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My
kind of town, Chicago - 28/05/04
Well here I am back in the UK. After leaving you in Panama
City I had five nights on the cold floor of San Juan airport.
It was made easier by the friendly company, intelligent
conversation and donation of a blanket by Dave from Gainsville,
Florida on the second night. The pattern of my stay was
roughly - by day I investigated Old San Juan or spent time
sitting on the beach (not sunbathing though because Puerto Rico
took the arse-end of the storm whipping up Haiti and the
Dominican Republic) and by night returning to the airport,
taking advantage of McDonalds free refill offers and crashing
out behind a pillar.
Old San Juan
Old San Juan is a nice town
though the high level of American investment and immigration has
created a very weird atmosphere. Although you see all the
western brands in the bigger Mexican cities and some of the
Central American capitals they seemed more conspicuous in Puerto
Rico where also many of the residents and proprietors are
American.
Puerto Rico certainly has more to offer than most people realise,
however you do need a lot of money to make trip worthwhile,
therefore I accepted defeat, just investigated the town
thoroughly and will go back and explore the rest of the island,
and the neighbouring "Spanish" Virgin islands at
another, more opulent, time.
Chicago from Lincoln Park
After these relaxing though
uncomfortable nights it was a relief to get my own bed again in
Chicago, and also to meet up with my Mum and Pete who were
stopping over on the way home from San Francisco. Chicago
is quite a pleasant place to walk around, on the shores of Lake
Michigan, around the Lincoln Park area, and amongst all the
architecture of the sky scrapers, including formerly the
tallest building in the world - Sears Tower, also being treated
to a boat tour by my Mum! Whilst it doesn't have as many
attractions as New York or D.C, Chicago was an ideal place to
re-acclimatize myself with the western world.
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