Hey readers! It’s me again and thankfully this is the last post for the Spring Break series (finally!)… which should have been done way earlier. 😉 Anyway, since I’ve just moved here a couple of days ago, I’ll probably do another post on Philly when I’m done exploring other parts (famous/infamous). Here it goes! 🙂
DAY 1
The first place that I went to was the Independence Mall which houses the Liberty Bell and right opposite the Mall is the Independence Hall. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution had taken place in the hall itself. Basically, Philadelphia is a historic city. 🙂
The view of Independence Hall from the Mall. 😉
The pictures above depict the President’s House Memorial which just opened a couple of years ago (2010 to be exact!). This memorial was built to commemorate the lives of African American slaves during the times of President George Washington especially the nine slaves who had served the first President. Along the memorial, you could view stories and paintings depicting how the slaves had lived their lives.
The picture above shows a real-life location of where the slaves had slept which is the basement of the President’s House. With no proper beds, these slaves had been sleeping on cold, hard brick-layered floors.
So, I then went on to line up for the security check booth in order to see the Liberty Bell.
Ta-dah! The Liberty Bell aka the Cracked Bell. 🙂
Engraved on the bell is “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof”. This quote rallies for abolitionists who wished to end slavery. It was also taken from the Book of Leviticus 25:10. The reason why it’s cracked is because of the 90 years of the wear and repair which is how it got its name ;).
Moving on, while walking around, I came across Benjamin Franklin’s grave (aka one of the Founding Fathers). Yeap, you have to pay in order to get in…. which is why I was trying to get a good picture of the grave through the metal railings haha.
Nearby, was Betsy Ross’ house. Betsy Ross was a seamstress and a flag maker who had sewed the First American flag.
Then, I decided to head on to the Reading Terminal Market in downtown Philly. The market opens everyday and there are many things to eat in here. Whatever you name it, it’s there! 🙂 From American to Chinese to German food. Plus, they’re cheap too 😉 Scroll down to see more pictures!
Anyway, after taking a few rounds around the whole place, I’ve head on to the Philadelphia city hall which stood right in the heart of Philadelphia itself.
Notice that on top of the highest point of the building, there’s a statue standing on that. That is William Penn otherwise known as the founder of Philadelphia. He, like all British explorers had came upon Philadelphia and had felt that this city will prosper if more resources had been done to improve this whole city. Turns out, Philadelphia became the largest city in the United States during the 1700s.
If you walk around the city hall, you’ll get to see the view of the many tall buildings and skyscrapers surrounding you. So, it is fascinating to see that an old historical building is placed in the middle of all the modernized buildings. 🙂
Yeap, the LOVE sign is located right beside the city hall. Why the word LOVE? 😉 Well, there is a meaning behind the name Philadelphia given by William Penn. Philadelphia in Greek means “Brotherly Love”. 🙂 William Penn had a goal that this place should be a haven for anyone to worship freely regardless of religious differences since he himself had suffered religious persecution as a Quaker.
Later on, after dinner, a friend of mine brought me to a dessert shop known as A La Mousse, located in Chinatown which serves awesome green tea desserts. So, we ordered the Sizzling Ice Cream (the one on the right) which is a matcha ice-cream placed on top of a matcha brownie soaked in matcha sauce (yum! everything matcha!). Another is the Green Tea-r-amisu (on the left) which has Tiramisu made out of green tea and a scoop of vanilla-chocolate-caramel pretzel ice-cream seated on a sand of graham crumbles.
So… that’s the end of Day 1 in Philly.
DAY 2
Okay. The thing I liked a lot about Philly are the parks. I don’t know why but it feels so serene to be in one and when I was there, I felt I could do a lot of things like you see in the movies. Like reading a book or having a picnic. Maybe one day, if I’m the city, I would definitely spend some time there 🙂
Get what I mean? Alright, but you noticed the trees were not growing any leaves. 😦 Because it was in the spring season and I guess it will take some time for them to grow before you can just enjoy the nature around. 😉
Anyway, enough talking about parks, let’s move on shall we? To start the day, I went to Elfreth’s Alley which is the oldest neighborhood in Philly. The houses looked so pretty to be honest (if you’re fascinated by historical architecture) and it’s really nice to walk on a cobble-stoned pavement and it feels nostalgic at the same time :).
Moving on, I went near Penn’s Landing to have a view of the Benjamin Franklin bridge.
Finally, the last place to visit was Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens. This mosaic artwork was created by Isaiah Zagar (yes, he’s still alive) and the mosaic pieces consist of everything from household items to bike wheels to glass bottles. It started out when Isaiah had decided to make use of the empty lot beside where he was staying with his wife for his artwork. Halfway through his work, the landlord wanted to sell off the empty lot due to competing with other properties who had increased their prices on the market :(. On the positive side, the artwork had attracted many Philadelphians. As a result, they had come up with a lot of money to win the court case so that Isaiah could continue on his masterpiece. Therefore, the Magic Gardens was born. 🙂
Well, this sums up my spring break in the East Coast. So, ciao readers! 🙂
feluppie 
One thought on “Philadelphia, PA”