Sleepless in Pittsburgh

So we went to Philly this weekend, arrived at the hotel around midnight so I stopped for some drinks at the bar, the barman was an arse and pretty sure he over charged us in between complaining about how he should have made a billion dollars inn tips that night.

Anyway, I chose this point in my trip to sleep past noon, I have no idea why this is the case - Bushmills Whiskey not withstanding. Anyway, we went into Philadelphia in the afternoon and drove around to get ur bearings. We managed to spend some time in the Independence centre which was actually quite cool. I have some pics of an area we later found out we weren't meant to take pictures of, it was actually pretty cool inside but will pro do a post on it or just fail to bore you with it entirely. Obviously we swung by the Rocky steps too!

I managed to prop up the hotel bar with a few more bar flys and a far cooler bar tender for the duration of the evening. We would have gone out somewhere in Philly but 'Hotel in Philadelphia' can mean anything up to hour out of the city!

Next day, I managed once again to sleep in thought considering the quantities of Bushmills I was consuming this is less surprising. The barman hardly charged me for any of my drinks and the measures he wsa giving me were ludicrous, I don't normaqlly drink whiskey striaght but Bushmills is really nice.

Anyway we went back to the Philadelphia Museum of Art which is mind blowing, they had so much cool stuff there. I don't know how many of you saw my picture of 'Boy with Duck' in my Carnegie Museum of Art adventure,but here they had 'Boy with Rooster'. I am now convinced they is one of these in every American museum. On top of that they had Picasso (Sunflowers and others), Degas, Constable, Pollack, Turner and hundreds of others. We were there most of the afternoon, I didn't get to see it all. I have lots of pics but a lot are rubbish. Again there was a section where I was inexplicably not alowed to take photos 'Hey! No photos sir! this is a special exhibition!'. 'Are you quite sure? It looks like some has just dropped a neon sign here'.

Don't worry, I was able to keep my mouth shut when yelled at by the uniformed troglodyte! I only got pissed off because there was no explanation as to why or indeed any signs explaining that photos weren't allowed in the Bar Sign room. It would appear that I am back tp my waking up at the crack of dawn self. Philadelphia, along with being the City of Brotherly love, would also appear to be a sedative.

Anyways pics later.

Ok, so now I have a plan

Firstly, a few pics from last night.

Me and Stefan at Spice bar, I am holding my hands in the Dick Emery 'Camper than a feather boa' pose.




Me and Maja - again I've gone for the 'Gayer than a very gay thing' look. Also my head is fatter than I remember - it must be a wide-screen camera.




This is Stefan's friend Kataline (dunno the spelling lol!)



Maja's friend Bilal turned up later and we all went for a curry upstairs, was wicked and I managed to try a Yeungling's ale. Not as nice as Iron City I have to say, which is a good thing cos I have a case of that stuff sat here while I type!

Anyways, today maja and Stefan got out of bed pretty late and the weather kinda sucked. Also everywhere worth going appeared to be closed, except Phipps conservatory which it got a bit late for. What was cool though, was that in between experiements Maria took me round the city in her car and I was able to see how easy to get at stuff was. There is a load of stuff right near the University where she works, I'm really looking forward to the Cathedral of Learning - I've refrained from photographing it until I can go look at it properly. It looks awesome.

The houses here are great, it's like no two are alike and the style is totally different between areas. I'll be doind another tour next week ad I will take some pics.

We are off to Philly at the weekend to see some stuff and maybe catch up with one of Maria's friends, it'll be pretty cool just to have a look at somewhere else.

This week i am gonna try do at least the Phipps and the Carnegie Museum of Art, and totally got to do the Warhol museum, they have some awesome stuf in there. I think last night and today my brain has properly kicked in - I don't htink I'd ever take a 1 week trip this far.

Anyway, more later ;)