"My week in the friendly, windy city!" a Chicago Travel Page by Jefie

In 2008, the Jane Austen Society of North America chose to hold its annual general meeting in Chicago, which gave me the perfect excuse to meet up with fellow Janeites Pamela and Sylvia in the Windy City. As this was to be my first visit to Chicago, I decided to take a few extra days to tour around the city on my own. The beautiful architecture and rich diversity definitely lived up to my expectations, but the one thing I did not really expect and that made my trip even more fantastic was to discover how friendly Chicagoans are!

Chicago has a lot to offer: whether you're into sports, shopping, arts, music, theatre, good food or family travels, you're bound to come back thinking that you didn't manage to see everything you wanted to see. Also, for a city that is relatively young, it seems like Chicago already has a lot of history. Whether you think about the Great Fire of 1871, the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the legendary gangster era of the 1920s, or even the more modern figures of Ferris Bueller(!), Oprah Winfrey and Barrack Obama, Chicago has already left quite a mark on people's imagination - and after spending a week in Chicago, I realized that for once, truth just might be better than fiction!!