Polish Hill Day - Arts Fest, Pool, Gooskis

Last Sunday we celebrated Polish Hill Day! Not an actual day of celebration, but it may have well as been, because we did all the Polish Hill things. All the best Polish Hill things. Here is the day, in reverse order. (Because, why not?)

Our day ended at Gooski's with a couple rounds of pool, cold cold beers, and yummy bites to eat. I failed beyond miserably at pool. Beyond sad.

Walking to Gooski's from the pool, I saw some excellent graffiti on the abandoned school. Polish Hill is definitely the best spot for graffiti in the city. It's like walking through a subversive art museum. And I love it. One day this summer (maybe fall) I want to walk down every street in Polish Hill, taking pictures of all the great graffiti and street art.

The pool! It only took until mid-July for me to buy a pool pass. Now that I have it, I hope to find myself at the Pittsburgh City Pools much more often. Like, tomorrow after work. My apartment is a disaster, but biking directly to a pool and jumping in sounds like a much better option.

Summer.

The Polish Hill Arts fest. Didn't end up buying anything, but it also seemed smaller than last year. Still though, always nice to be a part of a solid community event. (Who knows, if things pan out, maybe I could be sitting at a table there next year!)

We stopped to do some quick browsing/shopping beforehand and Copacetic Comics and Mind Cure Records. I'd never been to either, so it was nice to finally make the trip. At Copacetic I picked up a Jeffrey Brown book. At Mind Cure I found an awesome record for a friend's upcoming birthday! We got some cold drinks from Lili's (lemon ginger ice tea for me!), and made our way to the Arts Fest and pool from there.

Before meeting up with Corey and Carrie, I biked down Gold Way into Polish Hill because I wanted to get a shot of the POLISH HILL sign under the Bloomfield Bridge. Of course, this did leave me with a bloody and bruised knee when I misjudged my agility and ability to hop over a guardrail. I'm graceful! There was some other great graffiti/street art under the bridge on Gold Way. This is just a small sampling.

I don't think I could ever live in Polish Hill; the distance from a major grocery store and insanely steep climbs would keep that from happening. But it's a great neighborhood, and I should try and spend more time there.