"Meet me on fifty-second if only for fifty seconds." West Philly murals by Steve Powers
Over the past seven years, pretty much every phone call, post card, letter, e-mail, and text from my friend Charlotte has ended in "COME TO PHILLY." Due to my lack of funds, she finally threw in the towel and (what I believe to be semi-drunkenly) bought me a plane ticket.
Upon arrival, I made my way down to where Charlotte works, which happens to be across from one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. It surprised me greatly when I found out it was city hall, but then again, Philadelphia was the capital of the United States for a hot second, so it deserves its prescense of historical buildings. We took the trolley home to West Philly (first time ever on a trolley!) and visited the local bottle shop. I'm not sure what a bottle shop is. I'm not sure if it's a Philly thing, a PA thing, or an East Coast thing, but what I'm really trying to say is that it's genius. Why wait at a crowded loud bar, when you can wait in a quiet room filled with lots of beer (goodbye youth, hello adulthood)? Un-politely of me I ended up leaving with a Chicago beer, breaking my "only drink local when visiting" rule.
SATURDAY MORNINGS WITH CHAR
Charlotte and I sat in her living room, basking in the sunlight and sipping tea and coffee. Honestly, I could've spent my whole time in Philly doing this and would have been perfectly content. Charlotte is one of those friends where you just enjoy being in her presence; we don't have to constantly be stimulated, just simply sitting in silence is enough to understand one another. I lazily gaze out the window to Hazel Avenue. A set of identical twins home, completely different than their neighbors, line the streets of West Philly. It's overwhelmingly Philly, and overwhelmingly like Charlotte.
ON THE EL
The best (and cheapest) way to see the city is through public transportation. I used to ride the Brown Line in Chicago all the time to see the sights. Luckily, Philly has a similar elevated train so I was entranced with seeing this new city from above. There was an amazing mural project called "Love Letters" done by Steve Powers. 50 murals of lovely sayings are spread across West Philly, all seen via the El. We bypassed our original stop in City Center to see the Liberty Bell and just kept going. We stalked out the front seat on the first carriage (tourist alert) to get the best views.
WHEN IN ROME...
...eat as the Philadelphians do. Not that most Philadelphians eat cheesesteaks all the time, but sometimes I have to give in to my natural tourist instincts and have myself my first Philly cheesesteak. We skipped the hullabaloo of the Pat's/Geno's war/tourist trap and ended up at Tony Luke's in South Philly. We sat in a dim orange light, still freezing from the outside air and munched on cheesesteaks and bay fries. A perfect ending to a fantastic trip.