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So, I told Steff that I'd work on the trip report to end all trip reports, so here we go!
I left my apartment at 5:30 am to catch the all night buses from Bayview, over to the subway station and then down to the Greyhound station. I caught the one on Eglinton alright, but as I got out to Yonge Street, that one flew by before I could reach the stop. So, I got to wait outside, in front of TVOntario (hahaha), wondering if the messed up stories that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pyat were telling were true.
Caught the last bus of the morning downtown and made GREAT time. We didn't have to pick up many people and hit all green lights on the way down. Yonge Street is so peaceful at 5:50 am. No trouble at the Greyhound station, either. The first bus was a rather nice bus, one that looked like a long distance one that I took once going to and from college. TV sets, but we didn't get any movies.
Then, we reached the first headache - US CUSTOMS. This was the biggest "What the FUCK?!" on the trip. Allow me to retell the conversation...
Customs Dude> Citizenship?
Me> Canadian.
Customs Dude> Where are you going?
Me> Pittsburgh.
Customs Dude> Why?
Me> Vacation.
Customs Dude> Why Pittsburgh?
Me> Because my friend in Ohio wants to show me the city. I haven't been.
Customs Dude> Why do you have a friend in Ohio?
Okay, it's none of his damn business why I have a friend in Ohio! But what customs guy wants, customs guy gets, so I explained that we met in online fandom back in 2001 and have grown to be very good friends over the past seven years. This STILL wasn't good enough for him and he made me give my current employer, my position there and the day I was expected back! FINALLY I got to get to the bag search. Oh yes, they search your bags at the US crossing too. However, this was short - I packed my pads last in my bag and the customs officer freaked because of them and passed me through quickly. The funny thing is that she was a chick herself.
Buffalo's Greyhound bus terminal is nothing to write home about. It's in a rough area of town and it's not in the best shape, but there's lots of police officers on duty and it's clean and bright. So, I was a little weirded out, but it was fine. No nearby Might Taco restaurants, alas.
Next stop was Erie. Erie's terminal is in the middle of their portlands and there's no lockers and food service. I didn't realise until after I dragged my duffle bag across the downtown in the rain that I could have asked to have it stored! I was too grumpy to care at that point and I had my sub, so I was the victor in my mind!
Annnnnd then I finally made it to Pittsburgh. We were about an hour late, butslwatson (Steff!) managed to find me and we ran off to save her rental car from getting ticketed. Her "the smallest you have" rental car that just happened to be an SUV. Yep. I'm not kidding. We have photos!
The two of us were starving, so Steff showed me the beauty of a Pittsburgh traffic jam. Ha! We left town to go eat and came back after rush hour. Pittsburgh isn't like Toronto - Toronto stays packed until waaay into the night, while Pittsburgh clears out after work. It's a lovely, lovely city. Think of a cross between Toronto and Hamilton - very much steeltown roots, but it's a fully fleshed out city. It really is the jewel of the manufacturing belt, especially when you see how other cities like Buffalo are struggling.
Oh course, the view at the end of the Fort Pitt tunnel is amazing! It dumps you right in the middle of the high rises!
Steff took me over to the University to see the Cathedral of Learning. We found an open door and let ourselves in! The cathedral is this skyscraper of classrooms, the second tallest educational building in the world. Now, the U of T has some tallish buildings, but the design and workmanship here is mindblowing. Just look at it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Learning
After boring Steff with my chat about building design and styles, we booked it over to Sheetz (WOOT! although I might have to explain that one later...) and then our hotel room. We had an early flight, at 6:15am, so we decided to stay at the Hyatt at the airport. For the price we paid, about $150 with taxes, I wasn't really impressed. It was trying to appeal to the upper class of traveler. At least, I think it was. The beds had a million pillows on them, many of them without any logical use unless you happened to be a perverted fanfic character. ANYWHO, I booked a smoking room (Steff smokes, I don't) and the reservations didn't make it clear that we were in a nonsmoking room. The only sign was a TINY little white sign on the desk. Sigh.
As you can imagine, it's a fair bit of a walk all the way outside to smoke, so eventually we stopped going back to the room and started roaming around the hotel at 1am. The decor in the hotel was of questionable taste - the planter at the elevators on our floor was full of grass and orange... fuzzy.... things that looked like little footballs. Steff took a photo! We also checked out the convention centre (home to a grand piano), the swimming pool (unlocked, despite being closed at 10pm), the fittness centre (open 24 hours) and whatever corners and oddities we could find (ice maker, WOOOOOOOO!). I passed out at about 2am-ish, while Steff never slept.
Our lack of sleep might explain the surreality of the following day....
Next time, Day Two (Saturday the 13th): Airport Hopping and South Bristol! (And photos of Day One and Day Two)
For some more comments and a lot more pictures, you can follow Steff's half along here! (It's awesome, go look!)
