Stuffed Chicago in a thin time window

This is the post of the unexpected trip to Chicago and how it was such a great addition to our Guatelize experience! I have already told in the "Where are we going to sleep tonight" post the circumstances that led us to this (slight) deviation from the initial plan. Long story short, we lost our flight and the option we choose to rebook it was to fligh through Chicago.

So, on the morning of the 24th of May (my birthday, actually) instead of waking up at Antigua Guatemala, we woke up in Chicago, IL! Being totally jet lagged we had an early morning and were already ready to start the day before 5am (to me, this is still closer, in concept, to the going to bed time, than the waking up time!) and we were out the door before 7am. Before leaving we had researched for a place to eat Pancakes and one caught our attention. So, around 7:50am we crossed the doors of "Wildberry Pancakes and Coffee" to find a very busy place. It is worth noting that this was a Sunday and that the weather around this time was a bit rainy. And yet, this huge place was packed!!

So we ordered a big portion of pancakes and, even though I have no idea if they are the best in Chicago, they were really good being served with fresh fruit, a raspberry coulis and the traditional (really thick) maple syrup! We were happy! :)

After being more than satisfied we got out to discover the city of Chicago beyond the pancakes. An interesting note is that, by the time we left (around 8:30am), there was a huge queue to enter the place. On a Sunday! Early morning! Not so great weather!!... Maybe they were all jet lagged tourists like we were! :P

The park was just next to the pancakes place so we went straight to the most famous giant bean of the World. The effects created by the reflective surface of the big bean are indeed quite spetacular combining the green from the park and the sky scrapers on the other side of the street. These effects would get even more crazy in the concavus part of the structure even distorting images in such a way that they would create amazing patterns. I had some photos of this, now that my camera is missing along with my backpack the only photo I have is this:

At least we have one to prove we were there!

The park, the Buckingham Fountain (have we really left London?!) and the views over the lake were great, but the best thing about them on our visit was the HUGE cycle event that was going on that day. Sponsored by MB Financial, it was an informal run where everyone with every kind of bike could participate. The following photos are not mine as mine are somewhere in the lost camera. I always love to see such a huge crowd getting together for a cause while expressing their individuality at the same time! :)

As we were in Chicago we had to try the Chicago Pizza! We went to a place recommended by a guy that looked like he knew what he was talking about. The place was, again, packed and had a huge queue when we left (does Chicago need more places for people to go to and eat or was it just us? :P). We had to choose the thin crust pizza instead of the stuffed one as the latter would take 45min(!!) and we did not want to loose another flight!! I wanted to go to bed in Guatemala that night! (note: I ended not succeding as our flight was too late to catch the connection flight in Houston!) Even though we only experienced a thin-crust, the pizza was great and we were completely stuffed by the end!

Thanks Chicago, you were a great unexpected pitstop and warming up to the rest of these crazy holidays.

Where are we going to sleep tonight?

I am writing this post on the flight from Chicago to Houston. A flight that was not included in our initial plans!

Almost 36 hours after our first scheduled flight has departed, we are still in the US and, as the title of this post says, we are still not sure where we will sleep tonight, bot even in which country!

It all started right back in Heathrow where a juggle of automatic machines sent us from agent to agent up until the last one that told us that we needed an ESTA (kind of a turistic/business meetings visa) to be able to do a transfer in the US. Then came the actual application online while the clock kept ticking and our time running out. At the end, with everything ready, we were too late and weren't aloud to join the flight even if we still had 45 minutes to reach the gate.
We appealed to the kindness of their hearts as far as we could, but there was no chance. Even before we got back from the shock, we were negotiating the re-booking "Do you want to stay here in London tonight, or catch a connection flight to Houston through Chicago or Newark?" At the moment we are kind of homeless in London (moving houses with a gap in the middle) so the first option was dismissed! Neither of us had ever been to Chicago and Andre had never been in the United States, so why not the option of stopping for one night in Chicago and actually do some unexpected tourism in the Windy City?

That was our option and a few hours later, still a bit shaken up by losing our first flight but excited with the new tourism experience, we boarded the 9 hours flight that took us safe and sound to Chicago. Of course that, in between, we had to send an email to our hostel in Antigua, Guatemala letting them know of our one day delay and also find a room for the night. Finding a room proved to be a challenge with Booking, Hostelbookers and Hostelworld sites showing no options at all, all places were booked! Salve Airbnb that gave us the chance to sleep in a large room not so far away from the center of the city.

We got to our room (having stopped a bit in the city center just to have a quick feel of it, i.e. Dunkin Donuts!!) around 21h30, which was 3h30 back in London where we had woken up at 8h00 the day before! So we basically slept, or passed away, one of the two, on the bed after a really full of emotions day! And we slept really well!... until 5h00 when our bodies decided it was more than time to get up. And eventually we did, and there it started our Chicago adventure which will be the subject of another post.

Right after lunch we headed off to the airport as we did not want to lose another flight! And we didn't! YAY!! :) However, and with posts with this kind of title, there is always a However, the flight took of with over one hour of delay when we had a layover of 37 minutes! Despite asking multiple times about the short transition time we were always reassured that this was quite common and that there wouldn't be any problem! Well, now there might be! Because we have no idea if the plane will be in Houston airport waiting for us or if we will have to find yet another solution! Hence, we have no idea where we will sleep tonight, no even which country!

I am sure that by the time this post comes online I know the answer to that, but I wanted to share this strange feeling I am/we are having right now! This uncertainty if we will have to ask our hostel to postpone our stay another time (I think they might not believe us this time!) or if it is tonight that we will see Antigua; uncertainty of how many more flights we will still have to get so our actually planned vacations start!

PS: After a very long run we eventually lost the flight! So this was posted from the Marriot in Houston (finishing the night in style!! )