Day 3 - Philly (Part 1)

Part 1 (Philadelphia)

It was a bright sunny morning, waking up on Friday.  The sun here is very deceiving, waking up nice and warm, not realising most houses in this area of the US have centralised heating systems.  I was telling my cousin and his wife, "yeah we didn't need an extra blanket, wasn't cold at all".  Duh Paul, they have centralised heating, it was about 3 degrees celcius that morning.  I also used to think the winter in Brisbane brought some cold wind.  Till we arrived in Philadelphia that morning for a tour with my cousin, and it felt like beign smacked in the face with sheets of ice.

Was a beautiful day however, just very cold, for a couple from Brisbane.  The agenda for the day was to be typical tourists and join a duck tour group.  An informative tour of the Philadelphia CBD, covering all things American history and movie facts for films shot in this city.  All this inside an amphibious vehicle, captained by a bemusing comedian who strategically plants jokes to coincide with his ipod playlist of tacky music - themed to his jokes.  It was also an 'interactive' tour, as he called the lame jokes, the tourists had to quack like ducks, if you wanted to earn your prize at the end of a tour (a duck quacking plastic contraption).  But a funny chap he was, despite the lame jokes.

After the amusing tour, we headed to the Reading Terminal Market.  A place we saw Adam from "Man vs. Food" eat a pulled pork sandwhich that looked irresistable.  A few blocks away, we walked and entered the market, full of food stalls and a huge crowd of people.  My cousin found the name of the food stall that served the sandwiches, we found it, along with a long crowd of waiting customers.  While my cousin and I waited, KN went on the hunt for Philly's infamous "cheese steaks".  Which is basically a steak roll, packed with a huge amount of chopped up thin steak and drizzled with american wizz cheese.

Finally got served, ordered the sandwich with greens and provolone cheese (totes awesome), sat down and ate away.

Pulled pork sandwich ---------------->
(Delicioso)

<------------- Cheese Steak
                                (delicioso)










After filling our bellies with Philly's fine food, we headed our way out, but quickly stopped by an amusing meat and veg stall.  Operated by the Amish!  They were dressed in their traditional outfits, beards and all (both men and women...just kidding).  Took a quick pick of their 'stuffed pork chops'.  Personally, I don't think they stuffed it enough.

Said Amish peoples

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's hardly any stuffing in these pork chops!

 We then exited the market, headed back into my cousins car, and did a quick lap around Philly to take obligatory photo's with the famous "Love" sign and with the statue of Rocky and those stairs he runs up in the movies (I swear in the movie there were a lot more stairs).

After all that, we had to rush back to my cousins house, get a few things organised so we could head over to Atlantic City to meet up with my Aunt.  Was a jam packed day, and a BIG THANK YOU to my cousin, his wife and family for accommodating us.  An awesome time in Philly!!  Next up, Part II (Atlantic City).