Philly in Twelve Hours

Last Saturday, my friends and I took a 12-hour trip to Philadelphia, why? Just because... Yes, that sounds about right. Just because.

As soon as we drove away from New York City and entered the suburbia - that is New Jersey, we became very giddy.

"Look at all the empty spaces!" 

"Look at all the cheap gas and cigarettes!" 

"We can get fat now!"

At one point, I saw IKEA and got too excited I almost spilled my coffee in the rental car (no Andrew, it didn't spill. Thank god)

And so our 12-hour adventure began. First stop, Reading Terminal Market because of food. Cheap. Delicious. Food. Everything in this market is incredibly cheap. A plate of raw clams for $4! A huge bowl of mussels for $8!! I was in pescetarian heaven. Andy, who lives in Philly, told us that the market is actually expensive. Are you serious?! I mean, how much cheaper can it be! That's it. I'm moving to this city.

View from the famous Rocky stairs. Apparently it's a thing for locals to exercise here, 'Rocky' style.

The Irish Memorial.

After lunch, we walked a lot. My feet were screaming in pain. It was incredibly silly of me to wear heels for a roadtrip - in my defense, I thought we were going to drive around the city! We were all grumpy and exhausted but then we found this breathtaking view.

What I found very interesting about Philly is the street arts! They are everywhere, literally at every corner of the street. My phone was out of battery as usual (damn it, iPhone!) so I wasn't able to take any pictures. But hey, I found this blog - feast your eye, you're welcome. 

This beautiful gate led to the Magic Garden which was apparently closed for a wedding party! We thought of crashing the wedding, but we were too sober to do it.

We concluded our journey by visiting an asian karaoke bar. Yes, you heard right. We came all the way to Philly and ended up in an asian karaoke bar, of all places. I had to emphasize on the 'asian' part because there's a huge difference between a normal karaoke bar and an asian karaoke bar. For some, it was their first time and I guess they found a new hobby now (I'm looking at you, Nelson).

I think this is an appropriate quote to end this post. The photo above also captured my most favorite moment in Philly. If you look closely, there's a pair of shoes hanging on the electrical line. I absolutely love finding small random things that people hardly notice. When I saw this, I yelled out "Shoes!!!" so loud while pointing to the sky. My friends thought I went nuts - I was extremely sleep deprived and exhausted at that time of the day.

The shoes on electrical line reminds me of a movie that I watched about a year ago, Big Fish. I highly recommend everyone to watch this movie. Tim Burton directed it. Ewan McGregor played the leading role. Enough said.

PS: Thank you Alice, Andrew and Nelson for being super awesome! We need a group picture!

Cheers,

JH