Cheesesteaks anyone? Or perhaps a slice of pasta pizza? A bucket of deep fried chicken wings? Maybe just a coffee, I'll have a caramel mocha grande latte with whipped cream and sprinkles...can I get that with nonfat milk please? Ha! ...so I'm clearly not in California anymore.
Food fare aside, Philly is a very different city to San Fran. It's...grittier. I don't mean it's dirty, it just doesn't sparkle.
It's got a lot of history! I'll give it that. A lot has happened here! It's the place where so much began for America. A walking tour guide told me all about Ben Franklin and his achievements - an impressive resume he must have had!
I visited the Philly Museum of Art. It has an interesting collection, but it gave me the creeps to walk inside an Indian temple that is inside a building in Philadelphia. It had been donated by someone...which begs the question, how does one come into the possession of a temple of worship in order to then donate it to a foreign museum?!?
Probably my favourite thing about Philly is the public art. The sculptures and the massive wall murals were great. The giant peg was a highlight, but the LOVE sculpture won my heart. I also attended a play at a theatre on the arts avenue called 'My Wonderful Day,' and what a wonderful play that was!
I was just getting into the groove of this city when it dawned on me, I was actually there to attend a conference...what a rude shock! I had to shift gear and get my head out of 'do whatever you please' mode, and back into 'networking - learning - working - presentation' mode. It was a bit of a clunky gear change, a few bunny hops to start, but I got there and managed to have a good time.
I learnt a few things and made some new contacts who are from Australia (takes traveling to the other side of the world to meet people from your own country!) and spent a lot of time with a girl from New Jersey - the only one attending the conference who was anywhere near the same age bracket as me.
I ended my visit to Philly with a Rocky run up the art museum steps! With theme tune playing in my head, I did the run up the steps five times just to make sure the memory was cemented in my mind - good fun!
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