Trip to Philadelphia - a Photo Essay

My alarm went off at 6.00 or thereabouts. By 7.00 I struggled, bleary-eyed and cranky, into Penn Station



with a few things plonked into my backpack and a three-day pass hastily shoved into my pocket.

This was one of the first things I saw:



I'd like to see them publish that in Australia!

About an hour-and-a-half later, I was plonked out of the train and on to the streets of Philadelphia. Wandering down a few streets, I found a little terrace of shops, and the full horror of exploitative Capitalism hit me!



I reeled as if I had been struck! If only people could learn to distribute their goods in a more equitable manner, and not give in to... Oh, wait. Things were pretty quiet that day, actually. And I did give in to my consumeristic urges and buy a nice Ogden Nash book of poetry from that bookstore. Damn you, Capitalism!

I noticed there were light-rail lines laid out across the street, but not much light-rail going by. They didn't actually start up until noon or thereabouts:



You can't believe how excited I was when I saw this tram. I was all, like, 'Gee. It's a tram.'

The excitement lasted all of half-a-second.

For a while I contemplated taking a wander in the graveyard to take my mind off my gathering ennui and think about something light and frivolous - ie, death:



Good thing I didn't. I don't think the zombies come out of the ground in these places until after dark, and I had a train to catch.

I was so relieved when I got back in New York. What with their exciting Macy's store (with the missing 'S')



and the Yiddish equivalent of Wendy's icecream



Well gosh, it's the place to be.

For three more days, at least.

Pennsylvania is nice, though. It would be interesting to catch the town on a livelier day. You know, when the zombies burst out of their graves, or something.