Blogging
From Abroad

Charlie is a cool guy. We met him when we were couchsurfing in Vancouver. He already spent 3 years in Berlin, Germany and his German is magnificent. And the even better thing is that he lives in Pittsburgh and invited us to visit him. So we rented a car and made our second visit to the steel city.

Once there, he guided us to an incline train right across the Mon River. We had a great view from up there. Here you can see the scenic landscape of Pittsburgh as well as the old wooden incline train.

Doris and I were accompanied by a lovely Brazilian WVU exchange student, Juliana. And between us and Juliana is Charlie in front of the skyline.

We definitely were lucky with the weather. One couldn’t ask for a more pleasant fall-weekend. So we hiked to another platform to catch a glimpse of the city with the biggest skyscrapers I’ve probably ever seen.

Next we stopped at the University of Pittsburgh’s main building, called the Cathedral of Learning. And it’s called this name for a reason. Besides the fact, that it is the second largest educational building worldwide it is the weirdest I’ve ever been in.

The lobby is a three story gothic hall with a church-like atmosphere. This atmosphere is intensified by the gloomy light and an unnatural silence, at least unnatural for a university building.

But that is not all, that’s worth mentioning. This lobby is surrounded by 27 special classrooms, each dedicated to a certain country or heritage. And there was even an Austrian room. We had really no idea what to expect and where overwhelmed when we first entered it:

This room is actually used as a classroom. Behind the mirrors at the back is a blackboard. And I can only imagine how it has to feel to hold a presentation in there, but I guess it’s a awesome and weird at the same time.

All these mirrors offered an opportunity for a neat picture of me and my camera. It is an Olympus E-410 and I am very satisfied with it!

Not all of the rooms where open to public. One of the others we could walk in and that I liked a lot was the Ukrainian room. With all the wooden walls, ceiling and floor and an impressing cockle stove it provided a completely different atmosphere.

And finally there was one thing about Pittsburgh I will never forget – the fountain. On the occasion of Pitt’s 250th anniversary the coloured the big fountain at the meeting of the rivers pink. Like really pink! What a sight!

We truly enjoyed our weekend in this city and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t our last visit there. And if you ever come to Pittsburgh, consider a visit in the nation’s rooms in the cathedral of Learning. Here is a list of all countries and heritages that a represented there:

• Early American
• Scottish
• Swedish
• Russian
• German
• Chinese
• Czechoslovak
• Hungarian
• Yugoslav
• Lithuanian
• Polish
• Greek
• Syria-Lebanon
• French
• Romanian
• Norwegian
• Italy
• English
• Irish
• Israel Heritage
• Armenian
• African Heritage
• Ukrainian
• Austrian
• Japanese
• Indian
• Welsh