Chicago, Illinois 1

Arriving in Chicago.

I had some trepidations about Chicago, not due to its crime or the possibility of a axe-murdering, psychopathic couch surfing host, but rather of the traffic. Chicago was to be my first of the big cities in the US that I would have to navigate on a motorcycle. It would act as a lead-up to the much dreaded NYC traffic that would be coming in a few weeks. The idea of parking outside the city and then using public transport to get into it the guts of it was impractical; the luggage on my bike was too unwieldy and large to carry onto any bus or train. I would have to just suck it up, rely on my motorcycle, GPS and a few years of riding under my belt.

In the end the traffic wasn't too bad, Chicago did seem to have the "speediest" drivers yet, all seemed to do 80 MPH (130 KPH) in the 55 MPH (90 KPH) zones. But that didn't bother me too much. There is so much space on American freeways that it is relatively easy for a motorcycle to get out of trouble easily.

In order to catch a Chicago Cubs baseball game, I had to book in with an additional host (Kelly) the night before my main host in Chicago (Phil). Kelly was one of my more interesting hosts, she was originally from Florida and worked into the world of Sports Entertainment. No, not wrestling, but the design, construction and at one time the performing of mascots. She moved up to Chicago to further her career in the industry. To make ends meet she worked at the local bar (every neighbourhood has a local bar in Chicago), but as her other job she designed and built mascots for various sporting teams. She had ambitions to one day bring her skills to Australia, as our market is not as jam-packed as the American one.

Kelly decapitates the Easter bunny right in front of me upon arrival.

When I arrived I met Kelly in her local bar where I had a few drinks (on the house thanks to her) then we both headed to her flat. She lived in a small but very comfortable studio/basement apartment. As the name suggests, I slept basically in the same room as her on the couch (you can see the couch that I slept on in the photo above on the left). Luckily, neither of us snore!

That night Kelly and I met up with one of her friends from acting class. We met at her apartment which was this super trendy place right in the middle of some hipstery part of town. She shared the apartment with 4 members of a band, of which the name I have no recollection (they gave me a CD, it was not the last time I was given a CD by a band in the US). In her very early 20s, this friend of Kelly's had the dream of eventually moving to LA and perusing and acting career. All I remember of her was that she was truly tiny, probably under 5 foot and wouldn't weigh more than 50 KGs. But she was eager to show Kelly and I to some of the cool bars in that area of Chicago.

Kelly keeps the heads of her victims in the window as a
warning for all those who enter.

That night we hit a club with the highest concentration of hipsters I've ever seen. The place was jam-packed full of scarves, thick-rimmed glasses and bad facial hair. I couldn't believe how much they stuck to the stereotypical hipster uniform. It was the first time in my trip where I looked severely under-dressed with only some baggy warn-out jeans and an "Stanley, Idaho" t-shirt I might as well have been wearing overalls and a straw hat to these tartan-loving, skinny-leg trendoids. Oh and to top it off, the bar was surrounded with retro arcade games. Now this was kind of cool, but seeing as this was aimed at hipsters it felt very "so-retro-it-hurts".

To balance it out we also went to some heavy metal bar, which was more my kind of scene.

The next morning Kelly made me breakfast (including these awesome cinnamon scroll things with icing on them so popular in America), and then we headed down to her bar to watch the start of the Bears (NFL) game and have a few drinks. She then gave me a lift to Wrigley Field to go and watch the baseball game with Lumi.

Wrigley Field before the game starts.

Lumi is a girl that responded to my open couch surfing request to hangout. Apparently she meets up with quite a few couch surfers as they come through Chicago. Originally from Columbia, she studied in the US and is now working in the financial sector in Chicago.

The baseball game was much faster than I was expecting, I thought it would be slow like cricket, but because the innings are over so quickly (only 3 people have to get out to end the innings) it keeps the pace kind of rapid. So Lumi and I drank expensive beer (something like $8 for a Bud Light) and eat peanuts. The field itself was very iconic, one of the oldest in America. It has nets overhead to stop bits falling off due to old age hitting the spectators. I had a fantastic time there even though the Cubs lost.

The thousand yard stare of the cubs mascot.

Lumi and I Wrigley Field.

The "hurler" launches the ball to the "whacker".

After the game Lumi, Kelly and I all got a drink at a local bar in Wrigleyvile (the drinking district that surrounds Wrigley Field), and then I got a lift back home from Kelly. I had to quickly pack my gear up and head off to my next host: Phil.