My layover in Chicago was the pits. The hotel didn’t have my reservation in their system and I had to call up expedia.com and clear up the issue. I don’t know who screwed up but it was frustrating. I stopped by the bar and got myself a glass of red wine and unwound a bit. The wine list at this Renaissance pales in comparison to that of the one in Vegas and I was really hoping to get a glass of Ridge Zinfandel only to find the typical red wine standards, “BV”, Clos do Bois, and Trinchero were my only options. I opted for the Clos do Bois. The bartender informed me that a cab ride downtown would cost me about $50 and would take 35 in the current traffic, but I could take the train into town roundtrip for $4 and it was relatively “safe” and it ran 24 hours a day. This sounds like an adventure. Another stroke of luck is that my hotel is conveniently located next to one of the metro lines and I grabbed my camera and jacket and departed for the city. I stopped to ask the TSA officer who was on the platform on his feelings of how safe the metro line was and he said.. “You only on the BLUE line? Because the RED line can get a little rough. He was pretty brash and rough himself …almost rude. I need to remind myself that I’m not in California and that people act different here. Just try and blend in….I thought I would snap a few shots of the subway line and I then get yelled at by some metro employee who sits in a metal box on the platform and is obviously enjoying her position of authority a little too much by “policing” quite comfortable from the comfort of her chair. “What are you doing? Yes you, the guy taking pictures. You shouldn’t be taking pictures!” She barked at me. I walked over to the box (which I didn’t see before) and apologized and told her I was documenting my journey with some pictures. “Well you should have asked for permission first!” she barked back. I waved and tried to smile at her to alleviate some of the tension but it wasn’t working. I suppose my camera made me stick out like a sore thumb. It’s as if Chicagoan’s have never seen a tourist before. Lucky for me my train had just showed up and I jumped on board.
The CTA system is fairly straightforward and easy to navigate. I had to make a transfer from the BLUE (which runs 24/7 BTW) to the RED line to arrive at Grant. The trains are a little run down but fairly clean. Cleaner than a BART car but perhaps not quite as clean as a Caltrain baby bullet.
