City Guide: Pittsburgh

I have to admit, before I went to Pittsburgh I had literally zero interest of going to Pennsylvania. I would consider myself to be more of a scenic traveler, I want to see beautiful places and take a lot of pictures....but the thought of Pennsylvania didn't bring a single scenic thought to my mind. I ended up visiting this past Fall for a bodybuilding competition however, and was pleasantly surprised at just how wrong I was. 

The University of Pittsburgh - Honestly, if I could only see one place in Pittsburgh it might actually just be the school. Every bit of this campus is stunning, from the architecture to the landscaping. The pinnacle of the campus is the Cathedral of Learning which is some crazy beautiful tower that looks like it belongs in Lord of the Rings and apparently has an interior that rivals Hogwarts. I didn't realize during our visit that non-students could go inside the cathedral, so definitely add that to your list of things to do!

Carnegie Art Museum - Right across the street from the Cathedral of Learning is this world famous museum. I initially came here for one specific room that I saw a photo of, the marble white room, but also found some cool modern art exhibits as well. 

The Phipps Conservatory - This is a stunning indoor botanical garden right down the road from the university. Unfortunately for us, they stopped admitting guests right before we arrived, but the outside still made for some great photos. 

Downtown - Pittsburgh honestly has one of the coolest downtown areas that I've seen and it seems like a completely different place than the surrounding areas of the city. The first thing you'll notice about downtown is that it appears to be a little island with big beautiful bridges connecting the downtown area to all of the other surround areas (There's 28 main bridges in the downtown area alone). Within downtown the architecture ranges from a stunning skyscraper that looks like a glass castle to an old stone church covered in ivy and extending for a few blocks. It's definitely worth it to pay for some parking and stroll through the city blocks.

Leave a comment below if you've been to Pittsburgh and have other good recommendations!