Philadelphia
25.02.2007
We had about a 12 hour layover in Philly. We took the train downtown but were too late to see the Liberty Bell. However I saw it before at age 12 ish, not really exciting anyway. We ate the "real" Philly cheesesteak, saw a parade (of which there are many in Philly apparently) and I bought a hat on South St. that I still wear to this day.
Once, I had an overnight layover at this place on my way to the Caribbean. Rather than getting a good night's sleep at an airport hotel (who wants that?), we hightailed it to Market East Station on the SEPTA and partied it up all night long. We missed opening hours for the Liberty Bell, so we wandered around for a while listening to street preachers and watching people do breakdancing on the street. We made our way to the Delaware River, where there is a nice pedestrian friendly atmosphere, with a few skateboarders and lots of teenagers hanging around. We ambled on down to South St., where we found authentic cheese steak sandwiches. This is the place where all types of people roam the streets on a rowdy weekend. Students, hipsters and any other kind of night owl, you'll find them all here. Retail stores are open pretty late, which includes an astounding array of sex stores. If you're lucky, more often than not, there are also fantastic parades late at night around Broad St. We managed to catch a Mardi Gras parade and wandered around all night with happy revelers. Jazz bands dressed up in shimmery costumes marched down the street. Every time they stopped, they'd quickly assemble an ad hoc stage which they pushed around on wheels, then put on five minute shows. We caught the first SEPTA train back to the airport and slept on the plane the whole way to St. Martin. You could probably do this in about four hours, but for us, it was more like 12. What makes this experience so great? Where else can you find spontaneous night parades besides Disney World? Where else can you shop for "bedroom novelties" with a cheese steak sandwich in your hand? Philadelphia is a great city, and you could never have a "boring" layover at this airport.
