Chicago - evening - a.h. photo
1. A pleasant surprise: Living in my ‘bubble’, I had pictured Chicago as a big but not particularly loveable city, but after our visit I’d say that given its size it has a remarkably intimate atmosphere, especially downtown. We love Chicago
2. Eating a big breakfast at our favorite spot downtown, the Corner Bakery Cafe
3. The streets are cleaner and there are fewer ugly side-streets than in New York, and it’s very walkable
4. Scintillating and abundant cultural life
5. There are many grand, imposing old buildings, for instance on Michigan Avenue and the other streets of the Loop (downtown)
6. The Kingston Mines blues bar
7. Whatever preconceptions you might have about what people in Chicago eat, you can forget them now
8. The Central and Southern European-style bakeries and butchers’ shops in the Serbian, Greek and Polish quarters
9. People here seem friendlier than in the other big American cities
10. Take the brown line on the elevated rapid transit system (“L” for short) and enjoy the chance to peer through apartment windows as you rattle by
11. The Willis Tower
1. It’s not called ‘The Windy City’ for nothing: wind gusts are fierce down at the lake shore. The weather is capricious, and it’s cold for two-thirds of the year.
2. Parking costs a fortune downtown, and the rush-hour traffic jams are horrendous
3. There are still a few shady districts, for instance Burnside, West Garfield Park, Washington Park and South Chicago, and even in the downtown areas you sometimes see rather intimidating gangs of young men.
4. The striking social differences between different districts (black and white Chicagoans don’t live in the same areas)
5. Many shops don’t open before 11am
6. The very mediocre funfair down by the lakeside
7. Between two interesting districts there’s often a broad, nondescript, gray area
8. The rapid transit system is too noisy
9. There are a lot of beggars, homeless people and the like
w.h. photo
10. Some taxi drivers haven’t the faintest idea how to navigate the city
