Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia! Land of vintage shopping and earthquakes, of milling crowds and baseball games, of Philly cheesesteaks and tummy aches.

We left D.C. in the early afternoon and headed northward by our beloved Amtrak system. And oh, how we loved climbing up the Philadelphia hostel’s four flights of stairs with our suitcases in our arms. Instead of doing the obvious tourist trek, we strolled down to South Street – Philadelphia’s answer to Smith Street – and found ourselves a little diner specialising in Philly cheesesteaks. For those not in the know, cheesesteaks are basically baguettes stuffed with shredded ‘steak’ and covered with melted cheese. They were… special. Hey V, at least we tried them!

Lucy and I then spent a good hour wandering through the nearby retro shops. I bought a great skirt for $7. Nice. We then met Matt down the street at the Magic Garden, an outdoor mosaic gallery composed of assorted junk, including bicycle wheels, wine bottles, dolls, plates, and car parts. Matt told us it was amazing. He also told us that the place had peremptorily chucked him out and locked its doors due to the earthquake.

What earthquake? The one that had taken place while we were too busy shopping to notice. Apparently it was 5.8 on the Richter scale at its epicentre in Virginia (where we’d been the day before! Shock! horror! we missed it!)

We then made our way into downtown Philadelphia in order to visit the City Hall and assorted statues of Benjamin Franklin. The streets were crowded with people: students, business folk, everyone who’d been evacuated from their building in case of aftershocks. Everyone was clinging to their phones and chatting endlessly about the quake. There were police everywhere. I’m not exactly sure why. They weren’t really doing anything.

So, bereft of things to do indoors, we wandered through Love Park (apparently a famous park, the one with the LOVE sign) and then tracked down the Philadelphia Farmer’s Market. It was food heaven: fruit everywhere, nuts and dried fruit stacked on the shelves (including intensely green dried kiwi), pretzels, giant cookies, fudge, cheesesteaks (ugh) and everything salty and sugar-filled. We had a lot of fun tracking down cheap strawberries, bagels and cookies.

Next stop was Ben Franklin’s grave. Nearby was the Liberty Bell, which we saw from the outside, and the Independence Hall, which we likewise viewed externally. We were more interested in collapsing on the grass and eating our strawberries and relaxing for a bit.

And then that night: the baseball! It was the Phillies versus the Mets, and it wasn’t really a competition so much as a systematic destruction of the Met spirit. I spotted a grand total of one Mets fan in the entire stadium, and he didn’t have much to cheer about. But for us, it was great fun. Matt clarified the rules for me and Lucy, and then for me again, and then I just listened to the running commentary from the people behind us. Baseball is a thousand times more exciting than cricket, thank goodness, but really made me miss the footy. We dined on pretzels and hot dogs and, in my case, an ice cream the size of my face. I’m not quite obese yet, but I’m working on it.

Next day we headed back to the Magic Garden and got to look inside. Pretty spectacular. And then it was off to the train station, and then – New York, New York!