LSD and the Bar Guy

Me and Chicago hadn't really seen eye to eye at first. The location of the hostel, the lack of people I'd met and the general ambiance of the place had done nothing to help its cause. Maybe I was never meant to dislike Chicago because over the next few days things really started to change, led as it was by a guy in a bar downtown.

I'd got chatting the previous evening to a Taiwanese lass in the hostel and we'd agreed to meet up the next day to go see a few things. We ended up grabbing some lunch and exploring the area on and around Lake Shore Drive taking the sun and rain in equal doses as they exchanged blows throughout the afternoon. Sat on the edge of Lake Michigan, Chicago was suddenly starting to have a pull over me. Despite the mixed bag of weather, this was actually pretty nice. I guess we didn't really have a plan to see anything as such, just took in what was around us and I liked what I saw.



We eventually decided to head off to a bar for a couple of drinks, unfortunately the bar we'd wanted to go in didn't have any seats, just as we were about to leave we were told two seats had just opened up by the bar. The guy sat next to us began chatting and on realising we were out of towners offered to buy us both a drink "s a welcome to Chicago" he told us. How could we refuse such an offer!


We had a good chat about my trip and where I was headed to and so on and gave me a few great pieces of advice, he was also the first person I'd meet who would tell me to eat the steak in Buenos Aires! I jotted things down, drew maps, told us that we should go see the John Hancock instead of the Sears Tower as you could go to the bar there for free and have a couple of drinks for the same price as it costs to get to the observation deck of either tower. That and you wouldn't have to brave the queues and video gumf at Sears! A handy man to have met! As he left he added another drink to his tab for us both and disappeared off. The famous words of Red Dwarf spring to mind..."What A guy...".