a couple of days in the windy city, Chicago

Posted: July 15th, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

When ordering my airline tickets, adding a trip to Chicago saved me $130. The message was clear; I had to go to Chicago.

I headed out on the 10th of July, after being in D.C. for a week. My good Samaritan friend, Audun, picked me up at  the airport and gave me shelter for my stay. I didn’t have a flight out of Chicago, so the plan ended up being; there is no plan.

The next day we took the train in to Chicago, as Audun lives way out beyond the suburbs. It was a one hour ride in kettle transport/two stories train cars.

Arriving at Chicago Union Station, I soon realized how inferior our trains are compared to the ones in the US. Bigger, faster, better, stronger!

I would like to add: the roof isn’t painted black; the trains all run on diesel.

Well inside Union Station.

Little did we know what the city of Chicago had in store for us. Apparently they were shooting scenes for the next Transformers movie, all in the middle of The Loop in Chicago.

Words cannot describe how cool this is.

It’s on wheels! If only I had a hitch on my car.

At first glimpse, this doesn’t look good. At all.

At an other location, a couple of blocks west of the Willis Tower.

Seemingly an unrelated picture, but if you click on the image and look closer you’ll see four people who have just jumped out of the helicopter above. The antennas on the building nearby is the Willis Tower (Sears Tower).

The sky’s were generally swarming with helicopters this day.

Luckily we had some freaky bikes as well.

The Aon Center, which looks a little too much like two buildings that used to shape the skyline in New York.

A mysterious metal bean in Millennium Park.

The skyline of Chicago seen from Millennium Park.

The marina.

I think it deserved a picture.

Bridge crossing the Chicago city river.

The Willis Tower. Probably better known by its former name, Sears Tower.

We had some bad weather heading back home. Luckily it didn’t start until we got on the train. There were some epic thunderstorms in the horizon seen from the apartment in Woodridge.

Monday consisted of yet another trip to Chicago, while my good Samaritan was at work. I took a trip to the University of Chicago and sat at one of the many libraries there, and went in a bad neighborhood on my way out. Long story short. Later on I met up with some good friends, for great food, live music and good company. That same night I ordered a ticket back to Washington D.C., for the next day. Little did I know that being a foreigner, ordering a last minute, one-way ticket to the capitol, would probably light up some alarms in the TSA profiling system.

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