Gakusei Travels

Next stop: PHIL

One impulsive idea and an impromptu planning meeting later, Makenna and I headed to Philadelphia for the weekend. It was a very spontaneous trip that started with me just asking “hey what if we went to Philly?” We found a hotel, booked our tickets for Amtrak, and headed up the East coast for the weekend. We did not thoroughly plan the trip and had no real concrete ideas for what to do once we got to Philadelphia, but we were excited nonetheless.

On Friday afternoon, we left work a bit early to get to Union Station. Neither of us had ever rode Amtrak before and didn’t know where we were going once we arrived. Thankfully we came early enough to eat dinner and then find our gate. The gate attendant was lowkey a little rude. When I tried to ask him questions about our train and the stops he kept cutting me off. Like sorry. I’ve never rode the train before. All of this is new to me.

For those of you who didn’t know, like myself, the train makes several stops. So our train was bound for New York but would make stops at Baltimore, New Jersey, etc. Other passengers would board or debark at each stop. Now what I was not prepared for was for the utter free for all it was to get seats. In coach class there’s no assign seating so it’s basically first come first serve. Makenna and I couldn’t get a seat next to each other but managed to sit at the four person seats where they’re like facing each other. Very interesting experience indeed.

Again. All new to me. But I was so confused about the ticketing process. It wasn’t like boarding a plane where you scan your pass before you board. The conductor came around about 20 minutes into the ride and scanned everyone’s passes. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to sneak on the train before. I’m sure this is all common knowledge but I was lowkey excited the whole time. Was it a luxurious experience? No. But I will be able to talk about the way the train smelled of petrol and rusted metal. Or how the train conductor accelerated the last ten minutes in order to arrive at Philly in time, not one minute late, for my next creative writing assignment in school lol. I’m thinking murder mystery on the train or is that too cliche?

We arrived at Philly around 8. Makenna and I thought it would just be safer for us to take an uber to our hotel and figure out the public transit the next day. The hotel was only about a 10 minute drive, so it wasn’t too far. I remember we booked it for that specific reason. We also picked a relatively cheaper room by opting to do a bunk bed lol. To us, we’re only in the hotel to sleep. Yes it was small and cramped, but it worked for the two of us. Once we go to the hotel we actually then searched Google for things to do in Philadelphia cause we had not planned an itinerary. We really came with just good vibes and a dream lol.

After we settled and charged our phones a bit, we walked around the block to get a feel of where things were, including a nearby target where we bought some drinks and snacks for the evening. Since we already ate dinner, we weren’t really hungry. There ended up being an ice cream shop we tried called Jeni’s splendid ice cream. Honestly, some of the richest ice cream I ever had. I did a three scoop cone with caramel, birthday cake, and this chocolate cake flavor that was so sweet. 10/10 recommend. We took the ice cream back to the hotel, watched a movie, before turning in for the night so we were ready bright and early to begin exploring “The City of Brotherly Love.”

Day 1

Starting off bright and early, Makenna and I began exploring Philadelphia. Using the metro was an…interesting experience to say the least. It was very confusing because there’s the bus and the train but also a trolly, and we were super confused on how to navigate it. In D.C., there’s usually two tracks that go opposite directions, but in Philly, we had to go like down stairs and back up on the opposite side to go the other direction. Also, there’s no nice way to say this but the metro is disgusting. Like it’s so dirty and it honestly smelled like urine. It was terrible, so we tried not to use the train too much. We actually got turned around and left the metro by mistake, but the worker was nice enough to let us back in without having to repay the fare.

If I had to rank public transit I’ve taken it’d be 1. Tokyo, Japan 2. Washington, D.C. and then Philadelphia is dead last. I was spoiled with the trains in Japan. They were so clean, almost always on time, and the stations usually had bathrooms.

The first place we visited, once we finally figured out which way to go, was Elfreth’s Alley. Dating back to 1736, it is America’s oldest residential neighborhood. It contains 32 colonial homes and shops where people do actually still live today. Some of the houses are open on the weekends as a museum for people to walk through. Makenna looked up the cost of the homes and these little homes start at 1.6 million dollars…insane.

The next thing we did was go to the liberty bell cause it was closest within walking distance. We were trying to hit everything in Old City first since it was furtherest out, then work our way back in toward Center City. The liberty bell was right by Independence Hall which is where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

We then happened upon what ended up being the highlight of the day. Parked across from Independence Hall were tour buses. Makenna suggested we just go and look to see how much they cost. What we learned was that the Big Bus tour took you around all over Philadelphia, stopping at various locations where you could get off if you wanted. The next bus would arrive about 20 minutes later until the last bus at 4:00. The ticket was $36 and honestly, so worth it.

The tour itself was 90 minutes so what we did was ride the entire tour to see all of Philly. We saw cool landmarks like Betsy Ross’s house, the U.S. Mint, the National Constitution Center, various museums like the Museum of Art and Rocky statue, plus things down by the Delaware river. I think Philly has really cool architecture. I forget that really America basically started here and then expanded outwards. I learned in the tour that Philadelphia used to be the nation’s capital before it was moved to D.C. I’m sure I learned that in U.S. history back in like middle school, but it’s been a minute and I lowkey remember nothing. I don’t think I took U.S. history in high school cause I took geography lol.

My favorite piece of architecture was the City Hall. The building is just massive with all these intricate carvings and details that are gorgeous to see. A lot of the buildings here kind of give me Grecian vibes. I also learned that City Hall is the largest solid stone building in the world.

