It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

I have returned from my trip to Pennsylvania for the Blog Days of Summer meet-up and general travels! Since I've never been to Pennsylvania, I decided to try to cram in as much as I could so on the day before the actual meet up, Nadia and I woke up at 4 in the morning to get on the road for 5. And by woke up, I mean I slept for about an hour in total and then got up again. I guess you can say I napped. It didn't really matter though...because you know when you're so excited for something that it overrides your incredible hate for waking up early? That's what was going on there. So anyway....we hit the road a little after 5 AM, listening to My Chemical Romance to relive a bit of our angsty youth.

It was a pretty easy drive to Philadelphia and we got there in only about three hours. Since we've never been there, we decided to be super touristy and visit Independence Hall first and see where the Declaration of Independence was signed. And of course after that, we visited the Liberty Bell! After that, we walked around a bit to take in the sights.

We went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but not to go in. We went because that's where the Rocky Stairs are and we wanted to run up them. And yes, I sang the Rocky music as I climbed up them and then put my hands up and jumped up and down once I got to the top. I'm sure there are people that hate people like me, but I love being a tourist. Plus there were actually people working out up and down the stairs! The stairs were a really nice place to just hang out and enjoy the amazing weather we had too.

Dress: H&M//Sweater (pictured above): New York & Company//Shoes: H&M//Belt: Forever 21//Sunglasses: Forever 21

What I noticed about Philadelphia is that it's a pretty clean city, but it's hard to find parking (as it is in pretty much any city). Luckily I was able to park near this little trail by a river near the art museum. The signs in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in general are kind of sudden and hard to read a lot of the time. They don't give you much warning when a merging point comes up and then you find yourself having to cut across lanes pretty last minute. Also, every time we tried to find a shopping district, it ended up being just a gift shop and some other random things. We couldn't find a place to eat lunch for some reason because we were following the signs to this shopping and dining district but somehow couldn't find it and ended up walking around in circles until we finally came to this place called Rybread. I got a turkey panini that was a little disappointing since I expected it to be hot, but the turkey was kinda only slightly warm. Oh well. Pittsburgh made up for that, which I'll tell you more about in my coming posts.

I liked Philadelphia a lot because of the history and antiquity of the city. I love that it's so old and full of our country's past. So many important people stepped foot in that city and so many important things happened there. It's really incredible to think about and to be in the same buildings and streets as those revolutionary people is awesome. Plus, I'm an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan and all day I couldn't stop singing "Flip, flip, Flipadelphia!".

[This reminded me of Monopoly]

[He was having a rough day...]

We saw the LOVE statue, which was pretty crowded. It was hard to get a turn at taking pictures in front of it! There were also these two men who were obnoxiously asking everyone over and over again if they wanted their picture taken and then asking them for money to do it. I met a nice German girl there who said she was visiting cities all over the US. She was super nice and I got to put some of what I learned in German class to use. Not that she didn't speak English, but it's always cool to be able to speak another person's language. I can't for the life of me remember what her name was, though, and I'm kicking myself now.

[A somewhat failed jumping shot]

Our last stop before going home was the Free Library of Philadelphia. One of my professors has talked about what an amazing library it is, so I decided to check it out. It is pretty big and nice, and there was a wonderful man in there who complimented my dress saying that if he were a woman he would definitely wear it because he loves his cat. If he were creepy, I'd be a little weirded out but he was very sweet.

Once we were done looking around the library and sitting on the steps outside to rest, we decided it was time to say goodbye to Philly and venture off to our hotel on the opposite side of the state in Pittsburgh so that we can check in and get settled. I really enjoyed Philadelphia and I'd love to go back sometime and explore it a little more in depth. The adventure continues in my next post! :)