This weekend, we explored Pittsburgh. On Saturday, we started with exploring the Strip District. A few of us went mini golfing and looking at all of the pop-up shops of local business along the road. We then went to lunch, followed by a tour of the city steps!

We climbed the steps, a feat I admit was quite difficult. We walked through the neighborhood of Fineview, home to multiple of these flights of stairs. We were able to meet Laura Zurowski and Matthew Jacob (and his adorable dog, Porter), two co-authors of “City Steps of Pittsburgh: A History & Guide”. They gave us a brief history of the city while we looked over at the city from a wonderful view up high on the hill. The city stairs were constructed as a way for people to easily travel across the area, through multiple means. However, as modern times came and with the invention of automobiles, it became more difficult for those vehicles to traverse the stairs. But the original purpose was for a quicker travel for those who worked – in the steel mills especially, during the Industrial Revolution.

The flight of stairs we climbed were the Rising Main steps, the fourth-longest flight of stairs in all of Pittsburgh with a total of 331 steps.

After the steps, we attended the Northside Music Festival for a little bit. I discovered my new favorite band there! It was quite an adventurous Saturday.

Today, we visited some of the nationality rooms located in the Cathedral of Learning. The Cathedral (or Cathy), is a 42 storey Gothic inspired building to identify the Pittsburgh campus of the University. We visited the Ukrainian, Welsh, Greek, Yugoslav, Indian, Swiss, Japanese, Russian, German, Polish, Romanian, and the Irish room (because we’re off to Ireland in one week!). It was really nice to hear the history of each room, and the different styles of architecture and the time period they’re based on. I am really excited because I have one class in the Cathedral and it’s so beautiful.

I think our adventure on both days tell a story of Pittsburgh culture. The nationality rooms show how people from all areas of the world come to the city, and how they leave their mark on it. The steps themselves are part of the city’s history, and the Strip district is a nice representation of the city’s current modern and historical standing of a place people come to and can find a little bit of everything here!