Ok, so when we last checked in, I think I’d made it to the hotel & gone splat for the night?

The train to Indianapolis wasn’t until the evening, and check out was a very civilised mid-day, so I had a bit of time to kill, and breakfast to eat. 

In my defense, this was the first hot meal since breakfast at Heathrow. Also, aside from the cookie, the first good meal since Dublin.

Stop judging me! 

Maybe the little plaque was a thing at previous hotels? I can’t remember. In any case, the room was comfy, the bed worked, and I never ended up using the TV, sofa setting, or the bath.

Also, thanks to the odd floor plan of the hotel, I was able to photograph my room from the outside.

Took some time to archive/photograph all of the documents so far, just in case they became useful (I filled in one of those arrival card things, but never got asked for it. The same basic questions were asked by the screening robots at Dublin CBP, but none of the follow ups) 

Killed some time by checking my bag & wandering over to Fashion Outlets Of Chicago, which is basically a Name-Brand Mall. They had a T-Mobile store with two staff wondering why the hell there were so many people there on a Sunday morning, so there was a wait, mostly because they were tied up with a couple of really complicated purchases.

‘Chill Traveler Craig’ came to the fore, and I mooched around until they were free; Even let someone dive ahead of me, as they’d arrived with a panicked look and a wad of cash, to pay their bill a day late.

The big annoyance of the day, aside from the frankly shit signage at O’Hare, was getting into Chicago by CTA, whose machines don’t give change & require a zip code to take a credit card.
Which is shit-all use when you’re from outside the US, using a prepaid currency card, and have no idea what zip code, if any, is the right one.

It’s an international airport, there should at least be the understanding that places outside of the US exist.

Still, I broke a 20 and got some change, and rode the train all the way into Chicago, and found my way to the Metropolitan Lounge at Chicago Union Station, with comfy sofas, a bag check, and snacks.

Also, spotted this when I took a walk around the general vicinity of the station.

Walking in off the street is kind of impressive; It’s a big damn space.
(there was an idea I pitched for the Big Red Couch episode ‘Alien Leprechaun’ which was based around train stations, or more accurately a train station, and I imagined it to look something like Chicago Union)

In the fullness of time, and with a fullness of snacks, I got to the train.
You’re not actually at river level when youre in the train, but there can’t be that much in it between water and track level.

It’s interesting to note a very big disparity between the style of the station and platform at Chicago Union; Station is all classic Big Public Building architecture, or is at least trying to make you think of that sort of thing.
The platforms are all business & function; There’s nothing decorative going on at all.
I’ve been trying, and I can’t even think of an aboveground tube station with that little in the way of aesthetics going on.

I don’t know enough of the history of the place to know whether this was always the case; Was the original assumption that folks would only see the platforms while walking to & from trains, so who gave a damn? Or is it something else?
Should find that out.

The train journey was uneventful enough.
We got stuck behind a freight somewhere in Indiana, so arrived an hour late, which is … something that’s always a risk with Amtrak.
The cafe car chap starte apologising to me on reflex, and seemed relieved when I assured him that it wasn’t a big deal for me; I get the idea that repeat customers or frequent travelers, at least ones who look my age, aren’t that common, because he did relax when I mentioned having done longer trips & watched the train get behind schedule for a while, then make it up, then lose it again.
It’s just the way things are.

Anyway, we got in at 1am, around an hour late, and the worst part of the whole thing was the dongpenguin one row back & across the aisle, who managed to make noise the entire fucking trip.

• sighing loudly
• fidgeting constantanly
• drumming his feet or hands on the floor/seat/walls
• loud conversations with someone on the phone, where he was being rational and they were being anxious. or where he was being a passive-agressive git, as an alternative interpretation
• much noisy shifting of position
• many snacks in crinkly packets, stored in paper bags

I think he had some sort of back/neck issue which was causing him pain, and I should feel sorry for him for that, but after six hours, the best I can offer is not hoping that it bloody hurt.

Still, you get that on public transport.

I’d originally planned to catch a cab to the hotel from the station, but when I got there, the dismal and desolate alley under the train tracks was actually very well lit, and it was nice night, and there were still some folks around just doing their thing (in the centre of Indianapolis at 1am) so I walked it.
Not like it’s far, and ot of a desire not to be a complete idiot I stuck to wide well-lit streets in areas were I had a solid idea of where the nearest hotel was, should I find myself with an urgent need to be in a space with security.
Probably unneccesary, but so are many things, and it did no harm.

I did stop to take a selfie though;