The 3rd best city
I was recently working in Chicago and it really felt like a smaller New York. It has everything NYC has: fancy bars, classy museums, impressive architecture, distinct accent, notorious pizza, unique hotdogs, an old baseball stadium, a bike share system, a lengthy subway and skyscrapers. It has all of this but without the teeming swarms of Manhattanites and tourists.
Their accent is a little funny. They almost have that typical, neutral accent of other mid-westerners, except for a funny twang that I just explain. I’m not sure what I was doing wrong but every time I asked somebody where “the bean” was, they couldn’t understand me, no matter how many times I repeated myself. I didn’t think it was possible to mispronounce the word bean, but apparently the way that I say it just doesn’t compute up there in the Windy City.
I had a great time riding their bikes around and catching all of the noteworthy landmarks. Chicago’s list of achievements and innovations is impressive and the Chicago history museum was a fantastic way to be enlightened by all the ways that Chicago once led this country. We know it as the heart of the country’s rail network but it was also once the heart of river transport due to its man-made canal between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. Even though NYC and LA dwarf it in status now, Chicago is still the 3rd biggest city here. Just don’t try telling a local that it’s the 3rd best.
You know you’re in Chicago when …
– Ketchup is outlawed on your hot dog, and the hot dog comes loaded up with a poppy seed bun, mustard, diced onions, pickle relish, a dill pick spear, tomato wedges, sport peppers and celery salt. What a mouthful.
Ketchup On Dog law – http://oldspouse.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/ketchup-on-your-dog-not-in-chicago-its-the-law-i-think/
Carpe Urbe 