PHILADELPHIA

STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA

Not sure what Springsteen’s beef was with Philly but we found this sleepy metropolis fantastic! Philadelphia was in fact the nations capital before DC and was where the Declaration of Independence was signed along with being home to Liberty bell. But these aren’t the only staples of Philly, tis also home to the famous Philly Cheesesteaks, The Mafia and Rocky Balboa! We stayed with Alma in Federal Street which was just 2 streets away from the Rocky set which still to this day has the same restaurants, street stalls and of course meat markets that were in the film. Alma had so much knowledge on Philadelphia – and was also basically a walking Lonely Planet on nearly every continent except Australia but we soon got a talkin’ about the vast scenery down under and shes now planning to come over and stay with us in the next year or so! It was an easy pitch. We also caught up with a friend of a friend, Rob and Tara which was only going to be a couple of cold ones at a local pub around the corner but ended up being another big one out in the middle of the ‘burbs and a ton of fun to boot. We were introduce to Gigi, Tara’s grandmother… And she’s like the Mother of Sports of any kind. A total live wire and sweetie. In case we hadn’t harassed her enough on the way to another hotel, we thought it would be a great idea to say another g’day on the way home. Naturally, Gigi was still up at 1am watching the baseball and welcomed us in once again. What a legendary doll this one is! The next day, we really had decided to try and redeem ourselves with our very abused bodies and went on the hunt for some good healthy food which is not the easiest of tasks in the US! After hours of skipping past Philly Cheesesteaks haunts, burger diners and hotdog stands, we stumbled across… Heaven. Commonly known as Whole Foods. Its hard to describe but we ran around this blissful supermarket like two kids in a candy store. There may have even been the occasional high-five. You can make your own salads, meals, antipasto platter and eat it there! No words can describe it but I’ll be having words with Mr Woolworth upon our return! Hopefully the pics can give you a better indication… You might think it’s lame that a supermarket made the blog-cut but it’s absolutely worthy of a shout out. We heart you Whole Foods.

WIN:
Our noight oit in Mafia ridden Sout Phileee. You could taste the Italy in the air.

FAIL:
My vain attempt to run up Rocky Balboa’s famous stairs. Let’s just say it was a fail and leave it at that.