Soooo-oooo, our last day in Chicago before we move on to our
next destination, New York. Finally, Chicago showed its nicer side with clear
skies and sunshine at a leisurely 15°C or so. We decided to first have a look
at the Navy Pier which is an amusement/recreational pier that reaches about 1
mile into Lake Michigan, that's 1.6 km for those of you not versed in the
non-sensical measurement system that they call 'imperial'.
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| Isi at the Navy Pier |
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| Panorama of the Navy Pier (360°) |
After the Baseball game yesterday, we took it slow and first
enjoyed a ride on the Ferris Wheel to see Chicago from a different angle.
Looking back on the last days, Chicago is a nice enough city to be in.
Especially in summer, there is a lot happening and they have an event almost
every day in the Millenium Park or elsewhere. Isi and I agree, however, that it
is not for us. Isi mentioned to me that she felt a little claustrophobic among
all the skyscrapers. I do not feel that so I cannot understand, but I emphasise
on that point.
In addition, the sheer bustle of activity is a lot to take
in. To get into town from where we stayed, it took us on average about 60 to 90
minutes, just to be downtown. So living here most likely means a very lengthy
commute by car or public transport and high housing prices... In retrospect, we
quite like our not so expensive house in Hannut in the middle of nowhere close
to the cows :-D
With all that on our minds, talking about it in the Ferris
Wheel we looked over the skyline of Chicago once more. Afterwards, we decided
to have something special to eat... so we went, of course, to McDonald's...
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| View on Chicago from the Ferris Wheel |
After the Pier, we thought about what to do and decided to
have a look at the Chicago Historical Museum, and luckily it was a good choice.
The museum was very well done, with a lot of interactivity. It was not a
collection of exhibits, but more an account of historical events. One of the
center pieces of the museum, was the story of Abraham Lincoln, who was a
Chicago native, before he became the very first Republican President of the
United States.
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| Entry to the Chicago History Museum |
Several things, struck me about Lincoln's life. Apparently,
his election was the reason for the US Civil War, but interestingly, he did not
instigate it, in fact, he tried to avoid it.
CAREFUL! HISTORY LESSON AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN DANGER!!!
Apparently, back in the day, the Republicans were quite
different to what they are now. The extreme Republicans stood for the abolition
of slavery and a very liberal outlook on the design of the country. Lincoln
himself did not like the idea of slavery and he made several speeches stating
that he will not enforce the abolition in the Southern States. Nonetheless, the
Southern States fearing for the destruction of their way of life (which is
built on slavery) decided to form the Confederate Southern States of America.
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| Visual and Voice Narration of Lincoln's early days as president-elect |
This marked the worst possible outcome that Lincoln feared
and by that time he just decided to make it a war against slavery and made the
Emancipation Declaration. There was a clear rationale behind it actually. The
British and the French, who abolished slavery long ago, actually wanted to
accept the Confederate States as a sovereign entity, but by engaging in this
Lincoln made it a strategic priority and if he would have won (which he did in
the end), the victory would shine the brighter.
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| The discussion on the Emancipation Declaration |
It did not say it anywhere, but I personally can understand
why France and Britain were quick to accept the Confederate States. It is
easier to deal with two smaller nations than one big one with a lot of power.
From a political standpoint, it was more favourable for the old powers in
Europe.
In the end, Lincoln's assassination by a white supremacist
marked the beginning of a rather violent history that accompanies the US until
this day.
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| His Assassination and eventual death |
The two other sections that I personally found interesting
were the history of Chicago and the section on terrorism in the United States.
The history of Chicago explained the rise and fall of
various industries such as the meatpacking industry or the steel industry, as
well as, life sized replicas of various typical items and not to forgot a full
train waggon to go into :)
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| Isi "waiting" for the train |
When it came to terrorism, it, of course, started with
September 11th 2001, but then had a closer look at all the outbursts of
violence over the years. What I did not know, there was a militant group of
students called the Weather Underground Organization that was active in the 60s
and 70s. They were fighting the government and their aim was to make the
government pull out of Vietnam and the strategy was to bring the war to the US.
In the words of one of their leaders, they consciously
decided against terrorist attacks and only focussed on damaging buildings using
bombs without threatening lives. This did not always go well apparently,
but in the end the US pulled out of
Vietnam, so I guess they achieved their goal.
While I was learning about this, something unspeakably
traumatic happened. Isi and I lost sight of each other and we actually managed
to lose each other for the best part of 1-2 hours. At the beginning you still
think: "Yea yea, she will catch up...", after an hour you go
"Where the heck is she" and by the end you really start to question
whether she left already or not. In the end we randomly found each other
thankfully.
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| One of the posters in the section on terrorism |
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| The museum tried to engage the visitor regularly by asking questions such as the one shown above |
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| An account of the ever shrinking size of native Indian lands after the white man broke treaty after treaty |
After that short excitement, we decided to meet up with
Mattia and Serena one more time to have dinner together. Chicken! was the order
of the day :)
Deliciously greasy and tasty, while we chatted a bit more
and Thomas was his usual joyous self both in laughing and crying :-D. It was a very
cool and relaxed get together. We then said our goodbyes quite early with a
heavy heart, because we had to get up the next day at 5:00am :(
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