Philadelphia Phreedom

I've been to Pennsylvania a few times.  The first was on the early morning of August 16th, 2009, as my roommates and I drove our UHaul through the creepy fog of "Sleepy Hollow" on our way to the Big Apple.  The second time I made it to PA I was seeing it through the window of a MegaBus enroute to DC.  I thought I would hit the Exploration Jackpot this Thanksgiving when my roommate invited me to spend the holiday with her family in Yardley.  Yardley is about 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia, and I had big plans to see the City of Brotherly LO-VE.  But: those plans just didn't work out.  I did get to wander around Yardley that trip, and took an hour-long walk along tangly woods that were wet with melted snow and thought about how whatever I'd imagined Pennsylvania to be like, it wasn't.  But, I'm making a point of traveling to every major East Coast city I can while living in New York, and I was determined to get a real sense of the history of Pennsylvania by traveling to Philly.

That's why, on the last weekend of November, I dropped everything and took a trip to Philadelphia on a whim.  Friends of mine, two German girls, had invited myself and James to visit them.  They'd been flown out for a four-month stint to help run Philadelphia's German-style Christmas Market.  One of the girls, Isabel, is dating my friend Matius (whom you can find pictured in my post about Munich).  She and Ulie, the other girl, are both from southern Germany and had signed up to work the Christmas Market as a paid internship to fulfill their degrees.  Both had visited New York several times during those months to meet up with Allison and I thanks to our connection to Matius from so many years ago in Bozeman.

New Jersey Transit.  

Even though there are several cheaper ways to get to Philly,  James insisted on taking the train, and I'm actually glad we did because we had a somewhat jaw-dropping view of New Jersey from the tracks.

Flaming Semi: New Jersey Highway.

Smoke, rivers, & marshymarshy wildlands.

New Jersey has had its ups and downs, but the downs seem pretty concentrated in the lower part of the state closest to the coast facing Manhattan.  There were countless deserted warehouses and housing complexes along the route, and vandalism stuck out like a pinpoint of crime.  There were smoking factory chimneys and boggy rivers drowning automobiles, and one semitruck flaming from an overpass.  When I consider the worst parts of town I've seen anywhere in Montana, it can't even compare to what New Jersey has by the handfuls.  And, seemingly, they've got neither capitol nor resources to regenerate these lost spaces.

Yard.

As our train looped around Philadelphia's northside, I experienced yet more culture shock.  Houses were constructed with incredibly narrow dimensions and smooshed together in such a way that I imagined them as dominoes in the event of a natural disaster.

Abandoned!

Church.

Philly's Skyline.

Moments later, however, the city's skyline was fully visible in all of its art-deco glory.  We came to a stop at Philadelphia's grand 30th street station and stepped out into the cold wind.  Isabel and Ulie were waiting at the Christmas Market with hot chocolate for us, and we stashed our bags with them before continuing to explore Philly's historical downtown.




We saw the Liberty Bell, which used to ring our country's constitution writers to work, and Independence Hall, and the building in which our first national court existed.  We saw preserved dwellings of working-class and wealthy colonists, the cemetery where Ben Franklin is buried, and Elfreath's Alley: the longest continually lived-in residential zone in America.  That's how LonelyPlanet describes it, at least.  Basically, people have been living in that alley for a long time and they ain't gonta stop.

Philly's Christmas Spirit.

Me & the Liberty Bell.

Here it is!  Liberty!

Independence Hall

Elfreath's Alley with its original cobblestones.

James and the old military museum.

Philadelphia was quiet and empty compared to NYC, but there were dozens of gallery openings happening that Friday night, and young people came out to set up their own works along a stretch near the Delaware River.  James and I stopped at a pub for hot drinks and then followed Ulie and Isabel to an authentic German restaurant after the market closed at 9.  After a long day outside, it was nice to spend time with our Germans.  Isabel saw James and I off in the morning with breakfast at an old jailhouse.  It was a great trip!  James even got his Philly Cheesesteak.

The town center, in French Colonial style.

The pub tried to put a 30' tree
up inside during business hours.
Ha!

LO
VE