... Like A Big Pizza Pie...

Welcome to Chicago folks!! Well, not literally welcome... as you're most probably in the UK, or elsewhere in the US if you're Mr. Knott or one of the many ace peeps i've met over in this big ol' country! That is, unless you're stalking me, and you're actually in Chicago sitting opposite me in this internet room. You are pretty hot though, so i'll forgive you ;-)

I tell you what - i'm SO glad to be out of Salt Lake City. I can now actually tell you about the hostel where i was... unlike in the last post due to ''wandering eyes''. Basically it was packed full of random weirdo's. I'm basically talking about compressing the Greyhound into a hostel! There were people LIVING in the hostel for one - that's something i've not seen before... and these folks weren't your average, nice traveller; they were vagrants or the mentally unhinged! You think i'm joking don't you?? How about an example... at 11pm, when i was trying to get my head down after the day's travelling, my room 'mate' walks upto my bunk, stark naked and starts talking to me about religion and Europe. Now, i'm a personable chap and will ofcourse talk to someone... but this guy was loopy. He started saying how Europe was totally poor, and that everything over there was salted. He figured that this salt is ''a curse thrown down upon Europe by Satan''. He then started talking DEEPLY about the Bible and quoting verses at me. He also reckoned that Jesus had been killed by Satan, and that he won't be coming back any time soon. I tried my hardest to close my eyes and sleep... i eventually did.

The next thing i heard out of him at 3am was ''Al Capone was a really cool guy, i'd like to be him''. Nice - dying of syphillis sounds AWESOME...

Anyway, i flew out of SLC and landed in Chicago yesterday. Sound flight, and met some nice folks at the airport - so the inhabitants of SLC aren't as nutty as those hostel folks, so no disrespect to anyone who may be from there! This hostel (in Chicago) is MUCH better - full of normal people, who are all around my age - bonus!

Ok, so what's Chicago famous for?? Skyscrapers (it has the tallest in the US), wind (it's the Windy City), that theatrical production of the same name, Al Capone... and pizza! So what's the first thing i do when i get here?? Why, i hunt down the pizzeria that invented the 'deep-pan pizza' - yes, Chicagotown Pizzas have based their ideas on the city that started it all... too bad they've missed the mark ENTIRELY though! The pizzeria is called ''Uno'' - and the dude invented the dish back at the turn of the 20th Century - so i had to sample one didn't i?? The whole experience is basically the dietary equivalent of sex... ''how?'' i can hear you ask... well let me explain!

First of all you have a 45 minute wait while the pizza cooks (this is authentic remember), which is a time where they ply you with appetizers... think of these as the foreplay - piquing your interest and warming you up for what's to come. You're anticipation builds and builds as time moves on, til you can stand it no more, and you NEED the 'main course'...

... that time comes soon enough, and you're lost in a world of ecstacy. The ''pizza'' looks so enticing lying there for you to tuck into, and when you do, it's so satisfying and everything you'd been hoping for. It also seems to last an age too (i don't mean to brag ;-) ha!). When you're done you feel an overwhelming sense of elation and also a curious amount of tiredness - all you want to do is sleep. Does the comparison end there? Oh no no; you see despite having just finished, you strangely find yourself thirsting for more, and you can't wait to go again should the ''food'' go down (or go up if you're thinking about the OTHER thing).

I did indeed did feel this urge to go again, and i did today - though i was unfaithful and popped over to ''Due'' (the younger sister restaurant of Uno) for some action. This act of treachery is again very similar to the relationship / loving comparison... you see, despite me enjoying my lunch, i got horrible abdominal spasms afterwards - a ''disease'' if you will. Cheaters never prosper folks... cheaters never prosper!!

So... after all that, what else have i filled my day with?? Skyscrapers! First thing i headed over to the John Hancock centre and went upto the 94th floor (this is the 2nd tallest building in the US - after the Sears Tower with 105 floors, which is next to my hostel). The views up there were amazing - you can see into FOUR states from up there! That's how tall it is! Unfortunately it was a little foggy, but it was sensational. I then wandered round taking snaps and trying to find a callbox to ring the UK... but it seems that Chicago phoneboxes don't let you dial internationally - apparently the world outside of the US doesn't exist, so that idea fell flat. Instead i visited all the art exhibits around the city - some are just plain WEIRD - one is two 50 foot tall towers that stream water from their bricks... with two faces on them that just blink and smile at one another until they both pucker up and water sprays out of their mouths. This is hard to convey in writing, but i've taken photos - so you'll see what i mean!! There was loads of other modern art out here too, including a Picasso statue entitled ''Untitled'' - which i sat and tried to interpret, but i couldn't - that's one for you Aimee haha!

It's been a pretty damn cool day - literally too, as the weather hasn't broached 19oC today - a nice bit of respite! My blister's back too - yay - so that's annoying, but 'luckily' i have a 17 hour Greyhound to catch tomorrow, so i can rest it then. That Greyhound will take me to my final destination on this trip, which was consequently my first destination - New York City!! I can actually explore it properly now! So that basically means everything but walking 50 blocks to the Greyhound depot along Broadway and back! Hence, there's lots still to do! I'll also be joined out here by a familiar face - my mum! It'll be good to begin the process that you're all going to have to bear witness unto - me chewing your ear off about my journeys!! She gets to be the 'lucky' first person (nevermind!)

That's another blog over with then! We're drawing close to the end now - there's only 2 or possibly 3 more to go and it's over! We'll have to actually talk in person - what a scary thought right?! Who, in this day and age, actually talks face to face anymore?? I'll leave you to ponder that one...

See you soon!

Aaron! x

PS: A little bit of a quiz here... all but one of these blog titles is a song title, or song lyric (in essence, though it may be twisted slightly) - which one's the odd one out?? Also... can you name each artist and song that the titles were inspired by? Oh the excitement!