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Published: November 19th 2012
After attending my first ever baseball game in Toronto, I then had to take an overnight bus to Detroit, before taking another long-distance bus the rest of the way to Chicago. And despite being warned by an Indian roommate of mine in Toronto that crossing the US border could be a nightmare, I was reasonably confident that I would have nothing to worry about, since I had already been issued wıth a three-month visitors visa when I landed in New York four days earlier. Unfortunately though, reason had nothing to do with it...
And so despite carrying all of the necessary paperwork (passport with visa, onward travel arrangements etc.) I was detained by the border officer for at least twenty minutes, ordered into another room and patted down, and repeatedly asked whether or not I had ever been arrested! And I still don't know what he had more of a problem with - the fact that I was a backpacker with no trade or qualifications; the fact that I had less than five dollars cash on me (obviously it hadn't occurred to my idiotic frıend that I was in the process of leaving a country with one type of currency
The tallest of them all
Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower)and going to another country with a different kind of currency, and therefore had spent all of my Canadian dollars without yet having had a chance to obtain any US dollars) or that I had never been arrested... in any country!
Eventually though, having studied my identification closely, searched my bags thoroughly, and tried to find a file on me on some sort of international criminal database - which he clearly had no idea how to access - I was begrudgingly allowed back onto the bus and into the United States of America (thursday April 21st). And though I vowed to get the most I could out of my time in both Chicago and New York because I had no intention of ever entering the USA again after such an unpleasant experience, it wasn't long before I had changed my tune!
First of all, by the time my Greyhound coach pulled into the main bus terminal in Chicago - fourteen hours after I had left Toronto - the sun was shining and it was actually reasonably warm. So off I headed to my hostel which was perfectly situated just one block south of 'The Loop' (the name given
City of skyscrapers
View of Downtown Chicago from the top of the Willis Tower to the central business district because it is completely encircled by the elevated train tracks that distinguish Chicago from most other major cities, which generally tend to use underground 'subway' systems) which, though not as famous as the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower or John Hancock Center - nor Lake Michigan for that matter - is probably the defining symbol of the Windy City. Immediately to the east of The Loop lies Grant Park, a massive open space (actually six adjacent city blocks separated by major roads) that separates The Loop in the west from the massive blue expanse of Lake Michigan to the east.
Wanting to make the most of the good weather, I headed straight to the top of the Willis Tower, which is not only the tallest building ın the USA but also has the highest observation deck - 103 floors (about 380 metres if I remember correctly) above ground level. And sure enough, the view was pretty amazing from up there, especially once the city started to light up in the evening. And as if that wasn't an enjoyable enough introduction to the city, I finished the night sipping suds in a bar called 'Miller's Pub'
Lost in the clouds
Chicago's skyline hidden under a blanket of clouds only three blocks from the hostel, where I got to see both the Chicago Bulls (basketball) and Chicago Blackhawks (ice hockey) win their respective playoff matches!
Unfortunately I wasn't quite so lucky with the weather on my second day in Chicago (Good Friday) so it was under gloomy grey skies (and clouds that were so low they obscured the top half of the city's countless skyscrapers) that I went for a walk around the Loop and then across to Grant Park - the highlight of which is undoubtedly Anish Kapoor's massive sculpture, officially titled 'Cloud Gate'; but referred to by most Chicagoans simply as 'The Bean', since it basically looks like an overgrown, polished, silver jelly bean - though admittedly one that has been polished to such an extent that it perfectly reflects the city's impressive skyline!
Apart from an enjoyable, if slightly damp, stroll along the main branch of the Chicago River - whose flow was reversed in the late nineteenth century by a huge engineering project aimed at minimizing water-borne diseases by diverting the city's waste away from the source of it's drinking water (Lake Michigan) rather than into it - the rest of the evening
Silver jelly bean
Anish Kapoor's 'Cloud Gate' (aka The Bean) was spent taking refuge from the inclement weather by once again holing up at the bar in Miller's Pub!
Thankfully the weekend brought the nicest weather of my trip so far, with sunshine and temperatures in the high teens on Easter Saturday - so I was quickly changing into my shorts and t-shirt and making the most of the conditions (along wıth seemingly half of Chicago's population) by taking a long, leisurely walk along the shores of Lake Michigan. Soon enough though, it was time to replenish lost liquids by making my way to the Goose Island Brewery to sample a number of their offerings whilst watching both the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Cubs (baseball) teams in action. This time however, the results weren't so favourable.
Easter Sunday brought another sunny start to the day, so I took one of the El (elevated) trains north to where I had left the lake the day before and then continued on foot through Lincoln Park, which runs for miles alongside the lake and even has it's own (free) zoo. And though time was short I did manage to spend some time admiring the resident wildlife - in particular a cheeky
Sunshine and skyscrapers
Chicago skyline from the shores of Lake Michigan chimpanzee who captured everyone's attention by first suspending himself with both arms, legs spread, facing the assembled crowd only inches from the glass viewing wall... and then proceeded to urinate all over it in full view of all the families wıth their little kids! Priceless!!! If only I had have been quicker wıth my camera...
Following my little sojourn to the zoo I had to hightail it about a mile-and-a-half north-west to Wrigley Field, the fabled home of the USA's most famous sporting underachievers - the Chicago Cubs! And though it may be the second-oldest professional baseball stadium in the country, anything that Wrigley Field may lack in comfort it more than makes up for in charm, with ivy covering the outfield fence and almost as many fans watching from the roofs of neighbourıng buildings (complete with rooftop grandstands, vendors and cheer squads) as there were from inside the ground itself! Shame they lost 7-3 - I guess there's a reason they haven't won the World Series in over one hundred years...!
After seeing the last of the sun's warming rays disappear halfway through the game, to be replaced by a chilly wind presumably whipping off the lake
River city
North Branch of the Chicago River (Chicago and Wellington being the two windiest capital cities in the world) I had to find somewhere nearby to warm up, and find just such a place I did in a small neighbourhood bar called Hop Leaf, run (according to the Lonely Planet) by a beer afficionado from Malta! After chatting to a couple of travelling jazz musicians from Tennessee and a couple of young women from God-knows-where - whilst sampling a number of selections from the excellent beer list of course - I made my way south from Andersonville back to Wrigleyville where I happened upon another classy public establishment named Guthrie's just in time to watch the Chicago Blackhawks come from behind to win an overtime thriller and thus keep their hockey playoff hopes alive.
And from there, well, let's just say I had no choice but to take another El train back into the city; and that it just happened to stop less than a block away from Miller's Pub - meaning that I really had no choice but to stop in there for one last beer served by my favourite old Tom Selleck-lookalike bartender Karl... which then turned into three last beers, five last beers,
Chicago under lights
View from Navy Pier at night and so on...
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