Philly

We left New York and paid $11 in tolls to drive two hours to Philadelphia. On our arrival the host house, a three story, six bedroom, nine roommate community in West Philly provided us with a fantastic dinner, drinking, and games!

On our first day in Philly we attended Bloktoberfest, a music and beer block party south of South Street. While drinking, we discovered that the best cheesesteak is a huge point of debate for locals and everyone is friendly, we even made friends with people that lived in a place over looking the fest and went up and had a drink and hung out while Blocktoberfest ran out of beer.

Once the festival ran out of beer and the strangers let us leave, we went on the search for food, a sports bar, and a Giants game. We were warned not to wear Giants gear, as Philly fans have a reputation for being insane. After three hours sitting in a sports bar, quietly cheering, purchasing one too many half priced hot wings, we learned that violent homophobic epithets are the venting method of choice when the Phillys get defeated.

On our second day, we decided to explore the traditional tourist routes. We drove over to the historical part of town, toured Independence Hall, gazed at the liberty bell, and wandered the streets searching for cheap food.

As we were returning home, Amber announced that she saw something fantastic down the street. Turning around, we discovered the magical unicorn castle which may also be known as city hall. We circled city hall and learned that Philadelphia has a grand downtown center consisting of magnificent buildings and beautiful sculptures. This side track also led us to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, better known as the place with the Rocky steps, and the Magical Garden, better known as mosaic art madness/the place where we were too cheap to tour and too lazy to find parking so we just took photos as we drove by.

Our evening ended with an awesome beer bar, watching the Giants lose, and Amber wishing she could make out with our host Jeremy. Nobody made out and we left before the end of the game to watch the extremely graphic cartoon Afro Samurai.

On our last day in Philly, we drove out to the suburbs for the best yelp reviewed Cheese Steak. Our review: Amber-it was bland and boring, canned mushrooms are disgusting. Marisa- It was good it just needs more cheese and peppers. Albert- I don't know what the big deal is about these things. After the cheese steak, we got lost in the ghetto searching for the "great monument"(ghetto sculpture garden). We found the sculpture garden and learned that Philly is a juxtaposition of grandeur and destitution.