On Friday we walked around and checked out the Pittsburgh downtown. The weather was pretty good. We ended up at Fort Pitt state park, which is a huge park right downtown where the Ohio starts from the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers. It was a French, then British fort. You can still walk into a blockhouse where they shot from.


An old pay phone booth gives no information


The bridge between downtown and the park. A highway runs on top, but you would barely know it.



A detailed map of old Fort Duquesne. They helpfully labeled the toilets, where the sewage ran into the river, and the music chamber. Not the same rooms btw.


Cute boys.

Across the river is the Duquesne incline. It's an old rail car that goes up and down the hill - the view of downtown is amazing at the top. Sadly we didn't get to go ride it.





The historical flood levels inside the blockhouse. I can't image how downtown wasn't submerged from these.

I booked an Airbnb for our trip since hotels were ridiculous. We were able to get a whole apartment nesr downtown for less than a fifth per night than a downtown hotel.

Unfortunately (e:Paul) was allergic to some mold there. So he called the next morning and had the money refunded. It turns out the next night, a cancellation happened at the super fancy omni hotel we booked before (Pittsburgh's former Statler). With Priceline we were able to book it for almost the exact price of the Airbnb. Look at Paul in all his bougie comfort.

Despite the mold I would still book an apartment rental again. In Germany you can book new apartments in the city centers for almost $30 a night. Its insane.

On Thursday we headed down to Pittsburgh for the Little Green Cars concert at Thunderbird Café. For only $10 it was of the best concerts of my life. The venue was smalm and had only about 40 people. The band was better than the album, and even played songs that haven't been relased. All of the band harmonized well and the girls voice was crazy.
At the end of the show, we all went outside so they could serenade a girl who came to see them, and didn't have her passport to get in.

At work they replaced the old vending machine with a new one that takes cards and NFC payments, including Android Pay. for some reason its called healthy vend even though it vends nothing healthy. The idea is kind of cool but you also get charged 15% more for it using cash.

The system itself is connected using either WiFi or a cellular connection, and the payment computer is running some version of before Android 4.x (looks like 2.x). I wonder what vulnerabilities are left open by running such an outdated OS.