I left my apartment at 5:30 am to catch the all night buses from Bayview, over to the subway station and then down to the Greyhound station. I caught the one on Eglinton alright, but as I got out to Yonge Street, that one flew by before I could reach the stop. So, I got to wait outside, in front of TVOntario (hahaha), wondering if the messed up stories that
pyat were telling were true. Caught the last bus of the morning downtown and made GREAT time. We didn't have to pick up many people and hit all green lights on the way down. Yonge Street is so peaceful at 5:50 am. No trouble at the Greyhound station, either. The first bus was a rather nice bus, one that looked like a long distance one that I took once going to and from college. TV sets, but we didn't get any movies.
Then, we reached the first headache - US CUSTOMS. This was the biggest "What the FUCK?!" on the trip. Allow me to retell the conversation...
Customs Dude> Citizenship?
Me> Canadian.
Customs Dude> Where are you going?
Me> Pittsburgh.
Customs Dude> Why?
Me> Vacation.
Customs Dude> Why Pittsburgh?
Me> Because my friend in Ohio wants to show me the city. I haven't been.
Customs Dude> Why do you have a friend in Ohio?
Okay, it's none of his damn business why I have a friend in Ohio! But what customs guy wants, customs guy gets, so I explained that we met in online fandom back in 2001 and have grown to be very good friends over the past seven years. This STILL wasn't good enough for him and he made me give my current employer, my position there and the day I was expected back! FINALLY I got to get to the bag search. Oh yes, they search your bags at the US crossing too. However, this was short - I packed my pads last in my bag and the customs officer freaked because of them and passed me through quickly. The funny thing is that she was a chick herself.
Buffalo's Greyhound bus terminal is nothing to write home about. It's in a rough area of town and it's not in the best shape, but there's lots of police officers on duty and it's clean and bright. So, I was a little weirded out, but it was fine. No nearby Might Taco restaurants, alas.
Next stop was Erie. Erie's terminal is in the middle of their portlands and there's no lockers and food service. I didn't realise until after I dragged my duffle bag across the downtown in the rain that I could have asked to have it stored! I was too grumpy to care at that point and I had my sub, so I was the victor in my mind!
Annnnnd then I finally made it to Pittsburgh. We were about an hour late, but
slwatson (Steff!) managed to find me and we ran off to save her rental car from getting ticketed. Her "the smallest you have" rental car that just happened to be an SUV. Yep. I'm not kidding. We have photos! The two of us were starving, so Steff showed me the beauty of a Pittsburgh traffic jam. Ha! We left town to go eat and came back after rush hour. Pittsburgh isn't like Toronto - Toronto stays packed until waaay into the night, while Pittsburgh clears out after work. It's a lovely, lovely city. Think of a cross between Toronto and Hamilton - very much steeltown roots, but it's a fully fleshed out city. It really is the jewel of the manufacturing belt, especially when you see how other cities like Buffalo are struggling.
Oh course, the view at the end of the Fort Pitt tunnel is amazing! It dumps you right in the middle of the high rises!
Steff took me over to the University to see the Cathedral of Learning. We found an open door and let ourselves in! The cathedral is this skyscraper of classrooms, the second tallest educational building in the world. Now, the U of T has some tallish buildings, but the design and workmanship here is mindblowing. Just look at it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Learning
After boring Steff with my chat about building design and styles, we booked it over to Sheetz (WOOT! although I might have to explain that one later...) and then our hotel room. We had an early flight, at 6:15am, so we decided to stay at the Hyatt at the airport. For the price we paid, about $150 with taxes, I wasn't really impressed. It was trying to appeal to the upper class of traveler. At least, I think it was. The beds had a million pillows on them, many of them without any logical use unless you happened to be a perverted fanfic character. ANYWHO, I booked a smoking room (Steff smokes, I don't) and the reservations didn't make it clear that we were in a nonsmoking room. The only sign was a TINY little white sign on the desk. Sigh.
As you can imagine, it's a fair bit of a walk all the way outside to smoke, so eventually we stopped going back to the room and started roaming around the hotel at 1am. The decor in the hotel was of questionable taste - the planter at the elevators on our floor was full of grass and orange... fuzzy.... things that looked like little footballs. Steff took a photo! We also checked out the convention centre (home to a grand piano), the swimming pool (unlocked, despite being closed at 10pm), the fittness centre (open 24 hours) and whatever corners and oddities we could find (ice maker, WOOOOOOOO!). I passed out at about 2am-ish, while Steff never slept.
Our lack of sleep might explain the surreality of the following day....
Next time, Day Two (Saturday the 13th): Airport Hopping and South Bristol! (And photos of Day One and Day Two)
For some more comments and a lot more pictures, you can follow Steff's half along here! (It's awesome, go look!)
