Friday, May 1, 2009

The Other Side of Philly

Fifth grade and American history. That was what Philadelphia meant to me, and besides going there for my big fifth grade field trip, and seeing a small amount of the historical sites, I knew virtually nothing about the city. Gene had never been to Philadelphia either, and it was clear that we were in for an interesting day when we got off at the wrong stop. If that was not bad enough, after trying to head back towards the art museum ended up going south instead of north. However, we eventually found our way to Rittenhouse Square, one of our stops, and were able to successfully navigate ourselves around town after all. Although my preconception of Philadelphia being a large historical city proved to be true, after spending the day there as an authentic traveler, it was clear that Philadelphia was much more than that.

After nearly being run over by a mass of roller bladders, struggling with the map, and going in the opposite direction, we finally found a small park, Rittenhouse Square and decided it was time to rest. Although it was cloudy, the temperature was comfortable, and it was clear people wanted to be outside. The park was filled with people and activity. Staring at the map for about five minutes, we decided it would be best to just head back to City Hall. Seeing as our itinerary was useless at this point, we decided to wander around and visit places that seemed interesting or heard other groups discuss. As we made our way towards City Hall, I noticed the amount of street performers in Philadelphia. There were people playing violins, saxophones, and drums. One man stopped us as we were walking and shouted us “SMILE! Be happy because it’s a beautiful day, life was good.” I am pretty sure he was high. Finally arriving back at City Hall, we walked through it and I found myself unable to take my eyes off of the architecture and gargoyles. We heard a few people talk about Reading Terminal, and decided to make our way towards there. On the way there, my preconceptions of the city began to change. Although there were many historical building and sites, Philadelphia took those places and used them in creative ways. Reading Terminal for example is now essentially a food court, and it is the simple combination of historical and new that makes Philadelphia the exciting and diverse city that it is.

The food at Reading Terminal looked delicious. When we walked in, we were immediately engulfed by the crowd of people, loud noise and smell of food. It seemed like the stores went on forever and I had trouble deciding where I wanted to start. One thing that surprised me was the amount of fish vendors. Some sold tiny fish and clams and oysters, while others sold larger fish that I had never seen before. At a traditional supermarket, they usually sell fish already cleaned and only have a small amount of whole fish; however, the fish here were all whole. As I stared at the shiny eyes staring back at me, at one particular vendor, I notice the organization of the fish. Not only where they ordered based off size, but they were grouped by color as well. I could tell that this guy put a lot of effort into his presentation, and I thought it was a unique way to stand out in the large amount of stores. After Reading terminal we decided to make our way towards South Street and visit the Liberty Bell on the way down. As we approached the Liberty Bell, we saw a cheese steak place called Campos and decided to stop there. There was hardly any seating however, so we sat on the benches in a park outside of the Liberty Bell. Now that the sun was beginning to come out, and we were tired from the walking, we decided to sit there a little bit longer. After resting, it was time to head to South Street. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. After walking past the quite brownstone houses, South Street was a complete shock. Music was playing, people were everywhere, and the stores were eclectic. We bought milkshakes and decided to walk into any shop that looked interesting. We stopped at a Rastafarian store, a hat store and of course Condom Kingdom. With about forty minutes to kill, we went to Penn’s Landing and hung out before making our way back to the Vietnam Memorial. At Penn’s Landing, a group of older women from Ohio stopped Gene and asked if he would mind taking a picture of them. He took their picture, and we continued to walk towards the edge. After spending about five minutes reading signatures and sayings people wrote on the ledge, we decided to make our way to the Vietnam Memorial to finish off the day.

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