Before I went on the trip to Philly I talked to many people who were familiar with the area to give me some advice on where to go, what to see, you know the stuff only locals would know. First, I talked to Mr. Malay, who told me some of the best restaurants in Philly along with some of the stuff, that one going to Philadelphia I had to check out. So before I left Philly I had a pretty good understanding of some stuff where I knew I had to go but I also new in the back of my mine that some of my most memorable stuff that will happen during my adventure will not be able to be planed out before hand but spontaneously happen.
It feels like the weeks flies by and April 5 is already here. I was so excited the night before the trip that I ended up staying up very late the Saturday night before. Therefore, after hitting my snooze button on my alarm clock numerous times, I woke up and it was already 10:12 knowing that Mr. Wood said we were leaving 10:22 sharp. So I get of bad pronto throw some clothes on thinking that it was going to be a nice day and headed to the bus. After hustling over to the bus, I got some great travel advice from Mr. Wood telling me that it would be a good idea to change my shorts and throw some pants on that might be a little warmer. Therefore, I ran back to my room turbo speed quickly found a pair of pants lying on the ground threw them on and headed back to the bus.
Finally, the trip had officially begun, and we were off leaving Peddie Campus and headed to a place I had never been before.
When we finally got to Philly after a longer than expected bus ride the first thing I noticed is the whether was terrible. The air feels so dirty when it rains in the city. Right off, the bat Pym and I had no clue where to go, so we just followed the crowd of our classmates for the first ten minutes until we realized that we should pull out our map and find the way to our first destination, CHINA TOWN. I had never actually been to any sort of china town before but I thought with Pym’s expertise in the Asian culture that she would be able to communicate well with the locals in china town. We ended up doing a large circle around one building and then we made a quick pit stop at the terminal market. While Pym was getting a crape I decided to do my own little bit of exploring around the market. First, I stopped and got to giant cookies, one peanut butter and one chocolate chip. I have to see they were both two of the better cookies I have had in awhile. Next, I was looking for some real food, something that would shut my stomach up from all the growling it did on the bus ride for missing brunch that morning. I saw this deli in the back that said Philadelphia’s best hoagies so I knew I had to try them out. Looking at the board to find out what to order I randomly said a Turkey Italian sandwich (thinking it was one sandwich on the board when it was actually two different sandwiches one turkey and one Italian). The sandwich maker gives me a weird looks and says, “What do you mean.” Acting as if I knew what I saying all along, “You know an Italian sandwich with some turkey on it.” The sandwich ended up being very good and I would say better than the sandwich than I had at hoagie heaven the day before. So after I got my grub down the pipe and my stomach was no longer singing me a song it was time to get on to our original trip to china town.
I knew we were getting close to china town when I started seeing only Asians pass us on the side of the street. China town felt to me like a whole different country. I went into a store and tried talking to the cashier and he responded to me in a foreign language acting as if I knew how to speak it. I noticed that most of the stores banners were red and that red was the predominant color in China town.
So we kept on walking down the road going into a store here and their but the China town road came to an end and the stores began to look more American again. I was trying to make a visit to Philadelphia not another country so we decided to go to one of the historical sites that America was famous for and that was the liberty bell. After a kinda long line we got into the museum and I immediately skipped all the reading junk and headed right to the actual bell. It was a big let down and the bell was much smaller and less cool than I expected. So with the liberty bell be a miss we headed to Washington Square to hope to check out some locals doing what they do on a Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, Washington Square was about as bleak as center campus during the winter term. None at all was their and the only people in it were us. So after that I needed some action. I had seen these historic sites but I wanted to see the locals. I had done the travel but not some much the discovery.
Our next stop was South Street. Now this is the place the locals hang out. It was full of cool stores and young people. We went by this store that looked like a junkyard from the outside but was a fine piece of art inside. We even met the person who created the art called Isaac plus I even got a picture with him.
After traveling down South Street to get to the water we decided it would be cool to go on a WWII submarine. The submarine was so small I realized that my height was not good for the low ceiling and I bumped my head a couple times. I cant imagine that people would be cramped up in the little sub for over 80 days.
It worked out perfectly that after the submarine tour that the Vietnam memorial was just across the street. Instead of just going to the Vietnam memorial for just pick up we were able to check it out and actually read some of the stuff on the walls. After chilling at the Vietnam memorial for a good 15 minutes it was time to go and I adventure to Philly had finished and I had discovered a lot about the city.
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