Road Trip #2, Pittsburgh!
Trip Start
Dec 31, 2008
1
8
26
Trip End
Dec 30, 2009
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania,
United States
Friday, April 10, 2009
I had visited Pittsburgh once before in 2008 for a job interview, but do to a late arriving plane did not get a chance to see any of the city. This would change on this trip. Luckily the drive time was a lot shorter than going to Florida, a scant 4 1/2 hours vs the 15 hours I had finished the day before, except this time I was driving.
This entry will also cover the whole weekend just to make it more interesting.
There were two main goals of this trip apart from visiting, and that was to try the Primanti Brothers famous sandwiches and to go to the Banff Mountain Film Festival
Primanti Brothers!
. Both of which were accomplished over the course of the weekend.The original Primanti Brother's is located in the Strip District downtown. This was a nice little area of shops surrounded by ethnic bakeries and various eateries that a die hard foodie like myself could spend days checking out. Choosing the Pittsburgh tradition over the Italian, Greek, Chinese, etc. shops was quite difficult, but my mind was set ever since missing out the last time I was in town.
They are famous for putting the sides on top of the sandwich. These include coleslaw and french fries piled right on top. I quite enjoyed the flavor of all these together, as I've had this type of sandwich before in Cleveland at another chain. I chose the Philly Cheese Steak hoping it would be good, but was disappointed in the meat quality as it was a pre-formed sheet that looked like something you get in elementary school. The taste was good, but the image was not. The ham and cheese was very delicious though. I would definitely go back, but not touching the Philly Cheese Steak again. I'll save that for Pat's and Geno's in Philly over the 4th of July.
Later in the weekend we made plans to go to the Banff Mountain Film Festival
Cute
. This was a 3-4 hour long festival of short films made by adventure seekers from around the world. They ranged from base jumpers in a 1000 ft+ deep sink hole cave in China [my favorite], to kayakers in Papua New Guinea, to rock climbers in the Czech Republic. This got my interest increased even higher in some of the cultures and activities, so definitely look out in the future for me doing something crazy.One of the other things we did was went up to the Duquenese Lookout at night to view the city of Pittsburgh from the surrounding hills. According to some lists this is one of the most romantic spots in the country [top 10]. I couldn't complain.
This mini road trip ended about as fast as it started on Easter Monday, when I drove home 4 1/2 hours to get ready for classes to start back up. I'm going to Pittsburgh a lot throughout the year for long weekends, but I will not write about it unless we do something interesting travelwise. Some of those include rafting at Ohiopyle, Philadelphia, and Toronto over choice dates later in the year!
