Philadelphia
Liberty Bell and Independence Hall
February 12, 2009
The city of brotherly love has a reputation as a city full of intolerable people
who don't care about you and most people who visit leave unimpressed and holding
a slight grudge. I, however found the opposite to be true and left loving the city.
The people of Philadelphia seem to have a very high level of distrust, so those
who they do trust they put complete trust in and this is limited to family and people
that "are like a brother to me." Since all of their trust gets used up
on those close to them, it seems every person passing through their city is viewed
with skepticism. If they don't trust their neighbors, of course they're
going to approach me with hesitation.
Most conversations seem short and I often felt like the person on the other end
of every encounter was trying to intentionally remain brief and to the point so
our conversation would end without incident. They don't seem to have a high
tolerance for incompetence or indecisiveness, nor do they want to give you the impression
that they have either of those traits themselves. Yet their answers seem sincere
and they tend to listen, perhaps only so their response is accurate and the conversation
can end.
Other conversations, however ramble on forever, as if they are looking for a sounding
board to unleash on. I often times got the impression that Philly is home and many
of these people have never left the city, making them either more skeptical or more
inquisitive, wanting to learn everything about me and where I'm from.
Of course most people's attraction to the city is for the Liberty Bell, Independence
Hall, and cheese steaks... or at least that was one of my motivations for making
the trek downtown.
The Liberty Bell and that area are quiet this time of year, but there were still
plenty of tour groups and a shockingly large percentage of foreigners. I felt the
park employees were bored this time of year and many seemed eager to teach me about
anything I was willing to listen to. I ran into one employee at the location of
Benjamin Franklin's house and he said that he hadn't seen anyone for over
an hour. I was the only person in Congress Hall other than two rangers and each,
one upstairs, one down were happy to share with me the history; it was as if I had
a personal tour guide.
The other thing I needed to do while in Philly was eat a cheese steak at Pat's
King of Steaks, commonly accepted as the originator of the cheese steak. They had
a sign explaining how to order a cheese steak like the locals do so threw my hat
in the ring and ordered "one wit whiz." They eat their cheese steaks here
with cheese whiz, however it's almost a combination of bottled cheese whiz and
nacho cheese sauce and was better than I had anticipated despite the mess it makes.
Of course you can get other kinds of cheeses and the "wit" is if you want
fried onions with it or not. The sandwich didn't disappoint and neither did
the fries, which I also had swimming in cheese.
After seeing the Liberty Bell and getting my first authentic cheese steak I felt
my trip was satisfactory, of course I have another two days in the city for my meeting,
so it looks like I have plenty of cheese steaks ahead of me.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Washington Square