I have returned to my room tonight in the midst of what could be described as "snore wars". There are at least two and as many as four people vying quite vocally for the title of the loudest snorer in the room. Right now I'd have to say the chap next to me is winning for overall noise and consistency. This is where my "sleep" playlist on my iPod comes in handy!

The pub crawl was fun and unexpectedly cheap. We started off watching Chicago Bulls lose their playoff against Miami Heat 4-1, then hit a cheap Irish bar (can't get away from them!) for a few. Another bar was being arsey and wouldn't let us in without passports. Anyway I met some cool people and arranged to go and watch some baseball with Derrak (Derek) and Tim tomorrow.

After much hanging around at the hostel, I finally bumped into Derrak having just given up on going to the game. Tim had decided to move on, but I persevered and went with Derrak to pick up some late tickets for the Cubs vs Pittsburgh Pirates. Let me leave you with no doubt: it was FREEZING in that stadium. Our initial view was terrible, with a post blocking our sight of the batter, but at least I sat with some Pittsburgh fans who explained the game to me. Some might call it boring, but let's remember I can sit through test match cricket and snooker, so I have a high tolerance of not much happening for long periods of time. Even so, baseball can be really quite dull! We did at least see a home run in the midst of our shivering and visits to get coffee and poor hotdogs ("lamedogs"). "Ice cold beer!" comes the shout from the many roving beer slaves. $7 to freeze my arse and fingers off even more? No thanks.

The rest of the evening was spent drinking boxed wine with a few of the "older" (22+) hostel inhabitants while the young'uns got rowdy and hammered before going out after midnight. No prizes for guessing which dorm they're staying in tonight... I took most of the time to sort out every last photo I've taken up til now and to reminisce and miss all my old friends from the canyons trip. Sniff...

Sat 28th: Right, Chicago had better come up with some stupendously good weather tomorrow to make up for the last two days. I have been in nearly freezing conditions and now thunderstorms. I'm not due back in England for another four weeks. Let's remember that.

Today I headed into downtown Chicago and did a bit of "photo wandering". I chanced upon the Memorial Day parade and I spent a bit of time there. I went off down the riverside to Millennium Park and the surrounds, but by the time I'd got there the dark clouds above decided to relieve themselves on the city. I got pretty soaked but I guess I got some nice moody shots of "the bean" - a very cool highly polished steel sculpture with amazing reflections of the city. I went to Pizzeria Due for a classy deep dish pizza and to hide from the rain. Still, at least I had iO Improv Jam to look forward to tonight.

Derrak, Tim, Marian and I went to impro jam at midnight and had a good laugh. I was amazingly impressed when the group opened it up to the audience and Marian got up and did some, as a total novice! That takes a huge amount of guts. I obviously had to follow suit, so I had a round of "new choice" and found I was pretty rusty. Might need a few intensive impro sessions when I get back to London. On the whole, the audience was clearly full of seasoned impro actors who all knew each other, but it was still cool to watch.

We stayed at the iO theatre, had a few more drinks and I schmoozed with as many of the actors as I could. We scored five free VIP tickets to their other shows, which I would dearly have loved to cash in on, but tonight is my last night here! We stayed up pretty late in the hostel and I only got to sleep at 5:30am. Guess I'm missing breakfast then.

On my last day I had to check out which I did just in time. I was pretty tired and outside the world was actually ending. Thunderstorms like I've not seen for a long time dominated the late morning and at midday there were street lamps on under Mordor-esque skies. Eventually Marian and I took a chance and went to the Planetarium, which is right out on the lakefront. We got soaked from being out in the rain for mere seconds, but once inside it was pretty cool. Having a coffee with a great view of the city was pretty spectacular as the post-storm clouds and mist rolled in and covered the bases of the city skyscrapers like a blanket, leaving the tops uncovered. Really amazing. I was growing to love Chicago despite the poor weather. On returning to the hostel I rechecked to see if they had beds. They did not. So it's off to New Orleans then. I felt genuinely sad to have to leave...