On the 2nd of December Timon and I packed a small bag and jumped a megabus to Philadelphia. We were off to visit our IMAXian friend Sophie, who has been living in Philly since August, honing her craft in an acting studio. We had tickets booked to her show on the Friday night and intentions to party hardy for the rest of the time. Of course, the early bus was an hour late when we arrived at the megabus queue which meant that more than likely our bus would share the same fate. Luckily, there was enough space on the late bus for Timon and I to squeeze on and arrive in Pennsylvania at our estimated time. We both slept uncomfortably most of the way (you know when you're sitting next to a stranger and you don't want to touch them so you sleep paranoidly, jerking your head up every 5 minutes?) and drove into Philly with the sun streaming overhead. Sophie met us at the station and we walked down a main street for 15 minutes until we reached the subway. Philly appears to have 2 major subway lines - one that runs vertically and one that runs horizontally across the city. Handy if you live just off one of the lines, which Sophie does.
Once in South Philly we chilled at Sophie's digs (the biggest house I've been in for a while) and found a cafe nearby for brunch. Timon sized up the coffee selection, being the espresso snob that he is now, and deemed it ok :P I heartily enjoyed my turkey and goat cheese sandwich and we left feeling satisfied and jolly. Sophie had to leave the house at 6pm to prepare for the performance and we tagged along, taking in a quick coffee near the theatre. Then T and I split off and found a cheapo pizza parlour for a quick dinner. The audience at the show was small and we sat in the back row on uber-uncomfortable pews (the theatre is a church). The play was interesting, sad and confronting and Sophie stage-drowned twice! Grim! We waited around after the show and took Sophie home to stretch, gossip about IMAX and finally sleep.
The next day T and I were on our own and we eventually found our way to a cafe for breakfast and some bad coffee. We walked around the city centre and went to investigate a tourist info place where the souvenirs were cheap and there was a 3D, 360 degree movie screening just for us (tourism was slow). We walked into the theatre one by one and unbeknownst to us, our photo was taken on entry. The film was about Benjamin Franklin and all that American history stuff that isn't so exciting when you're foreign. At the end they put up our pictures a hundred times each, making for a fair few giggles. I suspect that if the audience was larger than 2 then the effect would be less creepy.
Outside we spied the under-reconstruction Independence Hall shielded by scaffolding and the Liberty Bell hiding inside a new enclosure. Instead of queueing for ages we spied in through the window and were content with a sneaky photo. We jumped in cab and went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art whose famous steps can be seen in Rocky. In tribute there is an awesome Rocky statue at the bottom.
We relaxed at the top of the stairs for half an hour, enjoying the brisk but sunny day and the incredible view while avoiding the guy who wanted money to take our photo. Then we walked around, found the Franklin Institute, rejected its high entry fee, found coffee instead and eventually made our way to a bar to meet a friend of a friend JP.
We spent the next 7 hours with JP, eating and drinking our way around the city, from bars to his house to bars again. We had a pre-drink drive around the city and spent forever trying to find a park near his 3 storey apartment. We enjoyed giant Philly cheesesteaks from Jim's where the staff are super-rude and the steak stews on the hotplate alongside raw mountains of meat.
Recommendation - get the American cheese, not the whiz! JP showed us endless hospitality but even his charm couldn't get us into a dive bar when we didn't have our passports :( We met up with a couple of his friends, played some pool and dabbled in DJing at his digs. When Sophie finished the last show of the evening we collected her and went home to bed, late again.
Our final morning in Philly was spent drinking even more coffee and waiting around in the wrong queue for the megabus home. At least this time we got to sit with each other. My impression of Philadelphia was entirely positive and I was charmed by the architecture and quaint one-way streets. According to JP, Philly is a more dangerous city than New York but we didn't get that vibe. In fact, we're heading back there this week for a double-dip!
