A taste of Philadelphia

Hello World! My tour of the big country continues, I'm now in Whitehall, Pennsylvania hanging out with Alicia and Bear.

But today I want to share with you a brief rundown of the four days I spent in Philadelphia with Meg - so here's an epic photo post!

First up we went shopping at South Street, its such a cute and quirky street with lots of fun stores and art is everywhere!

We visited and amazing mosaic wonderland called "Philadelphia Magic Gardens" - a space where a local artist had created a huge mosaic. It's so beautiful!

We went to visit the Liberty Bell - its actually much smaller than you think!

We also visited a beautiful portraiture gallery.

We also visited Benjamin Franklin's house and post office. 

We visited the Love Park & I took a cheesy photo!

 

We went to visited the Rocky Statute and posed appropriately!

 We visited the Rodin Museum and I had my photo taken by the "Gates of Hell" and checked out some of the other amazing sculptures.

 Finally we went to the Eastern State Penn and got to see a recreation of Al Capone's cell and check out some amazing old buildings.

Philadephia "To Do" List

I've been thinking a lot about my upcoming trip this weekend, I think this is due to three main factors:

1) I feel like I REALLY need a holiday now
2) It's cold and I don't want to go outside
3) I really need to do some planning to make the most of my stay

I'm visiting four places when I visit - New York City, Philadelphia, Whitehall (PA), Orlando and San Fransisco.

I kind of already have plans for Orlando nailed as I'll be meeting with my friend Dani and I'll be there for a weekend and we will do Disney related things. I've spoken to Alicia quite a lot about my trip to Whitehall and I think that she and Bear already have all kinds of fun things planning (including a buggy ride in Amish country). So that leaves three BIG cities - NYC, Philadelphia and San Fransisco.

I've already spoken to Meg quite a bit about Philadelphia as I will be staying with her and she's a local so I'm sure she has a lot of good ideas about where to go and what to see. I've also done a bit of research on the internet and here's a few places I'd like to go in Philadelphia:

1) Mutter Museum - If you have been following my blog for a while, you may have realised, I like creepy stuff. The Mutter Museum is a medical museum that seems to be packed to the rafters with creepy medical type things. A quick google search bought up these images:

Image from Visit Philly

Image from Woman's Day

2) Eastern State Penitentiary - In addition to liking generally creepy stuff I also like to visit old shut down prisons. Again I think its partly due to the fact I like social history and partly due to the fact I like things that are a bit bleak and morbid. I've been to old prisons here in New Zealand, Melbourne, Hanoi and Seoul. So I'd like to check out one in the USA as well.

Old Napier Prison, New Zealand

3) Independence Visitor Centre/Park - I'm a history geek and the Independence Centre tells me that its "your gateway to America's most historic square mile" so I'm keen to check it out. 

4) Love Park - I want to go and visit the "Love Park" and take cheesy photos in front of the sign - because I'm a grown-up.

Wikipedia

5) South Street - Meg has told me about South Street before and it sounds amazing - I can't wait to go and do a spot of shopping and take LOTS of photos. The street art looks amazing.

Image from Lonely Planet

6) Philadelphia Magic Gardens - I'm pretty sure that these gardens are located near South Street. It doesn't appear to be a "standard" garden, but a garden full of beautiful mosaics. It looks so incredible.

Image from Philadephia's Magic Gardens

7) Edgar Allan Poe National Historical Site - Back to the more creepy elements of Philadephia, I'm really looking forward to visiting the Edgar Allan Poe National Historical Site which is one of the places that Poe used to rent whilst living in Philadelphia. It looks amazing.

This photo of Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site is courtesy of TripAdvisor 

There are also a few other things I want to do in Philadephia like visiting the Rocky Statue and also do at least one ghost tour, I've found a couple of options for these online. Then of course there will be thrifting (not op shopping because I'm in the USA) with Meg and general fun times!