“We work hard; we play hard”
The last time I saw a hockey game with the Swiss, I posted a really long, rambly entry that I don’t think anyone read.
This time, I think a long, rambly photo essay might be more enjoyable!
Wednesday night, I packed my bags for my mini-trip to Pittsburgh.
Since we were travelling by car, and since we had a nice hotel room, and since bad weather was predicted, I packed much more heavily than I normally do.
Then, I said goodbye to my Nana.
(I think this is the first time I’ve posted a picture of her, but this is who I spend my days with.)
Anyway, my brother came here to Stratford, and we hit the road at about 7pm.
It was a REALLY easy drive–300 miles and $16.50 on the Pennsylvania turnpike. We stopped once to eat, and on the way, I further discovered the awesomeness of Eve 6 (great break-up music AND great roadtrip music) and Soundgarden’s “Spoonman.”
Around 12:30am, we arrived at our hotel, the Marriott Pittsburgh City Center.
As much as I like a cool youth hostel, I also like a nice hotel, and this was certainly nice. It was even nicer because I got it on Priceline for $55 a night by naming my own price.
As nice as it was, I most certainly wouldn’t pay the $189/night advertised price.
Anyway, my brother and I are night owls, so we decided to get a late-night snack. We walked down through the Strip District, where we saw a bunch of warehouses, like Wholey Fish, or something.
Then, we ended up at Primanti Brothers for the famouse sandwiches with fries and cole slaw right inside. 2am seemed to be the ideal time to sample it.
The cheesesteak was really boring; the kielbasa was better, but still not all that great. As far as city-specificy greasy street food, this was acceptable, but not as good as a Rochester garbage plate, or Geno’s cheesesteak. I’d say it was on par with Ben’s Chilli Bowl in DC.
Then, we went back to the hotel and to bed.
The next day, I got up at noon, and took the subway to sightsee.
Pittsburgh’s subway is only really a “subway” for a mile or so; the rest of the time it’s a suburban light rail.
The cool thing is that the subway is free within the four stops that are immediately downtown.
I took it to go to Point State Park, where two rivers join to form the Ohio. Unfortunately, the park was closed, so I did what I do best in new cities: I wandered randomly.
I came across the United Steelworkers; how very Pittsburgh!
Then I walked across one of the many bridges
to the…
Everywhere else calls them “funiculars,” but in Pittsburgh, they’re called “inclines.”
The Duquesne Incline was voted by USA Today to have the second most beautiful view of anywhere in the country, but on foot, the Monongahela incline was more convenient, so I visited that one. I was happy enough with my choice. I took the car to the top,
and enjoyed the beautiful view.
By the time I went back down, it was getting to be mid-afternoon.
My brother called to say that he had just gotten up, and I suggested that he get a shower while I bring back Steeltown’s second most famous sandwich, the RoethlisBurger (named after the Steelers’ quarterback who, fittingly, is of Swiss descent).
I enjoyed these a lot more than the Primanti Brothers sandwiches.
There’s an emo picture of my brother eating his in front of the window. We were on the 16th floor.
After that we decided to go to the Andy Warhol museum. Unfortunately, the fact that there are three rivers in P’burgh confused me a bit, and we got sidetracked about 10 minutes. We took the train to get back to where we were going.
The subway/light rail/metro in Pittsburgh, like the subway in Boston, is called “The T.”
Glen doing the T.
Me on the T, doing the T.
Anyway, turns out the Warhol was my weakest part of the trip. Not only did I get walk for a couple of blocks in the wrong direction, but we got there at 4:40pm. The museum is open until 10pm. But only on Friday. Turns out, it was Thursday.
I don’t know why, but all day I was thinking it was Friday.
So, they let us in for free for the last 20 minutes. It was cool, but the movies had stopped, and I had really wanted to see a few minutes of “Empire.”
Still, it was a cool museum.
My brother and I both like Warhol.
As you may or may not remember, Andy Warhol was the inspiration for the door decorations I made when I was an RA at Syracuse.
On the way back to the hotel from The Warhol, we walked around the baseball stadium. (You know I had to do that.)
It was partially open, so I got some pictures. It’s actually the view from the seats that you see here that is the best.
That’s the stadium where the Pittsburgh Pirates play.
Cool fact about Pittsburgh: all of the sports teams wear the same colors–black and yellow.
My brother and I noticed just how much Pittsburghers love black and yellow. The escallators are black and yellow…
And even the school busses are black and yellow!
Anyway, we walked back to the hotel and relaxed there for a few minutes. Then, at 6:15pm it was off to the hockey arena!
It was February 2000 when I first became aware of the David Aebischer fan club, and February 2004 when I met a few of them in Switzerland. So, February 2007 was a fitting date for a reunion.
The fan club had just arrived in town from Geneva (via Newark) about 45 minutes before, so they hadn’t been around much when I met up in front of the arena.
Isabelle, whom I met in 2004, found me right away, and she introduced me to Markus, whom I also met in 2004, and to her boyfriend.
