Catching up with Chicago

I really should make a concerted effort to sit down and write my USA blogs, but my parents are visiting at the moment, so after finally visiting Gouda and Scheveningen (pronunciation suggestions on a postcard please) with them today, here's a short entry about Chicago.

After taking the overnight train from Washington DC to Chicago, where I sat next to an extremely interesting Englishman who owned a bar in Berlin and who was spending a month Amtrak-ing around the USA, I had four hours to kill in Chicago before shacking up for the three day journey onwards to San Francisco. I spent two-weeks working in Chicago this Summer and there are a few entries on my time there right at the start of this thing. It was surreal walking out of the train station straight into the city and finding things instantly familiar. Washington was the first place that I'd back to after being there on holiday before, so to follow that up with the same experience in Chicago was quite odd, but very welcome.


Chicago has a very striking skyline and despite the fact that it has three very tall buildings, most are comparatively squat and as a result it just feels like there's more space, so you never feel boxed in and claustrophobic like you can, and like I did, in New York.


I'll come out and admit it now; I love Chicago. On my way back from San Francisco I sat next to a guy on the plane who was quizzing me about where I'd been etc, and he asked whether I'd prefer to live in London or New York (Answer: London), and whether I'd prefer London or Chicago. I was a little surprised to hear myself saying Chicago, but there's something about the place that just appeals so much. I'm still extremely grateful to Lovells for sending me there in the first place - although seeing how I never heard anything more from them afterwards I get the feeling that they might be less than grateful for my Summer-contributions, and I didn't pop in to say 'Hello' while walking past their offices!


Take Millennium Park in the picture above, it's really just a park, but it just appears out of the city before you get to Lake Michigan and it could be a world away. The sculpture also provided an infinite number of opportunities for embarrassing-distorted self-photographs, which I of course had to partake in:


Unfortunately the four hours I had weren't really enough to have a proper walk around and I was a little loaded with luggage, but I managed to revisit the popcorn shop where my English accent got me a free-jumbo upgrade in the Summer (no similar luck this time around), and see the impressive inside of the James Hancock Building which alluded us this Summer.

I don't anticipate heading back any time soon, but there's a little something somewhere that tells me I'm not done with Chicago, so perhaps we'll meet again. Although next time for more than four hours please.