Days 6 and 7 – The good, the bad and the worse

I had written up a decent entry for yesterday but due to technical difficulties it got lost. So I’m going to summarise yesteday and today in one. As it turns out these past two days have turned into quite a tale.

After staying the night in a room that would be classed as poor by Thai beach hut standards we legged it in the morning. We headed nack to the Greyhound and managed to make reservations at another hostel.

The new place was further North, in uni territory, and seemed much nicer. The didn’t have the same foom for two nights so said we could transfere to a dorm for the second night. After seeing the rooms we leapt at something clean.

The day was spent adding further blister to my feet exploring the City. I don’t mind the walking as I’m seeing so much but this is getting to be serious endurance stuff now! Anyway during the day we managed to go up the Sear’s and Hanckock towers, see ballet in Millenium park, walking along the beach, walk the magnificent mile and eat a propper meal on the Navy Pier. Going up the Hancock was interesting as, following advice from a local, we took the free lift to the bar on the 96th floor. There we looked around and headed back down; good views for no cost!

Really impressed with Chicago; its a busy city but it seems quite relaxed. Public transport is superb for getting in and out of the main areas.

Awkaking early this morning after a bad nights sleep I felt shattered. Thinking a run might wake me up I donned my kit and headed out. Luckily my blisters didn’t hurn so much in my running shoes and I was able to do 4 miles of exploring the local park and beach front.

Although I felt good running when it came to wlaking around downtown my legs felt like lead. First stop was the Museum of Modern Art. We bought tickets and were told to check our back packs in. Problem was we couldn’t check the packs in as they contained food. We weren’t offered an explaination, just told to eat or bin the food. No chance of this as we’d just bought enough to last the day. So we had to get a refund on the tickets. Why the hell would they have a problem with food within backpacks in a cloackroom! Grrr.

Leaving downtown we headed to the planitarium, located at the end of the harbour break water. The view back to the city from here was stunning. The skyscrapers were half buried in clouds.

After deciding the planitarium was a rip off for what was on offer we headed to the Shedd Aquarium. It was alright but I think the Sea Life Center in Brum is better.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent shopping for bits and bobs. Whilst doing so we popped into the Apple store to use the internet. After checking on prices for cars to Atlanta we were both left feeling our plan was shot. The hire costs were rediculous, $800 or so fr 6 days without the insurance. Thinking this through we weighed up our options; Greyhound down or fly to Atlanta. Flying won as its cheaper but the downside is we won’t see St Loius (not that it would have been easy to do by Greyhound anyway). Was hoping to see the big arch though.

So off we headed back to the hostel before setting off tomorrow to get plane tickets from the airport. Now here’s where it gets interesting. The dumb hostel girl didn’t put our second night reservation on the system, even though I’d confirmed it twice this morning. All the rooms were now fully booked and after some searching we found out so was everywhere else.

Stranded I started looking into flights for tonight. Earliest I could get was for 10 am tomorrow. After some fun trying to confirm flight bookings I think we have seats on a plane! Right now we’re stuck in the hostel lounge waiting the night out. The guy on night shift has kindly let us use the showers and said we can crash in the lounge for free. I just can’t believe the hassle we’ve had with accomodation and with the car problems I feel drained. All I wanted to do was fly to the states and drive around.

Lets see how things pan out in the morning.