Travel: Chicago Part 2

   
      I'm fed and ready for a long hike on the streets of Chicago! As I mentioned before, Chicago is packed. There are buildings as far as the eyes can see. The city is so big that it is dummied down, for travelers like myself, I'm sure, to smaller labels they call neighborhoods! The Willows Hotel is in a neighborhood which goes by Lake View East. What's even cooler is that each "neighborhood" has its own cool branding logo.
      You wouldn't believe how much Chicago planners love five point intersections!? We've got a single one of these where I live in Pennsylvania and it is universally notorious for accidents. I think this may require a civil layout case study for the sake of learning from Chicago minds.

    

      There is so much to see in ways of architecture in Chicago. Take this huge church for example. You can actually take a 360 tour through Google Maps if you are interested. The interior is even more awe inspiring than the exterior.

 

      If you are here, you probably already know how creative some of the architects have been around these parts. Chicago is like a fashion play ground for buildings. And the cramped space, is even more of an incentive! Check out these eye catching residential buildings.


      A little later, I came across this seriously creative, and wicked cool small smart car. Since there aren't many of these around, like anywhere, I stopped. Something was strange. The car was painted with some sort of an advertisement. car2go! No way! You can actually rent a car the same way your rent a bike. I thought this idea was mad interesting.
      Yes, of course you can rent bicycles at Chicago too. These are the same ibx bikes you can rent at Philly or Minnesota. Though they do have something I did not see before. They show you the map of where you're at, quite normal. They show you other nearby stations, quite normal. There is an app to plan your trip, pretty nice Oh, but what's this!? They show you a 5 minute radius of a trip on foot vs. a trip on a bike. I'm sold. This is probably the most reckless me in the entirety of my visit. One, because I haven't biked for ages. Two, because the bike quite clearly says you may not use me on side walks. But rest assured some, *ehm*, of the more traveled roads have bike lanes.

      Notably, these streets are surrounded by many artsy shops and creativity schools. There are some even for kids! Dancing, cooking, pottery making, you name it. They've got it all. The number of craft shops and painting studios made me wonder: just how are all of these people able to live off what they love while sharing the same street!? There are some Yoga and Pilates studios too. But not as many as I saw in Baltimore, MD.

      This can be because of the, unbelievably, dominantly young population. No wonder one of my friends got married following a job in this city! Why so many young people? Possibly because of the number of universities in Chicago. I accidentally passed by DePaul University College of Music. How did I end up there? No idea! Remember, step one, explore by getting lost. What caught my attention is the massive size of the college. I cannot even fathom how many students go here, which is kind of confusing actually. I thought Philadelphia was the city of music. How Temple University outranks this behemoth is beyond me.

      Another notability is the crazy number of renter placement realty services. One such example is pictured below. I've never witnessed this concept implemented on such a huge scale. Not to mention, if it was me, I wouldn't know where to start looking without this outlet. It's not like apartment owners can plant yard signs in concrete! And even if they use standing signs, I'd question how many will be able to see them with vehicles parked on the streets.

      The sun was finally sitting. I'm tired, and have somehow managed to bike way off my intended destination (the hotel). I ignore the WhatsApp calls from my sister, who is also travelling at the moment, to figure my best route back. Some 20 minutes later, I'm back on track. Lesson learnt: if I'm planning on taking one of these bikes in the future, I'll make sure to bring one of them phone holders for navigation. But maybe the earful I got from my mom when I got back to the hotel will serve as a disincentive.

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