Suburban Sweetheart Does Philadelphia

On Saturday I texted a friend who was in Philadelphia for the holidays, "I'm bored. Come back!" She promptly responded, "Come here! Take the bus tomorrow."

So I did.

In an uncharacteristic show of spontaneity, I paid $15.75 for a one-way ticket on Chinatown-Bus.com, a sketchy little operation run out of a small, crowded office on Eye Street. The employees are brusque & unfriendly, as can be expected for $15.75. I fell asleep on the coldest, sketchiest bus ever while trying to avoid talking to the Indian dude sitting next to me who asked me to explain the concept of "prom queen" to him. True story. (And for the record, he was very, very nice & unsketchy & even gave me a small bag of Lays potato chips to satiate my hunger - but I was ridiculously tired & just wanted to sleep.)

So your imagination doesn't have to work overtime, here's a shot of the pristine, clean, safe busstop:


It took just under three hours to arrive at the Philly Chinatown, though, where my friend picked me up & we headed to Jones, a modern diner-type place, where I gorged myself on grilled cheese, tomato soup & amazing potato pancakes (yes, again). And then we took an uber-speedy walking tour of Philly, where I saw such glories as this epic fire hydrant placement fail:



Oh yeah, & the Liberty Bell, behind glass late at night:



On Sunday, Rachel introduced me to Fill A Bagel (get it? Phila bagel?) & to chicken cheesesteaks, & then we drove back to D.C. with her little brother in tow, listening to Best of 2008 countdowns all the while. Stuck in traffic somewhere mid-Delaware, we were pretty jazzed to pass this woman, who clearly didn't feel as though she needed two feet or any semblance of proper posture to get the driving job done: