Day 2 ( 14^th of October) à  first whole day in Chicago 

Our first day in Chicago started with a typical American breakfast in our hostel, including bagels with cream cheese or cheddar, porridge and orange juice.

When everybody was finished we headed directly to the ‘Chicago Theather’ where we met our tour guide Michael with whom we spent the next few hours walking around the city. At the Theather we got some first interesting information about Chicago, like the origin of the nickname ‘the windy city'. After that we walked to the famous ‘Marshall Field and Company Building’ which is considered to be the first real shopping mall the way we know malls today. Especially the inside was really impressive because of its luxurious architecture and shops. Our next stop was the ‘Daley Plaza’ with the Picasso sculpture which can be interpreted very differently (from baboon to a females bust) as you change perspectives. On our way to the ‘Exelon Plaza’ we made a stop at a building that looked as if its top would protrude over your head because of an optic illusion and Micheal told us about the multiculturalism in Chicago. At the ‘Exelon Plaza’ we looked at Mark Chagall’s ‘Four Seasons’ and learned the reason for the many Plazas in Chicago. Because the houses are huge everywhere (which was really impressive to all of us because it's not comparable with any German city), there are many places where the sunlight can hardly come through, so they wanted to have some space where the people living in the city can enjoy at least a little sunlight. After a short look at the ‘Inland Steel Building’ we went to the ‘Millennium Park’ and looked at the ‘Crown fountain’ with its 1000 different faces on video that change every few minutes so that it looks like they spit the water coming out of the fountain. We also saw the ‘Jay Pritzker Pavililon' and of course took some pictures in front of the ‘Cloud Gate Sculpture’ which is also simply known as ‘The Bean' since it looks like a giant silver and shining bean. That was also where our guided tour with Michael, who was a really nice and entertaining tour guide, ended.

After we got this great overview about the city we went to the ‘Columbus Day Parade’ which took place because of the day on which Christoph Columbus discovered America in 1492. But since it was not as spectacular as we expected it to be, we soon went on after we saw a few cars with music and advertisement of several companies on them.

We spent our lunch break in ‘The Loop’ of Chicago, which is the name of downtown Chicago and ate for example typical American sandwiches or fast food at a famous American fast-food-chain. That was were many of us first realised the difference between German and American food and ways of having lunch.

When we passed the street on which the parade took place we realised that it got much more interesting by then because there were marching people who performed things and also live music, but we had to move on because we wanted to make an architectural boat tour on the ‘Chicago River’.

The boat tour started near the ‘Trump Tower’ and Michigan Avenue and went along all of the three branches of the river. Along this way we passed a lot of skyscrapers which looked really impressive because the I was very good that day so the sunlight got reflected by the skyscrapers which made them look shining and sparkling. The tour also took us a little outside of the skyscraper-area, so we also could see some of the districts where smaller living houses were, which gave us a different impression of the city. We drove a little outside in the direction of the Lake Michigan too, so we also got a look at the skyline from farer outside. After a lot of interesting but fast-spoken information about the architecture in Chicago with it’s incredible skyscrapers we arrived at the ‘Trump Tower’ again and had free time for the rest of the day.

My group went to a café and had some delicious, but calorie-rich American doughnuts, where we realised again that in America are calorie numbers given everywhere where you can buy food, which is not the case in Germany. 

After this short break, that we all really needed because we were still a bit jetlaged, we went in the direction of the ‘Adler-planetary’ where we had an amazing view at the skyline of Chicago. We stayed there until the sun set and also watched the skyline in the dark which was a really great and breath-taking view, because most of us had never seen such a skyline before.

After such a incredibly beautiful end of the day we headed back to our hostel and all went to bed really tired but also excited about what we would experience during the next couple of days and weeks.