Chicago has definitely been a city on my list of places to see. However, due to its harsh, cold weather (by California standards, anything under 75 degrees F is cold), it was a major factor in influencing my decision not to visit sooner. With decent winter flight deals, I could not turn away from this opportunity and bought my tickets. Rain or shine, there was no going back.
I arrived late at night via Midway International airport and took the metro, which dropped me off right in downtown Chicago. As expected, the weather was cold (about 30 degrees F). My puffer coat, beanie, and boots certainly did their job in keeping me warm. It took me a couple of blocks to finally arrive at the Central Loop Hotel, where I would be staying for the next couple of days.
The front desk clerk guided me through their online check-in process and immediately provided me with my keys. My hotel room was small and nothing fancy at all, but it was central to everything I needed, and that was more than enough for me. I settled in for a few minutes before deciding to brave the cold and get some food.
I ended up at Giordano’s, a restaurant known for Chicago’s deep-dish pizza. The pizza was quite huge for my taste, with layers of cheese and crust combined. I thought it was the most pizza I had ever eaten in my life, but it was quite good.
The primary difference between deep-dish pizza and most other forms of pizza is that, as the name suggests, the crust is very deep, creating a very thick pizza that resembles a pie more than a flatbread. Although the entire pizza is very thick, in traditional Chicago-style deep-dish pizzas, the crust itself is thin to medium in thickness.
~ Wikipedia
After stuffing myself with pizza, I walked around a few blocks to observe my new surroundings and tried to burn off all the cheese I had consumed. It was freezing, and I found myself walking alone.
At first, I thought it was odd how quiet it was and how there weren’t too many cars around until I saw the Chicago River. The sight of it was breathtaking in the cool air. I took a couple of shots before heading back to my room and eventually realized that Chicago was three hours ahead of Cali. It all made sense now how I had been wandering around outside in the cold at 1 am without seeing many people. Silly me, I must have been tired from the flight.
A Stint Abroad 