USA Pt 3: Pittsburgh, PA

From Lancaster to Pittsburgh, the train snakes through the Allegheny Mountains and through a number of small towns. I glimpsed here and there evidence of the industrial days of old, in a copper-coloured stream flowing beside the tracks and manufacturing facilities sitting quietly on the outskirts of towns.

I was staying in Pittsburgh with my cousin Tony and his wife Kathleen's family. I have many male cousins and only one female cousin (by birth); virtually all are older than me and my memories growing up are of a host of these tall, skinny, laughing fellows playing backyard cricket at Christmas. I hadn't seen Tony very often as an adult, but to me, he shares certain characteristics with my father, which a) has led to him being quietly dubbed 'young Steve' at times by the Buckley children and b) lends him a certain familiarity.

I really liked Pittsburgh. No doubt, staying with extended family (and a lovely one at that) played a part, but the city felt comfortable, interesting and diverse. The city is surrounded by heavily forested hills, and the horizon was not dissimilar to the view out to Brisbane's sloping western suburbs. The tiny downtown triangle is easy to navigate, and just criss-crossing bridges (the city has 446!) and taking in the skyline, architecture and breeze off the river was highly enjoyable. I visited the Andy Warhol Museum (Warhol was a Pittsburgh native) and a new History Centre, spoke to a couple of down-and-outers who weren't quite as fond of their city as I was, and relished the backstreets tour on which my hosts inadvertantly took me in an effort to beat the traffic. On my last night we paid homage to our roots with a bit of a singalong; me massacring some tunes on the piano, Tony showing some good form on the guitar, and then both of us (Kathleen had since sensibly departed) revisiting some 80's Aussie classics on YouTube in the wee hours. A great time had!