The tour was not only cool to see but it gave Makenna and I an idea of other places we wanted to come back and see. As soon as the tour ended, we jumped on the next bus leaving and rode it to Reading Terminal Market where we had lunch. The building was packed. It was kind of like an indoor marketplace. Not only could you buy groceries and fresh meat/produce, but there were rows of restaurants that sold different cuisines like Mediterranean, Italian, Soul food, etc. Of course, we had to try a Philly cheesesteak and though it was pricey, it was so good. Best one I’ve ever had. Now I can cross having a Philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia off my bucket list along with having ramen in Japan.

What Makenna and I decided to do was split the sandwich. That way, we could try some of the other food in Reading Terminal. We had a beef and lamb gyro, cinnamon pretzels, and tried the famous Bassett ice cream. Apparently Bassett ice cream was established in 1861 and I think is the oldest shop in the city. Up until a couple years ago, they served the store’s original flavor when it first opened in the 1800s. And you know what flavor that was? New Jersey Yellow Tomato…idk if that’s good or not but it’s an interesting sounding flavor. Don’t think I’d ever want to try it though. I was happy with my Oreo chocolate milkshake.

After spending a couple hours at the Market, we decided to head back to our hotel. The last bus ran at 4:00, so we didn’t want to miss it. On the way back however, the craziest thing happened. The engine of the bus stopped and we were just stuck at a random tour stop in the middle of the street. It was insane. I don’t even know how it happened. The bus driver was pretty calm about it and guided the bus as best as she could to the side of the road. But Philly’s streets are pretty narrow (it’s partially why it’s ranked 6th in worst cities in America to drive in). Thankfully, we didn’t hit anything or cause an accident but still it was a crazy experience. Luckily the next bus arrived within 10 minutes and we just got boarded it and rode it until we got close to our hotel.

We were fairly full from everything we had at Reading Terminal, so we just hung out at the hotel before calling it a night.

Day 2

Started the second day of the trip a little tired due to Daylight Savings Time and losing an hour of sleep. After breakfast we took an Uber to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Rocky statue. We saw it yesterday briefly during the Big Bus Tour, but didn’t get off to get a closer look. I think I have heard of the character Rocky Balboa but I never saw the movies. I didn’t realize he was such a famous image.

I’m kind of glad we went early so there wasn’t a lot of people around the statue. There was actually a run club there running up and down the Rocky Steps and around the park. It was funny. I actually tripped on the steps not while running, but just walking up them T^T. It was kind of annoying because obviously it’s a tourist attraction and people take lots of photos, but there was this one lady just completely oblivious to the fact other people were waiting. She was standing in front of the statue to check her photos (after she cut in front of a bunch of people at that). We had to just politely ask her to move cause she was in the way.

It was funny though. I was wearing an eagles shirt. My stepdad is an eagles fan and I know only like 2 players due to the Super Bowl. But this lady goes “excuse me miss-“ I thought I did something wrong when she opened her jacket to reveal an eagles shirt and says “go birds!” It was fun just yelling “go birds” at people all day. Just about any store you go to has some sort of eagles flag or paraphernalia in Philly. Intentionally wearing a jersey for a different team is just asking to start a fight lol.

We decided to then walk toward the Franklin Institute and get pictures of the fountain. I don’t remember what it’s called (did not read the placards) but they looked like mermaids. And the street was aligned with City Hall, so we just continued to walk back toward Circle City. Philadelphia is actually a fairly walkable city. I believe on the tour it said it was only 146 square miles. So everything is honestly pretty close. We didn’t even really have to use the metro/public transit which makes me a little annoyed we spent money on a card.

Makenna and I then went back to Reading Terminal Market just to get some snacks and food for the train ride back in the evening. Although some shops were still closed, it was a lot less crowded than the day prior. We were able to then actually walk the entirety of the marketplace and see everything it had to offer, which was neat.

The next place we hit up was the Fashion District. To be honest, it was kinda forgettable. It’s just a really big mall but the lay out is pretty confusing, since you have to go to a specific level to reach the connecting bridge or go back outside and cross the street to get to the other side. We didn’t spend much time there.

By this point, it was close to 1 so we decided to get lunch in Chinatown and walk around some of the shops. There were a lot markets and stalls. Our tour guide on the Big Bus actually recommended the place we ended up visiting for lunch called Yamitsuki. It was a really cool Japanese restaurant that had this giant mural inside of a bunch of anime characters fighting in Philadelphia. At the front of the shop was a statue of Iron Man Hulk Buster from Avengers Age of Ultron. They also had an Ichiraku Ramen mural to reference Naruto as well as the characters all over the menu. The food itself was really good too. We got sushi but Makenna did not know how to use chopsticks. Teaching her is an ongoing work in progress lol.

We felt like we saw everything we wanted to see. I think next time, if we did get to come again to Philadelphia, we said we’d explore the actual museums, but we really didn’t budget for them. In D.C. most museums are affiliated with the Smithsonian so entry is free. In Philly, a lot of the tickets were pricey. Like the art museum was $30. We hung around close to the hotel before heading back to the train station to head back to D.C.

Honestly, before now, I had never really considered Philadelphia as a place to visit but I had so much fun. And I’m glad I went with Makenna. I definitely wish we could’ve stayed a few extra days, but we can always plan another trip for the summer when it’s warmer.

Definitely will be back. And on a final note.

GO BIRDS!