A weekend in Philadelphia

Weekend à Philly We spent a weekend in Philadelphia for the sake of attending a NHL game on saturday night. We left campus on Friday at noon and came back on Sunday night. The trip was rather original. We had all sorts of traffic jams in the Washington DC area because it was rush hour (5pm) and some golf tournament was going on in some famous golf resort near the capital. In any case Hanita had the perfect Tee-shirtto escape from Virginia Tech! We took two buses to get to Philly: The home ride bus, from Blacksburg to Northern Virginia (Vienna metro station) and the Greyhound bus from Union Station to Philly. But with all the delays, we missed the second bus. The trouble was we already booked a room for the night and the hostel had a curfew (1am). So upon arrival, despite all the racket we did outside the closed hostels, we were turned down and we had to spent the night on the streets. Well, we tried to catch some sleep in the Greyhound station...and it was the longest night I'd ever had as I stayed awake, because those chairs are NOT very comfortable and I was too paranoiac to sleep. So here is Steph ready for the trip. Ok, those glasses look more like goggles but they are nice blue ones. And a nice sweatshirt froom GAP or Fields to top it all. As you noted, I'm a poor fashion analyst. There is no doubt that he looked like a tourist, even if he didn't have a camera or one of those ranger hats. So about our night in the Greyhound station....we tried every positions on those hard chairs, but there was no way one could sleep on those! All I managed to do was get an armsrest in the rib..., and as of 7am on Saturday, we were out of there! Philladelphia's Market St is full of stores and la Main Street of Philadelphia with his stores and high rise buildings. We ran to the hostel to drop off our bags and take a shower to wash off the night. There were 2 clubs opposite the hostel, and their only dress code looked like you had to wear leather! But before we got to that hotel which opened only at 8am, we caught the sunrise at the end of Market street, with a beautiful of Philly's twin towers... With a bit of fog, it was rather beautiful... There we were all six of us, exhausted, smiling at a new day. And we were not teleported into the square by some alien nation.	We wanted to visit the city before going to the game. The weather was really nice and sunny, which was perfect because none of us had an umbrella or a raincoat. Hardly 8am and we were on ths streets, wishing for a shower and takinf pictures in the beautiful sunrise lights. We spent half an hour with showers and setting up for the night. The hostel was rather nice. And as the city slowly awoke, we managed to get our directions right and avoided some morning rush hours. We looked for the Tourist Office in order to get hold of a map that included the stadium. The office wasn't far from the hotel. From there, we strolled along Market St and went through the Town Hall to end up facing a big fountain and the Science Museum. We paused around the fountain for a while and watched the art students get their rendition of the fountain. It was fascinating to see their drawings. Then we walked up this big avenue even if our feet were hurting badly. It took us 20min already to get to that fountain. Along the avenue, flags of different countries were flapping in the wind. I sought the Malagasy flag but could not find it. There were France, Switzerland and Sweden... but not all the countries in fact. Thus we walked, walked, walked, and walked some more.....And at the end, the museum, with all those stairs... pffff..pffff...This was the stairs used for the training of Rambo you know! We sure weren't a match. It was already 11am, it was nice outside, and the museum had a Van Gogh special exhibition. Hanita managed to blend in with the other visitors and get a tour. The rest of us just roamed in the building and visited the rest. And here are three of our heroic group, finally emerging from the fog and the long stair case..ta dah! Give it up for Hanita, Guillaume and Kurt... In the museum, I visited the Oriental section. I came across amazing Japanese artifacts and scrolls. They also had a Japanese traditional house, alleys, and the beautiful garden that surrounds the house.It was a better reconstitution than the Epcot/Disney...:) one in Orlando. They also had reconstitutions of church doorways, columns, of columns and doors of old churches. The musuem also had a painting section. I managed to get into the Impressionists room. And afterwards, I just got out to take the sun in on those stairs, waiting for the other to get hungry. One more thing about the musuem though: Everyone must carry backpacks and such on one shoulder only. This precaution was to be taken so that noon would not forget that they carry something that could knock off art pieces off their display, and thus would not turn abruptly and break something. After everyone got rested, we had to walk back to MArket St and get something to eat. We couldn't decide where to eat so we split up. With Steph, we just roamed around windo shopping. I wasn't too eager to go to the other museums because the weather was really beautiful...(To Be Continued)
©H. Ramaroson

Weekend à Philly

We spent a weekend in Philadelphia for the sake of attending a NHL game on saturday night. We left campus on Friday at noon and came back on Sunday night. The trip was rather original. We had all sorts of traffic jams in the Washington DC area because it was rush hour (5pm) and some golf tournament was going on in some famous golf resort near the capital. In any case Hanita had the perfect Tee-shirtto escape from Virginia Tech!

