To Chicago and Back

To Chicago and Back (Bulgarian: До Чикаго и назад) is a travel book written by Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov in 1894, describing his visit to the United States in order to see the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. It was the first major book by the author, and together with Bay Ganyo they are considered to be his most notable works. A lot of the book is written in a humorous, satirical tone, with occasional more sober reflections.

Konstantinov had previous experience with travel abroad - he had visited the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889 and the General Land Centennial Exhibition in Prague in 1891. At the time, Bulgaria had left the Ottoman Empire less than 20 years ago, the country was still less developed than Western Europe and relatively few Bulgarians had had the chance to travel abroad.

The book starts in Paris, with the author and the group of friends who accompany him on the journey taking a train to the port of Le Havre, where they board SS La Touraine to cross the Atlantic on board. On arriving in New York, he describes being underwhelmed by spotting the Statue of Liberty from the steamship. A customs clerk fails to understand the group's nationality, and when Bulgaria is pointed out to him on a map, he writes it down as Turkey, causing amusement and derision among the Bulgarians. They found accommodation in Broadway Central Hotel.

Most of the book describes his stay in the United States, especially Chicago but also talks about other sites such as Niagara Falls, among others.

Legacy

The title page of the book's first edition is depicted on the obverse of the Bulgarian 100 levs banknote, issued in 2003.[1]

gollark: Which would be heavy and not pushed around very fast with your laser.
gollark: Yes, it just wouldn't be very good propulsion.
gollark: styropyro in the year 2400
gollark: I duckduckgoed myself, and I found a Twitter account of someone in the US with the same name who just retweets random political stuff, a consultant company of some sort named "[REDACTED] & Associates", a page for someone working at "ZDNet", a Wikipedia article and a LinkedIn page. Weird.
gollark: Could you put a thin layer of glass on top of plastic, or would that be a "problems of both, benefits of neither, exciting new problems too" kind of situation?

References
  1. Bulgarian National Bank. Notes and Coins in Circulation: 100 levs. – Retrieved on 26 March 2009.

ISBN 954-9308-24-3

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