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We only had an hour and a half bus journey up to Philly but after the last one we weren't looking forward to it too much! Thankfully it wasn't as eventful although we weren't sat together and the woman sat next to Jodie had a death in her family that morning, think Jodie is secretly the Grim Reaper!
Our hostel is in a great location, it is in the historical part of the city, they said on there website that the entrance is down one of the oldest streets in Philly but I think they were just trying to dress up the fact it was down a allie!
The hostel seems great though, they have loads of free things like beer, wii, darts, foosball and movies. After we reached the hostel and got washed it was getting on a bit so we just stayed in an watched the movie they put on and drank all there free beer!
At bed time we found a problem that wasn't quoted on their website, they were directly opposite a nightclub! Oh well who needs an early night anyway.
We spent our first day walking round all the historical sites, as it was a Saturday though the lines to get into the Liberty Bell and the Independence Hall so we are now leaving them till Monday. The area is really well done, they have kept all the old roads, houses and buildings in good condition and just as they were back in the day. They have a lot of small museums around the historical area so we walked around them, the gardens and the old buildings like the 1st and 2nd bank in the US as they were a lot less touristy. We went and seen Benjamin Franklins grave but they were charging money to get in even though you could see the grave through the fence (the whole graveyard had a wall around it apart from when Benjamin Franklins grave was) not surprisingly everyone just stood and took pictures from outside, it was kinda pointless paying for something you could see just as well from outside!
For tea we headed to a small restaurant to have one of the world famous Phillu cheese steaks. I wasn't quite sure what they were but all it was was bits of steak (and not even good cuts, fat on every piece) and tomatos in a baguette with American cheese sauce on top, wasn't impressed especially for about $10 each!
After walking round all day and with hardly any sleep the night before we headed back to the hostel to mingle with other people. We then realised that our room was full of French a******s who didn't really understand the concept of a hostel. Waking everyone up early each morning but not to worry we will get our own back the morning we check out!
We found out that Philly had the first Penetentiary prison in the US and that it opened in the early 1800's so we went up there to take a look at it. The place is absolutely class, probably one of the best things we have done since we have been away. It is huge, the outside wall covers over half a mile and there are about 17 blocks of cells. We got there early to try and get on some of the tours they do as only 30 people are allowed on each one and they are only done twice a day. Luckily we got on 3 out of the 4 and the one we missed was the one we didn't want to do as it wasn't on till 4:15. With the entrance fee you also get an audio tour that takes you round. The audio tour was really good, it told you about all the history, how it started and what conditions were like back in the day. The prison was first built so that every prisoner had a cell to themselves and each of them had a small exercise yard behind their cells for themselves that they could only use while wearing a hood so none of them ever got to speak to another prisoner or see one.
Our first guided tour was about the infrastructure. Wasn't really looking forward to this but It turned out to be really good, they told us why they shaped the prison like spokes from a wheel and how pretty much every prison in Europe followed the design of the place. They took us to parts that were locked away from the public so we got to see the movie theater and one of the older exercise yards.
The next guided tour we done was about punishment. The tour guide told us how the worst 2 things to do in the early years was obviously try to escape and make any contact with another prisoner. One black prisoner who was locked away for 3 years for stealing a horse was caught talking through the wall so the Governor came down and beat him severly with a plank of wood, they then put him in a 'iron gag' that tied his arms behind his back, gagged him and made sure he couldn't sit in any position apart from on his knees. After a while the guards went to check on him and found him dead in his cell after he had choked to death on his own blood. The guards got fired but the Governor who actually beat him and put him in it went unpunished. The tour guide then took us outside and told us that as years went on the punishments got more modern. As the prison had started to overfill they had to now have a few people in each cell so the punishment was to be in a dark cell on there own with no furniture, no light and little food. She then took us down to the 'hole' which was another place closed to the rest of the public. The hole is tiny, we can barely stand up in it and the put it next to hot water pipes so the prisoners couldn't lean against any wall as they would get scolded. Would have hated to have been locked up in there.
Our last guided tour was about escapes. 100 people managed to escape from Eastern State but only 1 never got recaught or shot, they still to this day have no idea where he went!
The walls around the prison are 30 feet high and dug 10 feet deep into the ground so it was hard to get over. One guy who done it was a carpenter and while he was working he built a 30 foot ladder that unclipped into little pieces so they could hide them in their cells and disguise them as tables. A group of them managed to use the ladder to get up on the wall buy didn't realise they were on a hill so the wall was bigger than 30 ft on the other side, a few of them broke their ankles but they still got away by robbing a milk float. Apparently loads of people watched them escape but thought it was a movie!
The most famous escape was by a guy that built a tunnel from his cell to 15ft underground and out by the wall. He built it by getting planks of wood to secure it off other prisoners in return for them to escape with them but when they got out on the other side a policeman was walking past and saw them. The guy who built the tunnel spent over a year doing it and was only 'free' for about 30 mins!
After we had finished the guided tour we done the rest of the audio tour and seen where Al Pacino stayed and was treated like a king and all the more modern cells for the death row prisoners. We were there for about 6 hours and got all the tours for 12 dollars each so it was brilliant, Alcatraz has got a lot to live up to!
After the prison we jumped on a bus an headed to the Rocky stairs! We got our pics with the statue, sone guy claiming to be a 'photographer' took pics of us and I was meant to give him a dollar tip and pulled out 5 instead! What a numpty! Oh well, the stairs are a lot bigger than I imagined, I was knackered when I got to the top but it was well worth it, always wanted to do the Rocky stairs!
On the Monday we headed to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I'm not too sure what we were expecting but they were a bit dissappointing. We went into the Liberty Bell and I know it's important to the Americans but seriously all it is is a small bell that's broken. Everyone was kinda pushing and joustling to get a picture of it and it drove me nuts, I was happy to get out of there. We got tickets for a guided tour around the Independence Hall and that was also not really the best. We got to see the rooms where they signed the Declaration of Independence but it wasn't really much. They have redone the rooms to what they thought they looked like back in the day, it looks good but it just looks like a room they have repainted and that's it. I was expecting to be able to go up to the Bell Tower but that was off limits.
We has now pretty much done everything Philly had to offer so for the rest of the day we played darts in the hostel, Im not sure if Jodie was actually good or lucky but I bet she would give Dad a game! That's a challenge for Vegas!
On our last day we got an all day bus pass and just got off at places that we thought may be good. We went all the way round to see as much of Philly as we could and we were definately in the nicer part of town. Up near the zoo it seemed really run down and minging. We got off at the Art museum again and went to the Rocky things for better photos as it was a lot quieter, we then went down to the old city hall which was built hundreds of years ago. We went to the Hard Rock cafe here and had a few drinks, Jodie tries there new alcoholic lemonade (which was actually made out of water melon so don't know why it was called lemonade!) and after 1 she was fairly pissed! It was full of rum though.
It's now time to leave for Boston, Philly has been really good, it has a lot of things to do here but not everything here is to our taste. We had to get up early for our coach so it was now time for our revenge on the a****** French so at quarter to 7 you had Jodie throwing her bag at the lockers and my singing! Got some awful looks when we woke them up but what do they expect, no wonder everyone always hate the French, smelly b******s.
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