Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Philly
12:18 AM | 
Posted by
Stephanie |
On our most recent whirlwind vacation we had exactly one day to take in as much as we could of Philadelphia. Personally I love Philly but you do get a lot of mixed reviews from people who have either visited or live there. I guess it's tough to judge a city from a couple short visits, everyplace seems awesome when you're on vacation. There is still just something about the energy of Philadelphia that appeals to me. On this trip I had to miss my two favorite tourist destinations. The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Mutter Museum. The art museum was closed and we just didn't have time for the Mutter. This time around I made it on the Eastern State Penitentiary tour. Though to be honest I only about half listened to my audio tour because I was too distracted taking pictures. Well the official website says it better than I could:"Eastern State Penitentiary was once the most famous and expensive prison in the world, but stands
today in ruin, a haunting world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers.Known for its grand architecture and strict discipline, this was the world’s first true “penitentiary,” a prison designed to inspire penitence, or true regret, in the hearts of convicts.
Its vaulted, sky-lit cells once held many of America’s most notorious criminals, including bank robber “Slick Willie” Sutton and Al Capone."
All I know is I'm definitely going back in October so I can go through when they turn it into a haunted prison; that will be so wonderful and terrifying.
We also sampled the worst but most historic cheese steak in Philly (Pat's King of Steaks) with bragging rights of being the first Philly Steak/Cheese Steak. I guess when you are novelty you don't have to try too hard, and they sure don't. We had a much better and some would say the best cheese steak at Carmen's in the Reading Market. Now there are only a couple things to know when ordering a cheese steak in Philly. (1) Don't call it a Philly cheese steak (2) pick your cheese, you have a choice of 3 options: Cheese Whiz (that is the Philly way), me however I'm a
Provolone kind of girl, and I think the 3rd is American but I honestly can't remember. (3) with/without onions. Do these three things and you will be ordering like a pro, mess up your ordering and you will be mocked severely.
Also as far as touristy greatness goes the double decker bus tour is pretty swell. You pay for the day and it goes to most of the popular destinations. You simply ride listening to the tour guide drop fun little bits of history, and if your lucky movie locations. Get off at whatever stop you want and then just catch another bus when you've finished taking a picture of yourself punching the air in front of the Rocky statue.
You really need about 3 days to see all the goodness that this city has to offer, but hey I think we did pretty good for just a day.
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