the hills of Pittsburgh

There's a sizable number of Clevelandians who really hate Pittsburgh, but as far as I can tell, Pittsburgh doesn't seem to notice we exist, except when it's clear that I don't know my way around on this two-lane one way street, but that's different. As far as football goes, they hate the Ravens. In Cleveland, a Pitt game is a big event full of drunken rage, for Pittsburgh, it doesn't seem like a big deal. For true rivalries there has to be some kind of competition and there is none.

At any rate, me, the Queen of the Bondo, and her consort, decided to road trip there this past weekend because I wanted to see some chapel full of more relics than anywhere besides the Vatican and because it's nice to get out of Clevelandia every once in awhile especially when there's willing partners in crime.

Anyways, we got to some old part of Pittsburgh that was pretty deserted and wandered around until the place opened, and it was us and a bunch of elderly folks, and it reminded me of some place in Europe a long time ago, the way everything was so old-school, to the point that they're still talking about saints who have gotten de-sainted by the Vatican in the late sixties, and the gift shop reminded me of all the stuff I got when I made my first communion but it was a worthy trip, and I took photos though I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to until we made our exit.

oh and by the way, you can have weddings here, which is kind of morbid, but interesting.

So after that, I was extremely thankful for my copilot's navigating capabilities which took us to the Strip for tacos and wandering around, and then through the beautiful University of Pittsburgh campus where I really wished I had taken classes and worked in a Cathedral of Learning instead of several wastelands of brutalist architecture.

from there we drove around explored and would jump out and take random pictures of old churches and graffiti

 and of course stopped by the cemetery because why not.

Dinner of middling Indian food and then a drive home minus northern lights sadly. It's good to get out and realize the world's got more going on than the usual places.