Day 1: Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh: Home of the Raven's arch rival, a baseball team that makes the O's look good and home to mi amiga April.

Pittsburgh is the last place I wanted to visit after our upsetting loss on Saturday, but never let football come between friendship.  The City of Bridges (I lost count there are that many) is a lot like Baltimore: a small, industrial and charming -- despite the lack of tourist attractions -- city on the water.  There's a reason why we're rivals, and it's not just because our football teams are evenly matched.

We started off at Point State Park where Canada Geese outnumbered humans 25 to 1.  Must be the cold weather.  Ayk and I were the only people there, so it was rather intimidating even if you're not afraid of birds.

After mingling with the geese, we headed to the Strip where we walked around for a few minutes.  Most of the shops were closing by the time we got there at 4:45PM.  I guess they're not expecting many customers to stop by after work, but it's not like I've managed a shop before or anything.

April, who I met while studying abroad in Spain, and her boyfriend Shawn meet up with us there and took us to Mt. Washington.  It has the same food, vibe and view as the Inner Harbor.  They took us on the Incline, which I mistook as the most terrifying staircase imaginable.

 

The last staircase you'd want to take drunk.

Turns out it's a cable railway, technically the phonetically amusing funicular, that was built to help the steel workers to get to the top of the steep hill.

 Inside the Incliner.

Even though April was afraid of heights, they took us to the top to get a spectacular view of the city of steel.

Ayk, me, April and Shawn

We planned to eat at Houlihan's (See?  Same restaurants as the Inner Harbor!), and even got appetizers there until I heard about the deliciously unhealthy sandwich stuffed with slaw and fries at local favorite Primanti Brothers.  It sounded too good to pass up.  And oh man was it a good decision to leave Houlihan's.  My only regret: not adding more hot sauce.

Despite being the home of the enemy Steelers, we had a great time in this  city and I'm glad our wonderful hosts didn't hold our loyalty to the Ravens against us.