Pittsburgh

Craig dropped me off back at Arunans the following morning and I got my stuff together and waited for Mackenzie to come and pick me up. She called me when she was outside the apartment block and I went out to meet her, forgetting in the process that I needed to take the keys with me. We wandered around the outside of the building trying to think of a way to get back in, luckily I had wedged Arunans front door open so that wouldn't be an issue. We knocked on Arunans neighbours front window but there was no answer, we then tried to open his French window and it was open! We could walk through his apartment, out into the hallway and we would be home free. Neither of us could work up the courage to do it, what if he walked out from the shower or something and found us in his apartment? It would be a nightmare so we walked around to the front of the building and started pressing doorbells, eventually a nice guy from upstairs let us in. I was so relieved!!Mackenzie told me that this kind of drama is part of her everyday life, it's just normally her that has locked herself out of somewhere. I think it made a nice change for her and it is a funny story now I think about it.
We went to lunch, which in itself is nothing special but we went to a Chinese restaurant. I hadn't eaten any Chinese food since I had started my U.S. trip and it was long over due. I ordered the General Tso's chicken, it was o.k. and I did enjoy it. Of course it was nothing like the food I had eaten when I was in Shanghai but since I hadn't really liked some of the food I had eaten there, that was a good thing. We went back to Mackenzies apartment and I got to meet her boyfriend, Adam, who is lovely. We chilled for the afternoon and went to a local bar,the "Brillo Box", for dinner. Friday 18th December, Christmas is only a week away. I don't feel very Christmassy and of course I haven't bought any presents for people. I not too worried about this, i have a good idea of what i am going to buy and where I'm going to get it. I guess my only concern should be if they sell out of what I want to buy for Meghan and Christophe. That would be a nightmare and would serve me right for leaving everything to the last minute.
I went to the Cathedral of Learning on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. This building looks exactly like a cathedral,albeit a modern one, from the outside and in the central hall inside. On the ground floor of the building the corridors lead onto "themed" classrooms. The rooms have been designed in a style specific to a certain country, so there is a Scottish,Russian, French room etc. I was strangely glad to see that the English room was the largest of all, although it wasn't the most beautiful. I think that honour goes to the Syrian / Lebanese room which is stunning. It had originally been a library in the home of a wealthy Damascan merchants home and is so beautiful. It's no longer used as a classroom and that's a good thing. The tower of the "cathedral" is mainly used for ordinary classrooms and offices, not something that I'm terribly interested in. I went next to the Phipps Botanical gardens, these aren't mentioned in any Pittsburgh tourist literature that I had seen, but Adam had recommended that I go, so off I went.
I am not sure why I continue to visit gardens since I am no great gardener and am not very interested in plants but I am so glad that I visited here. The plants that they have are beautiful and the collection is really diverse. So far exactly what5 you would expect. What I hadn't expected was an exhibition of glass by Hans Godo Frabel. His pieces were scattered through all of the greenhouses and are amazing, also very expensive. However that's hardly a surprise. It was an interesting twist on other gardens that I've visited and made it way more interesting. I think my photos are a better medium through which to explain what I saw.
In the evening the three of us went to see Avatar. This movie hadn't been on my list to go and see but I've only seen two movies so far on this trip and I wanted to take advantage of having someone to go with. The movie was fine, I was glad that I hadn't queued up to go and see it, I think the main problem is is that it is so long, over two and half hours. We had planned to go out for a drink after the movie but I think we were all pretty tired. We headed to a local bar for something to eat and then called it a night. It had been snowing for a lot of the day and we didn't want to have to slog to far through it.I was happy to get into my pyjamas and settle in for the night. I was going to try and get to Philadelphia the next day before going back to D.C. for Christmas.
I woke the next morning to a winter wonderland. Snow really does make everything look beautiful. Mackenzie dropped me off at the bus station and I didn't take any notice of the people standing outside the station. I figured that they were all outside because they wanted to smoke. i went inside and it was like Greyhound had decided to throw a huge slumber party, they were people lying all over the floor, the station was crammed. The lady at the ticket desk was so unhelpful and didn't offer me anything beyond "our schedule's cancelled today". I went across to the Amtrak station but their one service per day to anywhere had already left. I wasn't getting of Pittsburgh any time soon. I called Mackenzie and she very kindly came back, rescued me and took me back to her apartment. At least I wouldn't have to sleep in the bus station. I spent that day in the apartment, I didn't leave except to get pizza for dinner. I am not as well equipped for this kind of weather as I was in Hokkaido. And I have to consider that I won't be in the future either. Lots of cold weather gear will take up too much space in my bag, I am going to have to buy some long underwear and just wear a serious amount of layers to keep warm. At least I had my nice new jacket to keep me warm and the gloves that Collette had given me in Chicago. I still didn't have a scarf, I was hoping that would be one of my Christmas presents!
Mackenzie and I repeated our ritual of the previous morning and dropped me off again at the bus station on Sunday morning. The staff told me that they were waiting for the roads to clear a little more and drivers to come in and then they would start clearing everyone out of the station but that they weren't selling tickets yet. Of course, the wonderful planner that I am, I didn't have a ticket. I went across to the train station, but they were all booked up. Back to the bus station and I settled down to wait for the promised announcement at 10.30. The announcement, when it came was disappointing, they would give us more information at 2pm. Luckily I wasn't holding my breath and I had borrowed a book to read, so I at least had something to do while I waited. A ripple of energy ran through the bus station when a local news crew turned up and proceeded to interview a few people about the bus delays. Some people had arrived in Pittsburgh on Friday and had had to spend two nights in the station. Greyhound had provided cots for some people to sleep on but with over 600 people in the station most people had slept on the floor. Finally buses started going out at about 1pm and is right they started moving the people who had been waiting the longest first. At about 2.30pm I was finally able to buy my ticket back to D.C..Iwasn't going to go to Philadelphia and risk getting stuck there for Christmas. The staff had said that there were another two winter storms coming in and that both would hit Pennsylvania.I was due on the 4.30 pm bus, it had stopped snowing for now and I was hopeful.
Unfortunately 4.30 pm came and went and I hadn't gone anywhere. It was 5.30 pm before they started to load the bus, I was at the front of the queue. The re-boarders were called first and then to my dismay they called people going to some of the stops on the way to D.C.. I don't know what the thought was behind this, but it did have me worried for another twenty minutes before I was allowed to get on the bus. At 6pm I was finally on my way after having spent the whole day in the bus station.