Last December, I decided to leave the town for holidays just like I did last year and the result turned out to be an amazing 10 days trip. Here is the list of special events.
Destination NY
It turned out to be a surprise ride for me. One of my roommates Jasmin had planned to go to New Jersey and was joined Karthick and Hemant who were going to NY and NJ respectively. I joined them to spend few days at New York. It was a pretty fast ride even though there was no sleep during any time of the journey. We dropped at a world famous fast food at New Jersey and for the first time ever, I had a taste of the famous chicken and for the hype that was created, I would say that it is not definitely finger lickin good. An unexpected stop was the Newark airport on the way where we had to pick up Jasmin’s friend. It ended up being an amazing car ride.
Xmas NY
Last year, having spent the New Year at New York and witnessing the ball drop, this time, I decided to go there again for Christmas. Although we did not spend much time outside owing to the blizzard, it was nice to spend wonderful time at New York. Thanks to Karthick’s brother and his roommates.
Destination Pittsburgh
I had decided to spend a few days at my friend ABC’s house at Pittsburgh. So I decided to go from NY directly. It was a long 7.30 hours of journey and the views on the sides were outstanding. The bus was going uphill and a river was flowing below very fast and it reminded me of one of the hill stations of India. The wi-fi in the bus was not at its best and hence music saved me throughout the journey. The bus reached half an hour earlier than expected.
Pittsburgh
There are plenty of special things to talk about Pittsburgh. The first, meeting my friend ABC after a long time. It was a nice ride to his home by bus and walk.
The downtown was amazing. Unlike Washington DC, which had Greek architecture, sculpted all over the place, Pittsburgh had this European touch to the buildings. It was like visiting England. Although the downtown could not match that of New York, it had its own unique touch and it was special.
The Carnegie Museum was awesome. Certain parts of the museum worth mentioning are the Dinosaur section and the sculpture section. The sofas in the art section were helpful for people to observe the arts and several visitors did that evoking curiosity of what they could be observing of the art. Another interesting place at the Museum was the stones section and the Egyptian section where a mummy had been kept for observation.
The SV temple at Pittsburgh was the place I wished to go for the New Year. It was such a busy day for everyone and as expected, it was difficult to get a taxi via phone. But just to try my luck, I booked it online and it came immediately at estimated time. The temple was beautiful. Getting the dharshana and the place itself felt had the distinctive feel of India because of the dominantly massive presence of Indians.
The Incline
One of the highlights of Pittsburgh is the view from Duquesne Incline and its fellow view point Monongahela Incline. It gave the view of the downtown on the other side of a river and connected by bridges. It was a breathtaking view in the cold weather and thanks to the experiment that went bad by ABC for himself, the hazelnut flavor shot in coffee turned out to be awesome for me.
Destination Washington DC
It was time to head back home; adieus to ABC; adieus to Pittsburgh. Just at 40 mins drive from Pittsburgh, the bus driver stopped the bus as he expected it to have a break down any minute and one hour was expected to be delayed owing to the wait for the next bus. However, the bus again reached half an hour earlier than expected (with delay). I am not sure but I assume it to be a marketing strategy put on by the bus company making the customers happy that they reached early. It was clearly evident as one lady was praising the bus driver as she got down the bus. Who knows, the expected travel journey could also be an average duration of journey. But anyway, the bus stopped at just some distance from China town, one of the happening places of the Washington DC downtown. The huge arch of the spot helped me in finding the metro station and not just in identifying the place itself. The familiar busy street raised my level of enthusiasm but I didn’t have time to look around with my suitcase. I left for the train back home. Home sweet home! :)
