Chicago - What the El?

I have a habit of getting myself lost, panicking about it and ending up finding what I need to find and everything turning out just fine. So I wonder to myself...Why do I panic? There would appear, from a history standpoint that there isn't any need. I end up sorting it all out, not getting myself in any real bother and nothing too bad has ever happened before.

So here I was, just arrived in Chicago..and lost.

Perfectly typical of me. I figured I could follow a map and directions. I mean, surely it can be that hard I've done it before, I'd do it again but trying to figure out what road I was on, where the junction was, if I was heading up the road or down it and as a result wound up walking around in circles for 20 minutes or so before eventually locating Clinton Station.

I have no one to blame but myself for getting lost and having a small panic attack every time but now at the subway station (known locally as the "El" or just the "L" as large parts of it are elevated) I couldn't believe what I was being told. After staring at the various ticketing options for a while I decided a 5 day tourist pass was the way to go. The problem? You cant buy the subway pass at the subway. Now...is it just me or is that just plain absurd? I eventually settled for banging $2 into a machine that proceeded to spit out a ticket that managed to get me all the way upto Granville - Location of my rather out of town hostel!

Unfortunately the hostel was closed to guests when I arrived, however they must have seen my rather tired looking eyes and allowed me in to go to bed, I duly obliged and woke again sometime around 6pm..feeling a little more alive!

The reception at the hostel could certainly use some updating and some of the "rules" here seem a little out of whack. For starters they didn't seem to know who I was or what my reservation was. Their "system (and I use the term lightly) for sorting rooms out and reservations for that matter was on a piece of paper, no computer in sight. I had to pay a $20 deposit. For what I have no idea to this day. After all, I didn't even get a key. The doors to rooms don't lock apparently (jeez, that's encouraging) and to top it all off their Internet computers are ALL broken. It would appear that they have been that way for several months. One day, someone might actually fix them!

The hostel was pretty dead, not a lot of life here and they wont allow you to drink on the premises so, not feeling like venturing out I wound up just crashing so I could be ready for a full day tomorrow!