When I first planned my trip I knew I wanted to go to Chicago, what I didn't know is so did the rest of the world. I booked my 22 hour train there and then went to book accommodation [rookie mistake] apparently there were 3 festivals in Chicago on the weekend I went, meaning every hostel was fully booked. So basically I arrived at 1400 on the 15th and had to leave for Washington on the evening of the 17th! A bit of a shorter trip than I had planned but live and learn eh!

So my time in Chicago was a bit of a whirlwind, I arrived in the afternoon and went straight to the skydeck in the Willis tower (previously Sears tower) with an English girl, Hannah, who I met in the hostel. Despite it raining on the way there the weather cheered up a bit while we were in the skydeck and the views were incredible. I think there is a running theme in America that it is all incredibly flat!! I couldn't see a single hill all the way to the horizon. We also stood on a viewing platform which is a few inches of glass that stuck out off the side of the 137 floor of the tower. It's definitely not a place for those with a fear of heights, that's for sure!

That evening a group of us had some drinks in the hostel, when the common areas closed at midnight we found a roof deck covered in fairy lights with a pretty amazing view of Chicago's skyline. Unfortunately it was about 2 degrees outside and we all sat shivering for about 20 mins then gave up and went to bed! I can imagine in the summer it would be an incredible place to be!

The cold weather continued and with it came rain, lot's of rain. I felt strangely out of place in this weather despite it being very comparable to a typical British spring day! I had only packed 2 jumpers and 1 pair of trousers as my plan was to follow the sun around the world! Luckily we found something to do inside and headed off to the Science Museum. It was enormous and really fun, have a look at the Chicago photo album for the picture on the entrance of the museum reminding customers to leave their guns at home... just incase they forgot a building full of children was an inappropriate place for weapons!

The weather cleared up considerably by the time we left so we went to millennium park. Here there is the Bean, a bean shaped mirrored sculpture which lends to some great photo opportunities, the park is beautiful and again I can imagine it's even better in the summer! There was also a water fountain with peoples faces projected on to them, the faces were animated and smiled etc. then every so often the faces pursed their lips and a stream of water came out of the fountain. The fountain was created by artist Jaume Plensa, it was pretty cool to watch!

On my last day in Chicago the weather had improved again so we went to the Lincoln Park zoo. This zoo was complete with Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Polar bears and every type of monkey you could imagine and yet it was completely free! The monkey's were probably the highlight for me as they were the strangest behaving monkeys I had ever seen, we watched as one of them engaged in some self falacio which resulted in mothers shielding their children's eyes and us crying with laughter. It was a really fun day and I'd highly recommend it to anyone in Chicago on a budget, especially after shelling out 19 dollars for 10 minutes in the skydeck! After the zoo I had a look round the area my hostel was in, Damen, which is a popular area for students and has lots of quirky restaurants and bars along with some interesting looking Art exhibitions and graffiti.

After a cram packed few days in Chicago it was already time for me to leave, my lasting impression is that it is a fun city but I felt distinctly less safe walking around on my own than in any other city, particularly on the underground! A perfect example of this was on the way to the bus station tempers were flaring due to cancelled trains (something had happened further up the line and we were all told to get off and had to wait 30 mins for the next train). I have no idea why, but an enormous man and tiny woman started arguing, the woman stupidly lashed out at the guy and he went to hit her back, people on the station held him back and got them both to different ends of the station. Unfortunately I was stood at the end that the very angry man went to, so I slyly moved down to a safer distance in case he just hated small women! In fairness a cleaner radioed security and they were there in less than a minute but I wasn't exactly surprised as the general feel of these parts of the city was to keep yourself to yourself and not accidentally stare at anyone! I'm not saying Chicago is a bad city I think you just need to be aware of your surroundings, especially whilst on public transport and alone.

I hopped on a 17 hour night bus to Washington DC and was greeted at the station by a woman who seemed to be under the impression that her breasts were a small child. She was stood behind me in the queue and after seeing a man's bewildered expression I glanced behind to see her rocking and kissing her boobs and talking to them like they were a baby. She was also bald. I thanked my lucky stars she was not on her way to Washington DC!!!