Oh, winter. You cold and dreary foe. The older I get, the more I hate winter. I really do not mind the cold, as long as I am moving (walking/biking) through it. But I hate snow. And I hate the fact that it gets dark early and is dark by the time I leave work. There's so much more time spent indoors due to the dark, which makes leisurely walks and long bike rides nearly impossible to accomplish until we spring forward on March 10.
If the weather report for the next week holds, today we should be experiencing temps in the mid-40s! Strange how in the fall when that happens for the first time it seems so cold. But when it happens in the winter, it feels like spring. Though the early darkness remains, it's been staying lighter a little longer each day.
Here are some colorful things I saw on a cold Sunday at the very end of 2012. Pittsburgh's bursts of color are a mood brightener in the midst of the grey skies of winter.
Owl on Butler Street.
Someone added colorful geometric wood blocks to the Roberto Clementes in Doughboy Square.
Most of my journey to the other side of the world was spent in Sydney. But for a day and a half, Rob and I lived a much faster life (well, a bit slower on the half of that day we were really hungover) in Melbourne.
I like Sydney. Don't get me wrong. But if someone forces me to move to Australia tomorrow, I'm heading straight for Melbourne. What Sydney lacked in color (i.e. graffiti and street art - I'm pretty sure this is a top-five thing I want in a city), Melbourne made up for a thousand times over.
We spent our first few hours in Melbourne eating lunch and checking out the Parliament building. We spent the next twelve hours drinking. This didn't surprise me one bit, as my friend in Melbourne, Evan, was one of my favorite drinking buddies in Boston. We traveled around the city on foot, having a drink and then moving on to the next place. The variety of the establishments we patronized along the way (hey, I have to try and made a bar crawl sound somewhat otherwise than that) was awesome. There was a wine bar, a rooftop bar, a riverside bar, an outstanding Thai restaurant (ChinChin, where my picky-eater self tried EVERYTHING set down in front of me), bars down slightly scary alleys, and our own private karaoke room (which we were only in for an hour, but by the time we left it looked like we'd been partying in there all night). We ended our night a little after 2 a.m. down on the pier near Evan's apartment, hanging out with the wild penguins who live in the rocks. The whole day and night was an excellent use of our time.
The next morning? A little rough.
But once we managed to get ourselves (somewhat) together and put some food (and Gatorade) in our bellies, Rob and I set off to wander around the city and see what we could before our flight that evening. We saw a lot of awesome graffiti, something I saw practically none of in Sydney.
We saw this dragon, made of plastic bottles, in Chinatown:
We also saw this warning sign about the trams that go up and down the Melbourne streets:
The analogy here is that getting hit by a tram would be like getting hit by a rhino on a skateboard. Australia, I adore you.
We also saw this fellow, not really sure what he was doing other than standing around?
Something we did not see, though we did try and find, are featured in the following videos.
I'll guess I'll just have to go back and find those two next time. And I do hope there will be a next time! Melbourne seemed like my kind of place, and I would love to explore it more. A big thank you to Evan and Nary, who showed us an awesome time for the short time we had there. I leave you with photobooth pictures the four of us took, probably near hour seven or eight of drinking. They are an awesome indication of the night we had in Melbourne.
Admittedly, I am not the girliest girl. I've always been a bit on the Sporty Spice side, even though in high school when my friends (hello, Milana, Eva, and Lindsey!) and I dressed up as the Spice Girls for fun (we really did), I was always Baby Spice. What I'm trying to say, is that I'm not about to wear a combination of pink and leopard and spend three hours on my hair and make-up. But I do like fun dresses, am starting to wear heels and lipstick (gasp!) more often, and there's always my tendency to love even the worst romantic comedies. Another girly thing I like: flowers.
For that reason, Phipps Conservatory has always been a favorite spot of mine in Pittsburgh.
My first few hours in Sydney were spent wandering around the Gardens as part of a scavenger hunt Marlana had prepared for me while she finished the rest of her working day after picking me up from the airport. I was so instantly charmed that I didn't want to leave. I visited them three more times during my trip, either for walks to take up time, walks to find things, or walks to steak dinners. They are absolutely beautiful, and more like walking through a dream because they are so immense. It's kind of funny to see that photo above with the city in the background, because being in the gardens makes you completely forget a bustling metropolis is just a few hundred yards away.
Pretty lily pads!
I will take a dozen of these plants in my fantasy backyard garden, please!
A couple dozen or so of these guys too.
Sydney might not get a fall with the changing leaves like we do, but they have crazy purple trees! It's like being in a Dr. Seuss book.
So many carvings on all of the bamboo tress in the gardens.
A real treat was coming upon the Wollemi Pine!
Now, because I saw the word dinosaur and got excited, I think I jumped to te conclusion that these trees were around with dinosaurs. Rereading that sign now, it's a little unclear if that is true, but let's go with it cause I posed for the picture and all. (Note: very sleep deprived, the day after crazy Melbourne trip, and we'd been walking around all day long by this point.)
If I lived in Sydney, this would be one of my most favorite places. There are still so many nooks and crannies of it I've yet to explore. I'll have to hit those the next I'm down under.
And we're back in the park! One thing I've learned to love about hiking (even urban hiking like this) is finding the spots of color peppered in among the green. So here are the bits of color I found while wandering the woods.
I climbed up a bit to get this, but it was well worth nearly twisting my ankle on the way down.
Spending a few hours away from things by getting lost in Frick Park (but not too lost, it wouldn't take too long to walk to the edge of this forest). It was just me, my iPod and my camera. It was glorious.
In order to better the odds that I am actually able to make it to Washington D.C. by bike, I had to do something I really really hate doing: giving it up. Red had to go into the shop for some MAJOR work before the trip. I was going to be without a bike for both a morning and an evening commute. The worst possible thing. For no particular reason, I haven't been able to wake up very early lately. I've started taking cereal and instant coffee into work because there is nothing I can do to get up and have breakfast at home. Simply put: I don't wake up early.
However, take away my bike and force me to face the brutal reality of the bus? I will wake up early and walk. (Disclaimer: I believe the bus is a very important and vital tool to our city. I use it from time to time and it is something that really allows me to live without a car in Pittsburgh. I just like to use my own two feet to get around.)
Ultimately, walking to Downtown takes a bit longer than busing to Downtown. So I really would save time and sleep longer if I rode the bus. But it had been a while since I walked to work. I used to walk to work all the time in Boston before I got a bike. I'm never one to turn down a long walk, so I forced myself awake by treating me to a nice coffee for the way in.
And I took some photos along the way.
Flowers in Bloomfield
Looking over Lawrenceville into Millvale from Penn Ave.
I see this every morning coming down Penn. But I'm normally on wheels and not feet, so it was considerably easier to take a picture.
This place on Penn does great business in the mornings around 8:20 a.m.
If there were an award for most colorful building in Pittsburgh, Salem's would have to be a contender.
Troy Hill in the distance. Love that colored wall.
So, a few weeks ago, I started to see this mural slowly going up on the wall of Altar Bar. It's PRETTY incredible. We've got New Found Glory (which I initially thought was Meatloaf, cause it kinda makes more sense in my head that it would be Meatloaf), Hank Williams III (I think?), Snoop Dogg (because of course; he loves Pittsburgh, at least the Pens and Steelers), Leon Russell (???), and the Misfits. I almost hope they rotate new celebs up there seasonally.
And I got to work *right* at 8:30; I couldn't have timed it better if I tried.