It was, by any account, a GREAT game.
Montréal (Abby’s team), lost in a shootout, so it’s a tie if you ask me.
Everyone was mildly disappointed, but not too much considering that it was a great game, that they were all exhausted (which is probably why there wasn’t all that much singing), and that half of us were Gottéron fans, and Gottéron has lost 11 (!) overtime games this season.
I have mixed views on the Mellon Arena (aka “The Igloo.”).
It’s the oldest arena in the NHL, the tickets are overpriced, the concourses are ridiculously crowded, and the food and merchandise selections are very limited. This place isn’t what hockey is in 2007 in the United States.
But so what? That atmosphere was great and the fans were great. A real hockey crowd. Newer arenas attract a smaller percentage of die-hard fans, and if you only care about hockey, this place was fine. Plus, it’s truly unique; it feels more like a domed stadium than a hockey arena.
It’ll be a damn shame if the Pens leave town permanently because of their arena situation.
The Swiss also seemed mixed on the Igloo. One woman told me, in French, right after visiting the concession stand, “I prefer the Pepsi (Center in Denver).” I replied, “I like Coke better than Pepsi.” Quote of the trip goes to me.
Everyone laughed with me, not at me.
After the game, we all went back to the hotel. After a harrowing elevator ride, I went to my room to get my gifts for Isabelle. I went to her room, and I felt bad. I had brough several boxes of candy for them, but I was totally outdone!
Suffice it to say, I know the nicest people in the world. The gifts I’ve received in the past year from people I barely know have simply blown me away.
I said goodnight, then went back to my room where I took this self-portrait in my new favorite hat.
(The yellow scarf was a gift from someone else during my trip to Switzerland).
Believe it or not, the Swiss were leaving just 15 hours after they arrived. I went down to wish them off at around 6am. Then, I went back to bed.
We were out at about 12:30pm.
Pittsburgh seems like a great place to go to college.
After checking out of the hotel, we drove to the University of Pittsburgh to visit the Cathedral of Learning, the world’s second tallest academic building.
The building itself is very cool; it feels like an actual cathedral inside.
But the real reason we went were for the nationality rooms.
Pitt has 30 or so classrooms decked out to resemble traditional rooms from different countries.
The nationality rooms are on the first and third floors.
We checked out the rooms on the first floor first, and I was hugely disappointed.
Fortunately, the third floor rooms were far nicer.
My favorites were the Austrian room
The Indian Room
and the Ukrainian room.
I didn’t take any pictures of the Men’s Room.
After we left the Cathedral of Learning, we drove past the remains of old outfield wall of Forbes Field, Pittsburgh’s old sports stadium.
We left Pitt, and ate at the Primanti Brothers near campus. It was about the same as the last one. It’s something you have to do at least once (maybe twice) if you’re in Pittsburgh, but otherwise, it’s not that great.
It was snowing fairly hard when we hit the road at 3:45pm, but the roads were well prepared.
About an hour and a half later, we said “let’s roll” and got off in Somerset.
We had two sets of directions, and neither of them were very good, but we eventually made it to Shanksville and the…
The field where the plane went down on Sept. 11 really is out in the middle of nowhere, at least by east coast standards.
It wasn’t quite as dark when we arrived as the pictures make it look, but there wasn’t a lot of sunlight left at all, it was freezing, windy, and there were about three inches of snow on the ground.
That’s probably not the best way to visit, but it was worthwhile nonetheless.
The memorial itself isn’t really much more than a large-scale versions of one of those makeshift shrines people build on highway accident sites.
I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, I love that the memorial is organic, unplanned, and evolving. But at the same time, since it’s piecemeal, the memorial itself grabs your attention so much that I tended to forget about the rest of the crash site.
Regardless, if you’re in western Pennsylvania, I would say that it’s a must-see.
A unique memorial to one of the most important moments in my country’s history.
As the sun came down, we hit the road again.
Unfortunately, the Johnstown Chiefs were away, otherwise there might have been another hockey game.
Alas, it was time to head home. Somewhere along the way, I realized that, now that my trip has come and gone, I have nothing on the horizon to look forward to, and that was kind of depressing. But depressing talk doesn’t make for good bloggin’.
At around 10:45pm, the trip ended the only way it could: pulling back into my grandmom’s driveway in Stratford, with Spoonman blasting!
It was a great weekend. A great trip, a great game, and a great time seeing some distant friends. And, as you see, a great workout for my new camera.
My brother said Pittsburgh reminded him of a larger Rochester or Syracuse, NY, and I agree completely.
I had never been to Pittsburgh before, and I was happy with my first visit. I saw enough to be satisfied, but I have enough left should I ever end up back there again. I was very impressed with the city, and you should definitely spend some time there if you have the chance.
Filed under: Ice hockey, international, Life, Posts with Pictures, Sports, Travel Tagged: | Abbyland, David Aebischer, Pittsburgh, TOIDAFC
