The Good, The Bad and The Burgh: My Travels to Pittsburgh Part 6

Ok full disclosure, I walked away from writing these posts in May. I came back today expecting to simply recap my journey back to Green Bay from Pittsburgh on Sunday. Wrong, because Part Five ended on Frida, which means I have all of Saturday to recap and I honestly don;t remember as much as I would like to, but I'm not going to let that deter me. So here we go, the epic conclusion, Part 6.

Goodbye to the Burgh

Saturday March 26, 8 a.m.(ish)
Now we had to wake up early on Saturday because one of our school chums was reading their paper early and as they had come to support us at our readings we would go support them, despite our lack of sleep.

So as I'm writing this I realize I can barely remember what we did that day, we might have gone to Bruegger's bagel for a late breakfast/early lunch but then again it could have been another day. I also might have gone to Dunkin' Donuts, again I can't remember. I definitely did both of those things but I don't remember when. So with a major lack of anything to actually say about what happened during the day on Saturday let's skip ahead to Saturday evening.

Saturday March 26, 7 p.m. (ish)
The weekend culminates in a gala dinner and bigwig speaker. The dinner is very nice everyone gets dressed up and awards are handed out. Some people from St. Norbert won some awards which was actually pretty awesome considering how many people were there, yours truly however walked away empty handed.

Dave Eggers, nice hair

The keynote speaker was a man by the name of Dave Eggers. Dave wrote the screenplays for the films Away We Go and the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. He is also the author of the book Zeitoun about a man who stays behind in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and then helps those stranded with the use of his kayak.

However the most interesting thing Eggers shared (fun sidenote: he apparently demanded an ungodly amount of money and a first class ticket for his appearance) was his work setting up writing centers around the country. From San Francisco to New York Eggers has established open writing centers in impoverished areas to help children develop writing skills. The centers are free and generate revenue by sharing space with a specialty store. For example: The San Francisco center is dedicated solely to selling pirate themed items, while one in New York sells time travel equipment.

Overall it was one of the better lectures I had witnessed during the trip, and other people seemed to like him too given the line that formed around the ballroom waiting for his autograph.

However I, and some of my other compatriots went down to the hotel bar (it was still before 11!) and I discovered I do not like scotch (at least not from the rail). Then we called it a night because we had to get up early again to catch our flights out.

Sunday March 27 8 a.m. (ish - get it? I don't actually remember what time)
We got up and got out, a non creepy concierge helped grab us a cab to the airport, a Chrysler 300 with a leather interior. Unfortunately I did have to pay for this cab ride.

We aited to board out plane, this time to Detroit, and found two of our professors and a couple of our schoolmates would also be on it. The flight took off and landed without too much trouble.

We made our way through the Detroit airport, passing through this lovely tunnel.

Trippy, no?

This flight was delayed however and then we had to get a new plane because the one we were supposed to fly on was broken. They gave us some coupons for 50 dollars off our next flight (which according to one of my profs who tried to use it, don't actually work, thank you for flying Delta.) and five dollar voucher to use in the airport. Most people went to some hot dog place, but I didn't think I could stomach a dog so I bought some pretzels gum and orange juice.

We finally got to board and got back Green Bay safely. I dug out my car and then went to Culver's where all my troubles were rewarded with the new Three Cheeseburger: two patties three different slices of cheese, all delicious.

Oh my, well hello there

And there you have it, eight months and six posts later my trip to Pittsburgh and back.

Let's break it down real quick so that my titles to these posts make sense:

The Good

• Diverse music in bars
• Sam Adams on tap pretty much everywhere
• The South Side

The Bad

• Poor travel conditions
• Early bar close time
• Lack of good/interesting places to eat in downtown area

The Burgh

•  Coleslaw on sandwiches
• Strange obsession with dinosaurs
• The Penguins

Hit the comments with your comments.