After what I promised myself would be my last ever Greyhound journey, I arrived in Chicago and stayed at the HI hostel there for 5 nights. Its incredibly well organised and operates more like a hotel than a hostel, which has its good and bad points. You lose tha family type atmosphere when over 200 people are in the building as opposed to the usual 20-25!
After a heavy session in Indianapolis, beer was definately off the cards here (or so I thought) and the aim was to see some sights and indulge in some Illinois culture.
First on the list was the Field museum. This place is HUGE and the $11 dollar entry fee kept me busy for most of the day. Exhibits included ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, natural disasters, DNA and a whole host of wildlife displays and talks. The mummification show was particularly good and I got to see a number of wrapped and unwrapped Mummies which was incredible to see and also pretty freaky at the same time.
The second box to tixk was the Lincoln Park Zoo. This was free to enter and was hands down the biggest zoo I have ever visited. I love wildlife so its not always a true pleasure to such majestic animals locked up but in many cases, their capture has a genuine conservation theme - usually captive breeding to keep a species from extinction.
I got to see a Snow Leopard, which inhabits the mountain ranges of Afghanistan and is rarely captured on camera. Such a beautiful creature. This was also the habitat of another creature, the unbelievable thick Yank. Picture the scene...Im walking next to the Black Rhino enclosure (A pretty unmistakeable animal I think you'll agree). A mother is walking towards me with a toddler in tow. As she approaches the enclosure, she hoists her Son up onto her shoulder and announces in a heavy American accent " Look baby...Look at the size of that Camel"!!! Well that was it for me, I burst out in laughter and made a quick getaway before having to explain myself.
Last but not least in Chicago, it was time to get to my first Baseball game. Myself and my dorm-mate Blas (A Columbian musician travelling the world with his band) headed via CTA (Train) to the U.S Cellular Field to watch the Chicago White Sox pay the Kansas City Royals. It was 7pm on a gorgeous evening and we had great seats nice and high up for only $20. The atmosphere was great and any boring moment were shattered with power ballads from the tannoy and various inter-game competitions and funny events i.e kiss-cam and crowd interactive competitions (One guys won a 10 day holiday in Brazil!!).
Chicago has a weird vibe, its so multicultural that, for me, it has no one descernible personailty but is defiately a lovely city to stay in being based on the HUGE Lake Michigan, has some spectacular views, especially from Sears Tower.
I decided that it was time for a big change and began to head West, destination...Colorado.
