way of meeting people from the hostel. The tour was interesting and we ended up at a Frozen Yog(h)urt shop (which we decided we would introduce to England and become millionaires), where they gave us free FroYo for some reason. After that a group of us from the tour went on to find the traditional deep-dish Pizza. We ended up at Pizzeria Uno's and it was sooo tasty (and not even that expensive either, like $8 for a meal that will definitely fill you up).

After that I explored the town for a while, took a few pictures and whatnot, then watched some live music on a stage set up in Millennium Park. It's really cool, every few days they have a concert there and you can bring your own picnics/beer/wine and sit on the grass and watch it for free. I picked up the guide for the line-up of bands playing at the stage, and to my surprise, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (my favourite band, who are pretty obscure) were playing just 2 days after I had to leave, which was obviously quite frustrating. Anyway, again I met lots of awesome people and didn't want to leave, but being so short on time I had to get up at ridiculous o' clock the next morning to catch a bus at 7am to Michigan.

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