Blown Away By Chicago
One of the downsides of budget traveling is that you need to buy tickets a couple months in advance. Because of this, you run the risk of missing out on potential future gatherings with friends. This weekend was one of those weekends.
I was slightly frustrated, not with myself but the predicament I was in. I’m starting to take action on my love for travel and I believe it makes me happier and a better person. I enjoy new experiences and learning about different cultures, but by prioritizing travel, I’m choosing to sacrifice other valuable things - one of those things being spending time with and getting to know new friends.
But it’s these feelings of FOMO (fear of missing out) that drive me to make plans on the weekends that I am in town, and to make the most of that time I have with the people I care about. Life has so much to offer, and of course there’s no way to do it all, but being reminded of my limited time helps motivate me to do all that I can with the relatively short time I have. This weekend, I promised myself some introverted time exploring a new city, so pushing the feelings of FOMO aside, I committed to making the most of my time in Chicago.
I knew that I was only going to have one full day of good weather and that the chance of rain was high on Sunday, so I chose to wander around the suburban neighborhoods of Chicago on Saturday and downtown on Sunday.
Day 1
I spent the day wandering around the neighborhood of Wicker Park, enjoying the liveliness of the young adult professionals in the well-manicured neighborhood. The main street was lined with shops and restaurants suited for the social millennials. Walking through the neighborhood and admiring the beautiful brick houses, I started thinking about the possibility of someday owning a cute house like this, settle down in a suburban neighborhood somewhere with a loving family and stable job. “Let’s just keep that a dream for now” I told myself as I walked around during a spontaneous trip to a foreign city on my own on a random weekend in November.
I was really excited about going to the wndr museum, an experimental museum meant to explore how science and art collide. This museum was currently featuring the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Room, which I was beyond excited for.
After spending an hour taking in the sights and sounds of the art exhibit and engaging with the questions that were brought up, I went back into the city to try my hand at some long exposure photography.
I went back into the city to do a little night photography. While setting up my tripod and camera for my shot, I had several people come up to me and ask me if I was a photographer. As flattered as I was, I explained that I simply had a travel blog and was curating images for the blog.
Satisfied with how much I was able to accomplish in one day, I found my way back to my AirBnb to get some much needed rest. Good thing daylight savings is this weekend so I can get an extra hour of sleep!
Day 2
Maybe it’s because I grew up in the gloomy, rainy city of Seattle but I actually like being in the city with bad weather, because I think it makes a city honest. I feel like the rain washes away the unnecessary glamour of the city, allowing for an honest representation of the culture and people that live and work there. I enjoy the vulnerability and companionship that sometimes comes with bad weather. At the train station, people of all ages, genders, backgrounds, all gather close together under the heat lamps to stay warm. People huddle under restaurant awnings to avoid the rain, engaging in light conversation while they wait for the heavy rain to pass. The driver stopped at a crosswalk gives the pedestrian priority to cross the street, hoping the poor pedestrian finds away to escape the cold.
Besides those running in the Hot Chocolate 5K/15K race, the city was very quiet on Sunday morning. The trains were sprinkled with the hungover and the homeless, and the desolation of the trains were mirrored in the streets. The rain made the roads more reflective and the windows less so. The sound of trains rumbling by overhead somehow felt muted by the dampness on the tracks and washed out by the sound of cars splashing up the puddles on the roads. The signature smell of rain that is so familiar to me was tainted by a strange mix of musk and brick.
The fall colors lit up Millennium Park, and brought a warm feel to a somewhat gloomy day. Racers huddled underneath the bean to get instagram-worthy photos with their fellow runners, older-couples pulled out their iPad to capture a slanted and over-exposed photo of the bean and surrounding buildings, and I stood back away from the bean, appreciating all that was laid out in front of me.
I braved my way toward the water, and desperately wanted to walk along the river & lakefront to get a scenic view of the Chicago skyline, but was sadly chased away by the powerful wind and rain. While planning for this trip, I stumbled across Garfield Park Conservatory but didn’t plan it into my schedule because it seemed out of the way from all of the other places I wanted to visit. Now that my Sunday plans had to take a shift, I decided that visiting the Garfield Park Conservatory was the perfect way to escape the rain.
The conservatory had several rooms of different climates, and hundreds of plants growing in harmony to transport visitors into a different world altogether. The palm room was my favorite because the species were so unfamiliar and foreign. Being in that environment made me more excited about the possibility of someday living in a place where these plants grew naturally.
The soft moss and pungent fern room reminded me of hikes in the Pacific Northwest and brought up memories of taking off wet socks and sitting in a warm car after a rainy Washington day in the mountains. Walking among the cacti in the desert room sent me back to my 5-day summer road trip in Utah where I experienced a new level of freedom I had never believed possible.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the conservatory, which brought up so many pleasant memories of my past and hope and excitement for my future. I still had a couple of hours before my flight, but I was pretty tired and the weather wasn’t in my favor, so I decided to leisurely head back to the airport to bring this trip to an end.
I went on this trip to Chicago alone, but I wasn’t ever lonely. The world is a friendlier place if you open your heart to the strangers in your neighborhood. I got to connect with a lot of people on my trip to Chicago. I talked to Dre and his girlfriend at the Adams/Wabash station about uniqueness of the city of Chicago. I shared life stories with Amanda and Jessica over a cup of coffee in a quaint alley way in the heart of downtown. Patricia, an older woman and long-time resident of Chicago was impressed with my photography gear and gave me a couple secret spots for some great views. I met two writers, LaToya and Mario wandering downtown on a quiet Sunday morning. I kicked it with a group of young entrepreneurs while they took photos for the launch of their upcoming street wear line. I celebrated with my hostel-mate Liam about the new job he just accepted in Chicago.
The world is full of love. Go seek it, and go be it.
