Part 2 in Chicago

Chicago - the Hyde Park neighbourhood
While I was enjoying myself admiring the wonders of modern technology (see previous post) my friend Chuck waited at Union Station in Chicago (Sorry again!)

By the time I arrived it was already lunchtime so Chuck took me to a southern restaurant in some back alley to prepare me for my stay in Georgia.


I had a massive 'Country Fried Steak' with corn bread, black eyed peas and grean beans with rice.

With a heavy stomach we then made our way to the Hyde Park neighbourhood. It is the site of the famous Chicago World Fair (1893) which featured the first ever Burger and the first Ferris Wheel. Today not much is left of the buildings and Chicago University covers most of the site.

One notable landmark there is the site of the 'Chicago Pile 1' which was part of the Manhattan Project to devlop the nuclear bomb.

Today a sculpture marks the site where Enrico Fermi and his team set off the first nuclear chain reaction. (The site is covered by a tennis court and the adjacent buildings are apparently lead lined to protect the occupants from the radiation)


The next stop the Oriental Institute did not seem as gloomy at first. It is a museum that features amazing artefacts from Persia. Some of the pieces where shared finds where one specimen stayed in the country and the other one was given to the finders from the Chicago Oriental Institute. Now, after the terrible events in Iraq they are the only specimens left and their counterpart have been lost or destroyed.


A huge bull with a human head which - over two thousand years ago - guarded an ancient Assyrian capital.



And more architecture - a house designed by Frank Llyod Wright, who is sometimes referred to as the most notable American architect. This house in Wright's Prairie style reminded me somehow of the classic Queenslander.

Chicago Blues
The crowning end of this wonderful day was the visit to two of the most famous blues clubs of Chicago. It was amazing music combined with very coarse cabaret (and put the view of a conservative America somewhat into perspective...)


'Big Time Sarah' and her band.