Arrived safely in Chicago after managing a second flight with all our luggage! I'm very impressed by the way we are handling public transport, hopping on and off the subway/train things no probs!! Like locals?! The Hostel we are staying in is like a five star hotel compared to New York. The room is spacious and only has 3 bunks, which are alwasy full. Have our own bathroom, feeling like unpacking everything and leaving our stuff out everywhere but haven't dared! There's lots of information at the hostel and as soon as we arrived on Friday we noticed that you could sign up for a karaoke night out with 'Keenen' (I keep calling him Keenan and Kell) who would show us around. Since we hadn't been out an we were feeling the cleanest we have for a week so decided to give it a go. There were about 9 of us altogether, a very mixed bunch but all very nice. We went to a small Karaoke bar about 30 minutes away (again hopping on and off the trains no probs!!). I was adamant that I wasn't going to sing but as you can imagine by 12 O'Clock I was singing with the best of them. We were drinking the cheapest beer, that's what I'm blaming any how! I'm also blaming Karen who decided to put my name down.so there I was singing 'Johnny B Goode' in Chicago! Thankfully Keenan helped me out. There was the token old man in the bar called Fernando, couldn't really speak great English, well couldn't really speak much at all. He was classic though, dancing and singing all night! After we told the lady running the bar it was the best Karaoke bar ever we headed to another pub but we were both tired so we didn't stay long. You feel a bit bad for waking everyone as you come in...tiptoed in about 4! The next day we were pretty tired so had a lazyish day. Keenan took us to a nice place for lunch, so we're eating well! He then took us to this ice cream place (again, we are eating well) where you can choose between loads of different kinds of ice cream and choose what you want to mix in. Thought we'd better share so had mint and cheescake ice cream mixed together with white chocolate drops and gummy bears! We're not eating ice cream for a while we've decided! The funniest weirdest thing I saw that day was a huge japanese guy, huge muscles wearing a bright orange lycra leotard thing totally pumped up running about, stopping to do star jumps. He just keep going around the same piece of road, jumping about! There are a few weird people going about! The funniest thing has got to be the Gay Games are in Chicago just now! We found out when a 70 year old lesbian told us as soon as we had arrived at the hostel! Seemingly there are about 50,000 gays descending on the city! Karen and I went to see the Gay Games Cheerleading today. It was really good, some great and impressive moves. I've never felt so comfy in my bikini with all the gay men around! We also went up Sears Tower today to the 103rd floor. It's the highest building in Chicago. Got a really good view of lake Michagan and the downtown area and we could work out where we wanted to go that day. Took a walk to Navy Pier. There was lots of things going on, Gay Games Volleyball, but we couldn't find the entrance!! It was so hot to walk about (35oC). Trying very hard to keep taking water on board. After the cheerleading we took a walk to the Buckingham Fountain, it's much nicer at night, there's lights and music on but my camera doesn't work at night!! Had a quiet night, pizza, journals and home! Looking forward to the trek tomorrow...bit apprehensive! Chicago has been great, a much slower pace than NY. People are much nicer too!