Like in Sinatra’s song, this is my kind of town!
And for sure it is THE town.
Now that we have the first impressions of the north american culture we can meet the real good life in the big cities!
Chicago is a town that remembers me, as an italian descendant, Al Capone and all the mafia involved during the Prohibition Act, down in the 20’s. So since the begining it was a place with a curious past and with some mystery behind it that was mandatory to visit.
The city is very close from Saint Joseph – MI, and if you live near the great lake you can go taking the AM Trak, double deck and more luxurious transportation. Or you can go using the good and old low cost suburb train of South Shore Line (NICTD), excelent in my opinion and very cheap ($8).
After getting to Chicago you may want a city map and out of the Millennium Station, the last one if you go using the South Shore, you can get some good maps in the Chicago Cultural Center right in front of its exit.
As you are already close to the Millennium Park, go there! You will see a kind of metallic mirrored sphere, in front of an icerink. If you are lucky there will be also some event in the Grant Park, beautiful structure.
Talking about structures, as soon as you get close to Chicago you will be able to see the skyscrapers protruding the flat land, amazing to see them far in the horizon from the train deck.
Close to the Park you will find a lot of things to do, if you have few time like me pick one, I chose the Field Museum of Natural History, a huge museum where you can easily spend the whole day!
What called my attention was the two exhibitions of different earth ages and also from Egypt. It is worth to go there for sure!
By the side of this Museum you can also find the also famous Aquarium and the Planetarium. Going south there is the Museum of Science & Industry, which I missed and will try to visit next time.
Now talking about transportation, there is the classic elevated train and also subways, the company is CTA and you will be able to go to all the places you wish. Also with the card of CTA you can get buses.
After heading to the Museum I went walking around to know the famous Theater of Chicago and downtown of the city, really beautiful.
I had booked one hostel and I wanted to check in before going to the night life so I took the Red Line to the north, Fullerton Station. The hostel I found at the Hostel World and it is called The Getaway. Probably the best hostel I’ve ever slept! Safe, clean and with a good breakfast. In addition to that the hostel is located in the best nightlife neighborhood, Lincoln Park.
I checked in very quickly and went straight to the United Center, to watch a Bulls game! If you are in Chicago you must go there, it’s a huge gymnasium owned by the most traditional Chicago’s basketball team. I met some foreigners there from South Africa and also from Australia, nice people and we exchanged some good places to go.
After the game there was one other thing I had to do. Go to a Blues concert, of course! Chicago is well known by the greatest blues guitarrists, such as Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Howlin Wolf and so on. So I went to this place called BLUES. in Lincoln Park, it was a small door and I even thought it was closed if it wasn’t by the long beard man standing in front of it charging $10 for entrance.
I got in and then it was just blues until the morning, very dark place, good beer and the music I can’t even describe.
After that I went to the hostel as it was almost breakfast time! Took my things and went for a walk in the Lincoln Park Zoo, to the east of the hostel. It was very cold and I couldn’t stand.
Nevertheless I went to the Navy Pier which is a small amusement park with a very tall Ferris wheel.
Walking more and more and I also wanted to eat the Stuffed Pizza everybody talked about. Giordano’s is a good and traditional place if you want to eat a good one!
Well, after that there were still one thousand places to visit but I chose the Willis Tower, the tallest building in Chicago and one of the most tall in the world.
$18 and you are in the top of the world! In the beginning I wasn’t so excited to go but after I highly recommend. Highlighting the glass observatory where you can literally stay over nothing, only over a glass box which goes out of the building structure, great experience and also some butterflies in the first moment.
Unfortunately there was no more time and I had to leave, listening to Dire Straits first album, songs that marked the trip to US and specially Chicago.
See you in another opportunity, my kind of town!
…Al Capone enjoyed it I’m sure!
