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well this a city that i have heard many good things about and it didn't disappoint. my flight to chicago was with jet blue, the cheap airline of the US, and the most leg room i have had in economy and a tv with live tv, great value. again it was easy to find my hostel, the HI chicago, i'm getting good value out of my membership. as a treat i also booked two nights at a hotel, just to have some space to myself, unfortunately chicago is one of the most expensive cities in the US for accommodation, but oh well.
on saturday, i started to walk around this great city. there was a fire in chicago in 1871 and most of the city was destroyed, however from that chicago was the first city in the world build skyscrapers. walking around you can sense that this city loves it's architecture, so i decided to find out more about it. the architecture foundation runs walking and boat tours of the city to explain the architecture of the city. i decided to do two tour, historic sky scrapers and the boat tour along the chicago river. i was going to do them the next day, so i booked them and kept walking along michigan avenue. i followed this up to the river over the river then onto the magnificent mile with is mile of shops of every type, as i was walking along, a large group of people were gathered outside the borders bookstore. bill clinton was inside signing books and was about to come out. after a while he did and it walked around the crowd touching peoples hands, and yes bill clinton touched my hand, my first brush with fame in the US. i also have a photo of him as well. and were the ladies in the crowd excited to see him! he has just released a book in the US. so after that excitement, then heavens opened up and it poured down, it had been doing that all day, rain, then sunshine. as i sat watching the rain, i decided to go up the sears tower, the building was the tallest in the world, but still has the highest occupied floors. but before that i visited the only building in the city to survive the great fire, the water tower, funny enough. i also made a round trip on the loop on the el train. the train is elevated in the city to stop the congestion, it makes for good sight seeing and the stations up in the air as you walk around the city. when i go to the sears tower it was dark and clear and the city lights up beautifully at night. after many photos i took the elevator down 103 floors. and started to walk back to the hostel, on the way back i came across giordano's a place famous for it's deep crust pizza, oh my god they are huge. it's like a pizza base but it has walls, like a pie on the bottom, then the filling, then another layer of pastry, then the tomato topping. i ordered a small which was six pieces and it takes forty minutes to cook! well i struggled through three pieces and took that rest in a doggy bag. i think one small pizza would do three people, two pieces is enough. i ended up giving the rest of the pizza to the staff at the hostel, because i was moving to the hotel i booked the next day and didn't think it would be a good look to turn up with a back pack and a half eaten pizza :)
the next day i moved from south area of the loop to the near north or gold coast area of chicago, the other side of the river. the hotel, chicago city centre hotel, was quite nice for three stars, i used a web-site called hot-wire to book the hotel, you choose the area and the star level and the price, then it's not until after you book you find out where you are staying exactly. i got $100 a night of the normal price of the room and it was nice, so i was happy. that afternoon, before the architecture tours i went to grant and millennium park. these parks are situated between lake michigan and the skyscrapers of chicago. attractions are the buckingham fountain, which has a great back drop of the city behind it on one side and lake michigan on the other. in millennium park they have the bean. this would have to be the coolest outdoor artwork that i have seen. it's basically a silver bean, that reflects everything around it, the kids love it and you can walk under it and you can see your reflection about six times with everyone else under it, it becomes a bit of a where's wally. i'll attach a photo of it, try and find me, i'm wearing green. then i had the historic sky scrapers walking tour and the architecture boat tour of chicago. these tour were great and i would recommend it to anyone, were they can they also take you into the foyer of the buildings to explain the inside as well. i now have a basic appreciation of architecture and for art deco buildings. the most interesting thing i found about art deco buildings is in the 1930's elevators and mail shoots to the bottom floor for central pick up were the newest things, so the architect of these buildings highlighted these aspects in the foyers to impress tenants, next time you are in a art deco foyer look for it. then the boat ride was a good explanation of how the city was founded and the chicago architecture. another thing i noticed on the boat tour was how green the water of the river and lake is, it's not a dirty green, but a blue green, i think because it's fresh water in the middle of the US, it's really clean.
sunday was a lazy day, i took advantage of the quite hotel and slept in, spent as long as i wanted in the bathroom then went out for lunch, then back to the hotel to watch the men's final of the us open tennis. for those who have stayed in hostel's you'll understand, how nice this was, but at the same time by the end of sunday i was sick of my own company :). on monday i left chicago and the east coast of the US for montreal in canada.
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