Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

We went took a roadtrip to Pittsburgh about a month ago, mostly so I can practice my driving so that I can sit a road test here, and also to check out the town where G spent five years of his life during university. We booked a hotel on a strip that G described as having a lot of shops and restaurants, immediately, I thought it would be like the strip stores in our neighbourhood, or Oxford St back at home. The stores and restaurants G were referring to were Target, Walmart, McDonalds, The Keg, Red Lobster, Dennys and any other American franchaise imaginable. It was more like industrial area Alexandria than it was Oxford. It was difficult to have any doubts where we were, because everywhere you looked, everyone you spoke to, everything you ate was quintissential American fare.

First stop was G's uni… he went to a small university called Duquesne. Much smaller than UNSW, it was actually quaint, with a small community feel. We passed a inter-university football game which was pretty cool coz I've never seen one before. G got all excited about being able to buy new logo tees and sports gear. I don't know anyone who has ever forked out good money to advertise UNSW on their chest!

Downtown Pittsburgh would have been much nicer had it not been pouring rain. Although we saw the entire downtown in a couple of hours, it was much nicer than I had aniticpated. The mixture of old and new architecture was a surprise from the industrial slab buildings I was expecting, but I can understand why G couldn’t' wait to get out of there.

Highlight was a Primanti Brothers sandwich… pastrami (grilled with a hot iron), fries, mayonnaise, relish, coleslaw, provolone cheese all whacked into a rye bread. It was huuge.

 

For dinner, I demanded Olive Garden, another American-Italian franchaise, which I remembered had really good garlic sticks and soup. The garlic sticks and any soup off the menu come complimentary with your main. Better still, it's refillable - as many times as you wish, as with the beverages! No wonder Americans are the size they are! (Another factor why you would not doubt where you are).

Coz there was absolutely nothing to do at night (besides shopping at Target), we decided to see the Bond flick at the local cinemas. Another highlight. The cinemas were so true to what we know from any 80's movies we've seen. One storey building in the middle of a flat carpark parked with very large GMs and Chryslers. The signboard for the movie times was retro black lettering, individually pinned onto a white back board. The candy counter was brightly colored and manned by a teen in a diner uniform. The cinema seating was low back, bright green vinyl, that must have been there since the 70's. It was most surreal.

On the way home, we stopped at the outlets, and I must say, I was very proud of myself. My only purchase was a gift and some socks even though there was crazy sales that I would normally regard as too good to miss.

So I'm all set for my drive test, this weekend. Ofcourse, it's going to be snowing - the only questions I had wrong on the knowledge test was snow related, so this should be interesting!