Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Before we flew into the 'land of the free', I thought that Philadelphia was on the West coast for some insane reason. Mind you, we didn't really have much of a clue where anything was: we thought that Florida was near California; and that Washington was north of New York. It's really a wonder we've been able to navigate from coast to coast with so few mishaps until now.
After a great few days in North Carolina with Barbara, it was hard to leave the idyllic neighbourhood we'd found ourselves in, but we eventually managed to drag ourselves onto our final night bus(!), after a few medicinal drinks in the local Irish pub in order to aid our sleep.
Arriving in Philly, it immediately had a nice feel to it, far from the impression we'd got of the city from the media; mind you, most of this was garnered from Will Smith in 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air', in which his mum had deemed Bel Air more wholesome.
The weather was fantastic for the two days we were there, with plenty of sunshine and a great coastal breeze on hand to aid our endeavours. No wonder there's a new tv show being aired here called 'It's always sunny in Philadelphia'.
Leaving Rosa asleep on the common room sofa to recover from the bus (the hostel declined our polite request to let us in to our room for some sleep before the official check-in time of 2pm, much like the other hostels), I headed off to the nearest supermarket for food and a view of the local sights. Our position in the city, courtesy of the YHA hostel, was again second to none, just like in Washington and Toronto, and I again began to question why Will Smith's fictionary mum had such a downer on the place.
Philly was the first capital of the country and the first major metropolis, before Washington and New York overtook it in the nineteenth century, so there was plenty of history for us to see, much like in Boston. The Independence National Park, harbour and various parks kept us more than occupied but the highlight for me was probably heading up the picturesque Benjamin Franklin Parkway and getting to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The views from here are absolutely great and we got some great pictures, along with a video of me 'doing a Rocky' - running up the stairs whilst shadow boxing and then acting like an idiot at the top in front of the museum.
With all this accomplished, there was just enough time to find one of the city's famous cheesesteaks, before we excitedly made our way to the bus station for the journey to New York. It felt like the day before Christmas, we were that excited, and there was no need for any medicinal alcohol as we only had to wait two hours before reaching the Big Apple.
Kev
- comments