Philly

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin West Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground was where I spent most of my days......

Yes, we are in Philadelphia. NYC is far behind us and everything here is at eye-level, so no more craning of necks to see how far up the buildings go! Sunday was a fairly quiet affair, getting everything together and leaving the Vanderbilt YMCA and catching a rather nice Greyhound coach down to Philly. I thought that I had got the "crazy" sitting next to me, but it turned out she was rather nice. A Colombian woman who gave me a few pointers on what to do (Liberty Bell, etc) and what not to do (West Philly).

Our digs is right in the centre so no more busses or metros for us, everything is very much walkable, which is nice! First night in and we needed a quiet one, so after catching the football and finally managing to fix my what-looked-like-a-now-very-expensive-paperweight (phone) we headed out for a stroll to see what was what. Lulu’s seemed like the best place to eat as they did cheap beers too.

Our digs above the bar

Hanging around the bar trying to decide on a beer from the usual choices of mainstream beverages – Coors, Bud, Miller, etc – the baseball-capped chap at the bar sparks up a conversation and advises us to try a Yeunglings, a tasty tipple from a micro-brewery somewhere in the North East. And a fine choice it was too! As we supped the ice-cool beer and tucked into (yet more) pizza, the conversation blossomed between Gray brothers and Chaz, as was his name. A chef-cum-musician apparently, but he kept us entertained with stories of US politics, music, the local area, and his desire to travel Europe/the world. And he even paid for a round of our beers too, what a guy! So he is now our latest friend on Facebook.

A quick stroll to the pier and down the water-front, including a 180^o turn around at the end before it looked like we might need the ol’ mulit-tool, saw us plodding back towards the main streets that we already knew and loved. One last beer in the bar below our hotel seemed like a fine idea, but no micro-brewery choices for us here – it was Tecate for $3 (a 355ml can of Mexican beer)....which did the job. It will never win any awards, but as we sipped it back in the bar with only the barman and red t-shirt guy for company it felt nice to have had such a chilled out day. After red t-shirt guy had left (with one last swig of tequila from behind the bar) and James had scampered off to find the “restrooms” I thought I’d chance my arm and chat to the barman, as we had had such good luck with Chaz at Lulu’s. "Is that American Ninja Warrior you’re watching?” I questioned, and sure enough that was all it needed. About an hour later we had covered lots more Anglo-American topics, and even picked up a tip on how to get a cab in Las Vegas (apparently they will not pick you up of the street, you have to order from a hotel. Which is good because I can imagine me and James out on The Strip getting thoroughly irate if no cabs were stopping to pick us up! And James would probably think it’s a big conspiracy or that people just don’t like the look of him after being avoided several times in the New York subway...). OK, he didn't get us a round of drinks, but still, it showed with no shadow of a doubt that people in New York aren't that friendly, but once you get out of the big city everyone welcomes you with open arms.