Windy City.

The long Greyhound journey was less painful than expected. As we had to be up at 4am, sleeping took up most of the morning. We had a 2 hour stop over in Cleveland in the afternoon, during which time I became pretty knowledgeable about the Greyhound Station in Cleveland.

We arrived in Chicago at about 10pm and called on our host (again, we were couch surfing) for directions. A short tube ride (called the 'L' here) and we were greeted by Morgan who would be our guide for the next couple of days.

First day, we ventured to the downtown area and became familiar with the infamous 'Bean' Sculpture in Millennium Park. Hugely impressive and great for photo taking.
A few highlights from around the park:

The Bean

Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Crown Fountain

The weather was abit unfortunate on our first day, experiencing first hand why they call it the 'Windy City'

A trip to the Art Institute of Chicago (free on Thursdays after 17:00!) got to see Nighthawks (Edward Hooper)...

I never understood why people take photos of painting, it seems to defeat the whole point to me, but I had to take one of this!

As the weather cleared I decided to embrace the sun by hiring a bike to do some city cycling. Chicago is apparently USA's most cyclist friendly city. At $30/day rental, it's no wonder they are friendly!

The longest bike ride I've done in years (about 7 hours) and managed to find myself in the middle of a ghetto. Being naive I felt this would be a great place to stop and get lunch. A Chicago style hot dog with relish that resembled the result of a sneezing attack upon a turd. The 'joint' I got it from was also uncomforting...The entire counter being shielded with a bullet proof screen and a large black lady screaming about the amount of salt on her fries.

A few shots of my otherwise pleasant bike journey...

Roundabouts do exist in America!

We also managed to check out a superb nightime veiw over the City via the bar at the Hancock Observatory...
The drinks were ludicrously expensive ($12 upwards) but the view was stunning. Once again, photos do this no justice.

The striking thing about Chicago compared to its bigger rival, New York, is the architecture. Truely spectacular buildings, one of my favourite being the Tribune Tower which features in its lowest walls, stones from around the world. I was very happy to see this...

"Give us back our stone you theiving yanks."

More great couchsurfing. After staying with Morgan for a couple of nights we were handed over to some friends of hers to put us up for the rest of the week. They couldn't be more accommodating and on picking us up from Morgans, took us to a house party of someone no one really knew (when does that ever matter!?).

And so we were ready to contunie our jourey South down Route 66. Next stop, St Louis (pronounced with the 's').

The Mega [cheap] Bus!

Peddle Backwards to Stop..

In the interest of saving $10 (£7app), we decided to bus to Chicago via a short stay in Buffalo. I'm glad we did this.

Buffalo was our first CouchSurfing experience so we were a little apprehensive when we arrived. We needn't have been as we were greeted at the door with a beer, a sure sign of good hosting in any part of the world.

Our first CouchSurf

Our hosts, Mike and Maura, were great company. On our first night, Mike took us for a bike ride to show us the local area (and his local pub for a beer). We were given a couple of old style 'Cruiser' bikes (like those used by American kids in 1980's movies). These bikes were a little older though, mine being around since the early 40's.
If you aren't familiar with these style of bicycles, they have no brakes on the handlebars which I failed to notice when I first took off Luckily, I hadn't left the driveway where Mike was nearby to shout stopping instructions at me "Peddle Backwards!" - seems logical.

A short ride down the road and with the first junction approaching, I managed to steadily come to a hault in time...Richard did not.
In his moment of panic at realising the breaks aren't where they used to be, he decides the best method to stop for the junction, was to ride into the back of Mike who was waiting patiently for a gap in the traffic. HA! Great mockings over a pint later.

Journey to the Falls.
The convinient thing with being in Buffalo was its proximity to Niagara and thus, the falls, and so on our only full day we had there, I went for some tourist fun.
The weather was shit on the day (the day prior had been beautiful - such is my luck) and I ended up getting wetter on the way to the falls than on Maid of the Mist. Moan aside, the falls were spectacular and I don't think any picture can do it justice. I'll throw one in anyway.

Maid Idiot of the Mist

Another Canadian/US border crossing (which I had to cross to see the falls from the Canadian side - argued to be the best) caused much confusion and of course, discourtesy from border patrol who were confused as to why I had just come back into the states the day before. This happened on both the US and Canadian sides....I hate them all.

Walking the bridge to freedom?

That night we were taken to sample some of 'the best Buffalo wings' at a pub nearby. It is fair to say, they were bloody good wings. The sauces ranged from mild to Suicide. We figured it was too early in the trip to die, so went for a slightly less intense sauce, 'Atomic'!

And that just about wraps up our short stay in Bufflao. The next day we were destined for Chicago with an 11 hour Greyhound to look forward to.

Idiot out.