On Friday, my good friend Daliah was so kind to take the day off to show me around the city, and she did an amazing job as my sherpa (as she both guided me around and carried my stuff in her backpack 🙂 ).
Considering we had a very packed schedule for the day, our first move was to stop to fill up with energy at the Original Pancake House, where both the food and the company were top notch.
With our bellies full we headed out on what in the end turned out to be a 20km walk, making our way first towards the shores of lake Michigan, passing through the Gold Coast neighbourhood and then strolling through the zoo. Sadly, the monkeys were off for the day too, so we quickly made our way towards the hip Lincoln Park neighbourhood for coffee instead.
From there, a quick hop on the metro took us to Bucktown, where I had a chance to order a custom made t-shirt from a store that looks like a Deli, and then spend some time browsing through the vintage shops that are abundant in the area (and now I kind of regret not getting that gorgeous Hugh Hefner’s red jacket on display 🙂 ).
After an equally hip lunch where I had a chance to sample the latest Hawaiian fad called Pokè (served in a burrito made of seaweed, which turned out to be quite tasty), we headed back towards downtown to check out the shiny Bean. After finally getting the chance to put my feet up for a while, I rounded up a great day checking out some blues at Kingston Mines, as you do when in Chicago.
Another thing you are supposed to do in Chicago is try deep pan pizza. The experience was not exactly wonderful, but since I am told I simply didn’t visit the right place I’ll just pretend that never happened.
On Saturday, after sampling another Chicago speciality (the doughnut) I decided to check out the Museum of Contemporary Art, which had a very interesting exhibition called ”Eternal Youth” featuring various artists’ works on the theme of coming-of-age and the depiction of the teenage years in contemporary art.
Another great discovery of the day was the Richard H. Driehaus Museum. Originally the residence of the Nickerson family, a wealthy family of Chicago bankers, it is today a great example of the styles and decors of the late 19th century looked like, with an incredible collection of artworks and stained glass lamps and windows from the likes of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Giannini & Hilgart.
The museum currently also hosts an exhibition of promotional posters from the Belle Epoque, featuring works from Mucha and Toulouse-Lautrec, which fit quite beautifully with the style of the house.
In the evening, I headed out to the Cobra Lounge (which turned out to be part of the All Rise Brewery, with quite a few excellent beers on tap) to check out Radkey, a garage punk band made up of 3 brothers from Missouri. With a bass player that looked and moved like Phil Lynott and a singer with a voice halfway between Joey Ramone and Glenn Danzig, Radkey put up a hell of a show, and closing with a great cover of Misfits’ ”Last Caress” was the perfect icing on the cake and a great way to wrap up a great visit to Chicago.