Today is Meow Meow's adventure day. It's the last day of Dear's conference and I had planned to visit the city of Philadelphia myself. Dear was concerned for me but I decided I needed to make a day trip as there wasn't much I want to do in NYC after 5 days, and considering I had flew all the way here, I must make use of time to visit as much places as possible right.
So after going through several day trip options, I settled on Philadelphia and opted to take the Amtrak train there for safety and convenience purposes even though traveling by bus is much cheaper.
Dear kindly lent me his phone becos mine don't have a data plan. I was under instructions to update him regularly of my whereabouts.
So after the long intro, here's more about my day in Philadelphia. Dear and I had a lousy breakfast at the Starbucks near our hotel and I made my way to the train station.
Arriving in Philadelphia and changing to their local train to get to the historic district.
The pretty train station. Guess they are very proud of their heritage as the birthplace of American independence.
Coming out of the station. The historic district has lots of buildings that were where American independence events started, eg the start of the notion of independence, the signing of the constitution and Declaration of Independence.
House carriages are available to bring you around the historic area. The area was very well-preserved and modern while retaining the flavours of the past. It was very refreshing to be away from the mad house of NYC and seeing another part of America.
My first stop was the visitor centre to pick up maps and more importantly, use the toilet. Its toilets were the most convenient in the area.
The visitor centre was pretty huge with an exhibition about the history of Philadelphia and important points about it. So you can spend some time here to gain more understanding about the state before visiting the places of interest. It makes the visitor centre an attraction by itself too.
Philadelphia is also famous for the appearances it made in the Rocky movies. So you can pose with Rocky in the centre here too. I wanted to visit the museum steps that Rocky ran up but it was too far away from the historic centre by public transport, so I gave up the idea.
After coming out of the visitor centre, I went on the Benjamin Franklin trail by visiting the post office he created. It is just outside of the house he used to stay in.
Retro wor
Then I walk through the passage that Benjamin Franklin would use every day to see what's become of the place.
It has become a courtyard area with buildings such as the Benjamin Franklin museum and printing room. Apparently the multi-talented guy was a printer too.
There were many student groups on excursions for history lessons. Often, the teachers or maybe the the local guide leading the group will be dressed in traditional costumes. Pretty cool. I followed one of the school groups to the printing press room where there was a special demonstration of how it works.
The printing press
A copy of the Declaration of Independence that was printed in the demonstration
It was past noon by now and I headed for lunch. I had looked for the best place in the historic area for the Philly cheesesteak and here I am.
Tadah!This is the Philly cheese steak: beef slices topped with cheese and wrap in a roll. Honestly, I didn't know if it was becos I was really tired of eating bread, but I couldn't appreciate the cheese steal. The grilled beef was actually pretty good, the cheese was chez whiz and so-so, the bread was also so-so. I had to pick the beef out from the roll and I couldn't finish the bread at all.
I thot my pictures of the cheese steak was bad as I didn't want to look weird by taking too long to get a good photo of the gob of cheese and meat. Dear made my day when he saw the photo and said the cheese steak looked yummy. Don't know if he was serious or not.
It was starting to rain heavily when I came out of the restaurant :(
The Independence Hall where the important Declaration of Independence was signed. I had took free tickets for a tour of the place. Each ticket had a time slot allocated to it to prevent over-crowding the Independence Hall. It was about time for my tour after I slowly made my way back here after lunch.
Signs all around the independence hall to explain the history of the different corners of the area. Even the parade square that I was standing on was a piece of history as the crowds had gathered here at a mass event to decide that they wanted to strive for independence.
Inside the hall where the signing took place. The guides are all volunteers, I think, and were mainly uncles who were very strict about ensuring the cleanliness of the place to maintain it. One person from my tour group was sent out midway through the tour as she was chewing gum.
After the tour, I took a stroll to the town area to visit the Reading Terminal Market for tea time break.
Signages all over the place to tell you more about American history.
Finally reached the market after the walk in the gloomy rain.
The market has a section for fresh produce, cooked foods and snacks.
In the section selling chocolates
Looks like the chocolate are pretty bizarre to be showcased on the show.
The ice cream here is said to be the best in America, and has a long history. I was still too full for a savoury snack (there's a pork sandwich here that is high raved about too), I settled down for an ice-cream.
My huge ice cream cone that I finished all by myself. I ordered one of the special flavours that day- something coffee with chocolate cubes in it. Yums.
After the ice-cream. it was time to turn back towards the historic district and visit sights that I didn't cover earlier. I also stopped by at a convenience store to pick up some snacks that are unique to Philly.
Passed by Chinatown. Dear often comments that my photos are not straight. This one very straight hor!
The Quaker House, where the Religious Society of Friends, used for their meeting place.
This is where Mr Benjamin Franklin is today. Urban legend is that you can get good luck if you toss pennies on top of his grave.
Back to the historic centre, in front of the Liberty bell. Didn't go in just to see the bell as there was long queue earlier and the centre is closed by the time I came back.
Even got TV clips to watch, which I thought was really nice. This was the last stop of the day and I made my way to the train station to get back to New York.
The old colonial style train station that you always see in the movies when someone is carrying a briefcase and running away.
A statute near the entrance of the station in memory of those who died building the station.
The information board is those kinds that rattles and rotates when it updates the train timings. So cool.
The sky was dark by the time I got back to our hotel area. Dear had to attend the closing party of his conference so I had to settle dinner myself. I wanted to buy from the Halal guys but ended up walking in circles because I was still blur about the roads. Argh. I was pretty pissed walking around to find them even though it was actually two streets away from our hotel.
While waiting for my food to be packed, I spotted this across the street and decided to get desserts for myself. Heehee.
Settled on a slice of the Oreo Cheesecake. The price was not displayed and I didn't ask how much was it cos, how much can a slice of cheesecake cost right? I was wrong. The price still managed to give me a shock ok. The cashier told me it was USD11?! Want to say don't want also cannot, and look so paiseh right. ARGH.
And I think I forgot to eat the slice I bought becos I placed it in the fridge once I got back into the hotel room.
The mixed lamb and chicken rice from the Halal guys. This can feed two persons. And all for USD6.. Super cheap in this expensive city.
The rice comes with a white sauce (tastes like a mild version of mayonnaise) and red sauce (chilli sauce that is really spicy) that you are supposed to drizzle over everything and mix to eat. The guy packed the sauces separately and I took this photo before eating. I saved some for Dear to try. So nice of me.
When everything is mixed, the food is really gorgeous. I had my doubts about how nice can this kind of stuff taste in the West but man, it is such comfort food. I love the kick of the chilli and the meats are very fragrant (though I find the lamb too strong for me, but it's my own preference. Dear liked the lamb). Each mouthful is really an explosive of flavours. I think the Asian in us was also happy to eat rice, hahaha.
Oddly, this and the pancakes are what I missed most from NYC.
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