The diary entry
"Checked out of the hostel after doing our chores - sweeping the floor and emptying the bin. Not really back breaking but it's the only work I've done in the last 6 weeks. We were offered a lift to Canada which we had to turn down because the lure of Omaha was too strong. Did some Blues Brothers shots
by The Loop, walked up Michigan Avenue and hit the beach. Unbelievably, Chicago has a gorgeous beach a couple of minutes walk from the centre. What a life.
Caught the 15:35 train to Omaha despite being delayed by a baggage handler who couldn't have gone any slower if he'd tried and then stopped to explain how his boss wouldn't let him go any faster. The train itself was quite special. Two levels, plush toilets, a dining car, buffet car, viewing car with videos and the usual big reclining seats. We dined on a veritable pot pourri of cheeses and crackers washed down with lashings of hot tea."
The diary entry
"Stayed in a youth hostel in the suburbs, about 22 minutes from The Loop by the Rapid. It seemed a lot longer to me. Visited Soldier Field,
went to the top of the Sears Tower (I'm on top of the world looking down on creation),
had a deep pan pizza in the very place they were invented by Ike Sewell and walked around a city whose architecture was far nicer than that of New York. Oz lost the address book and had to call Beth at home to get some addresses. Gained another hour of my life - this is Central Time."
1991
The Sears Tower is called the Willis Tower and is no longer the tallest building in the world and Soldier Field has been expanded significantly.
In the late 90s I was on a business trip to Michigan and popped over to Chicago for the weekend to catch-up with friends that were living there. One happy hour, 6 long island iced teas, umpteen beers in a pub and then a nightclub resulted in a very messy night. I even went sleepwalking when drunk and destroyed the packing boxes that my friend had filled up ready for moving out of his apartment. I also spent about an hour trying to get my contact lenses out and made my eyes very sore. I'd actually removed them earlier. A terrible hangover the next day was exacerbated by having to get on a 24hr flight back to Sydney.
The diary entry "Ilana's first words were "what are you doing here?", words which we would hear several times during the day, to which the reply was usually along the lines of "you mean this is not Chicago ?". Oz didn't hear it that much because he didn't get out of bed until it was time for Sunday lunch. Bought at Burger King of course. Oz did a good impression of a zombie for quite a while but eventually perked up. We walked around the neighbourhood, which was so poor they didn't have pavements (sidewalks to our American readers) and I did a few lengths of the pool. Watched a Jean-claude van Damme video (predictable plot) and headed to the station after another hearty meal and suprisingly caught the 2:47 train to Chicago.
Footnotes to the last few days: Americans like the National Lampoon Vacation films, Leanne spoke a different version of English (American teen English e.g. dude, beauhunk), never finished a sentence and never got off the phone, looked like Madonna and couldn't understand a word we said."
1991 - I think we both felt a little embarassed to impose ourselves for another day but our embarassment wasn't as strong as our hangovers.
The comment about pavements is sarcastic of course. It was a very affluent neighbourhood and pavements were obviously considered superfluous as people would drive to friend's houses and not walk. I'm sure there's a scene in a Steve Martin film (LA Story maybe) when he gets in his car to go next door.
I've never seen a J-C vD film before or since. Honest.
