Monday 17 July 2017

How to spend 3 days in Chicago



Not long ago I travelled to Chicago with my friends Ellie and Elly (yes very confusing) we had a 3 day trip planned and had booked an AirBnB just outside the city centre. We arrived in Chicago late afternoon so after a trip to the local supermarket to stock up on food we went back to our AirBnB and got cleaned up before heading out for famous Chicago deep dish pizza, unfortunately I can't remember the name of the place. The restaurant was a fair walk but reviews said it was the best place around and they weren't wrong! The pizza was incredible so much cheese covered with fresh tomato sauce and the server even gets the slices out of the pan for you. The servings where so big none of us finished it. After our meal we headed home to sleep off our food babies and get ready for our first full day in Chicago.


On our first day we headed into the city centre using the public train which was at the end of the street, the public transport in Chicago was so easy to use once we'd bought our travel cards. (Work like Oyster cards for anyone that's been to London.) After arriving in the city we wandered with no real plan, out towards the waterfront where we ate the remains of our pizza from the previous night. This lead us to stumble upon Navy Pier. This is a 3,300ft long pier on the Chicago water front, there is a fun fair, several boat tours, cafes, restaurants and much more as well as some stunning views.



That same day we visited the famous Chicago Bean other wise know as The Cloud Gate. This is a massive sculpture, you can walk right underneath it and the reflective surface makes for great photos like mine where you can see the city reflected in the surface. It is situated in the AT&T plaza in the Millennial park which is a beautiful open space in contrast to the city. There are many art exhibitions, sculptures and the Jay Pritzker Pavillian where regular music events are held. The only down side to the Bean is that it is so popular that it was very crowded and as you can see from my photo impossible to get a picture without lots of people in my shot.


That night we headed to downtown Chicago for a free comedy show, before the show we went to a bar just off from the subway and the amazingly friendly bar tenders started our night off in the right way! Typical us turned up late to the comedy show so after getting drinks we missed the first part but what we did see was a hilarious improv show, which included a surprise engagement at the end! (she said yes) We headed back to the bar afterwards and spend the night making great friends with the bar tenders who after adding them on every social network possible invited us to a party the next night.

The next day slightly (very) hungover we headed back into the city to enjoy our last day in Chicago and what a day it was! We headed to the Willis/ Sears Tower Sky Deck (official name Willis but our bartender friend told us off for calling it this and said real Chicagoans call it Sears.) In all honesty I wasn't too keen on going up there, I was on a tight budget and what's one city view from the next right? But I was so so wrong this place is spectacular and I will let the photos below show you why. Here is the link to their website http://theskydeck.com as you can see we also went super touristy and bought Chicago t-shirts. 



The very last thing we fitted into our stay in Chicago was a baseball game! The party we where invited to wasn't really possible for us to get to so we had a last minute change of plans. After living in New York and seeing the Yankees we had caught the baseball bug, not even for the game but for the incredible atmosphere. So we found ourselves some cheap tickets and headed down to the Sears Stadium. Upon arrival we learned that it happened to be Elvis night which apparently meant fireworks, flamenco dancers, Elvis impersonators and sky divers! This really topped of our visit making it a pretty exciting night.



On our last night we also saw the most beautiful sun set over the water and I am honestly in love with the below photo.



Hope this gave you some ideas of what to get up to in Chicago, if you have any more suggestions let me know in the comments! 

4 comments:

  1. It looks like such an amazing place to go! I'd love to go to Chicago, it looks like one of the best places to visit!

    Love, Amie ❤
    The Curvaceous Vegan | Instagram

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  2. Feeling really dizzy after seeing that Seers Tower picture with the transparent floor!! Looks like a great trip. Would love to go there

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    1. Haha yes is very weird to walk out onto, you should go it's a great city!

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