Hanita: Escape from Blacksburg T- shirt

We took two buses to get to Philly: The home ride bus, from Blacksburg to Northern Virginia (Vienna metro station) and the Greyhound bus from Union Station to Philly. But with all the delays, we missed the second bus. The trouble was we already booked a room for the night and the hostel had a curfew (1am). So upon arrival, despite all the racket we did outside the closed hostels, we were turned down and we had to spent the night on the streets. Well, we tried to catch some sleep in the Greyhound station...and it was the longest night I'd ever had as I stayed awake, because those chairs are NOT very comfortable and I was too paranoiac to sleep.

Steph modelling his sunglasses

So here is Steph ready for the trip. Ok, those glasses look more like goggles but they are nice blue ones. And a nice sweatshirt froom GAP or Fields to top it all. As you noted, I'm a poor fashion analyst. There is no doubt that he looked like a tourist, even if he didn't have a camera or one of those ranger hats.

So about our night in the Greyhound station....we tried every positions on those hard chairs, but there was no way one could sleep on those! All I managed to do was get an armsrest in the rib..., and as of 7am on Saturday, we were out of there! Philladelphia's Market St is full of stores and la Main Street of Philadelphia with his stores and high rise buildings. We ran to the hostel to drop off our bags and take a shower to wash off the night. There were 2 clubs opposite the hostel, and their only dress code looked like you had to wear leather!
But before we got to that hotel which opened only at 8am, we caught the sunrise at the end of Market street, with a beautiful of Philly's twin towers...

Steph, Angie, Johan, Hanita, Guillaume & Kurt

With a bit of fog, it was rather beautiful... There we were all six of us, exhausted, smiling at a new day. And we were not teleported into the square by some alien nation.

We wanted to visit the city before going to the game. The weather was really nice and sunny, which was perfect because none of us had an umbrella or a raincoat. Hardly 8am and we were on ths streets, wishing for a shower and takinf pictures in the beautiful sunrise lights.

La mache sur Market Street, Philadelphia

We spent half an hour with showers and setting up for the night. The hostel was rather nice. And as the city slowly awoke, we managed to get our directions right and avoided some morning rush hours. We looked for the Tourist Office in order to get hold of a map that included the stadium. The office wasn't far from the hotel. From there, we strolled along Market St and went through the Town Hall to end up facing a big fountain and the Science Museum.

We paused around the fountain for a while and watched the art students get their rendition of the fountain. It was fascinating to see their drawings. Then we walked up this big avenue even if our feet were hurting badly. It took us 20min already to get to that fountain. Along the avenue, flags of different countries were flapping in the wind. I sought the Malagasy flag but could not find it. There were France, Switzerland and Sweden... but not all the countries in fact.

Thus we walked, walked, walked, and walked some more.....And at the end, the museum, with all those stairs... pffff..pffff...This was the stairs used for the training of Rambo you know! We sure weren't a match. It was already 11am, it was nice outside, and the museum had a Van Gogh special exhibition. Hanita managed to blend in with the other visitors and get a tour. The rest of us just roamed in the building and visited the rest.

Hanita, Guillaume et Kurt, daltons of this age

And here are three of our heroic group, finally emerging from the fog and the long stair case..ta dah! Give it up for Hanita, Guillaume and Kurt...

In the museum, I visited the Oriental section. I came across amazing Japanese artifacts and scrolls. They also had a Japanese traditional house, alleys, and the beautiful garden that surrounds the house.It was a better reconstitution than the Epcot/Disney...:) one in Orlando. They also had reconstitutions of church doorways, columns, of columns and doors of old churches. The musuem also had a painting section. I managed to get into the Impressionists room. And afterwards, I just got out to take the sun in on those stairs, waiting for the other to get hungry.

One more thing about the musuem though: Everyone must carry backpacks and such on one shoulder only. This precaution was to be taken so that noon would not forget that they carry something that could knock off art pieces off their display, and thus would not turn abruptly and break something.

After everyone got rested, we had to walk back to MArket St and get something to eat. We couldn't decide where to eat so we split up. With Steph, we just roamed around windo shopping. I wasn't too eager to go to the other museums because the weather was really beautiful...(To Be Continued)