Saturday, April 04, 2009

Philadelphia part I - Of UPenn, cheesesteak and the Liberty Bell

I'm back from my trip to the East Coast!

It was originally supposed to be a week long trip to New York City, but my group and I decided to make a pit stop in Philadelphia as well. KL and I travelled to the east coast this time with another couple, but it was great fun as they are fellow Singaporeans as well as kindred foodies!

The four of us probably did the craziest time ever by rushing to Philly on our very first day on the east coast. Our plane touched down at JFK at approximately 6am and we had to immediately lug our luggage to get to NYC's Chinatown to catch a bus to Philly. The east coast is 3 hours ahead of the west coast, so we were jetlagged and cold, not to mention starving when we arrived in Philly.

We took it easy on the first day and made it to UPenn to soak in the college town atmosphere. I contemplated buying a Wharton sweatshirt to wear it to one of my future UCI Merage mixers, but gave up as I decided that it would be too pesky ;)

Here's me catching my breath outside the UPenn bookstore.

P1000851_1

Wearing Vanessa Bruno sweaterdress+scarf, Helmut Lang cashmere sweater, Rick Owens leather jacket, Ksubi black jeans, Ann Demeulemeester boots, Miu Miu black coffer and a "I heart NY" sticker ;)

A note about the weather then - I had underestimated how cold the east coast would be, so I really piled on the layering all the time! Expect to see the Rick Owens jacket a lot as well as my blue military jacket in all my pictures for this trip. (And yes, I finally took the plunge and got myself an RO, but I would save that story for another post, as well as how the Yaya Aflalo vapor jacket compares to it.)

On the second day, we decided that we must try out the Philly's cheesesteak before we went to visit the Liberty Bell and the Independence Hall. So we checked out Pat's and Geno's, both proclaimed to be Philly's best when it comes to cheesesteak. Unfortunately, both KL and I only had the stomach for one, so the 4 of us ate at Geno's...no special reason for choosing it over Pat's. We ate there because we reached there first ;)

A picture of Pat's (left):
pats


KL and I posing with Geno's cheesesteak:

genos


A close-up of the cheesesteak:

genos_cheesesteak


The verdict? I'm sorry Philadelphians, but personally I find that Geno's cheesesteak is not all that it's cut out to be. Maybe I should have ordered it wet or asked for more onions, but I wanted to taste the beef and it wasn't really all that well-seasoned to me. Still, it was a great experience and the cheese fries were not too bad.
That doesn't mean though that I think Pat's is better. I have no opinion on Pat's as I have not eaten there.

After the meal, we headed back to Independence Hall for the tour. Here's a picture of a very special room that I'm compelled to show:

independence


This is the exact room that the US' Declaration of Indepedence was signed in. According to our guide, the moldings in the room itself have been made over several times, but the chairs and the light fixtures are original. So yup, that chair on the dais is probably the very one that George Washington sat in.

It started to drizzle heavily when we reached the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so it was a good thing that we would be spending most of our times indoors.

KL and me being corny and doing the Rocky run on the steps leading to the museum:

P_museum


That's all for my first post on Philadelphia! Check back next for a detailed post on my favourite exhibition in the museum:

"Hello! Fashion: Kansai Yamamoto"

I promise fashion porn pictures ;)

15 comments:

Unknown said...

thank you so much for dropping by my blog! i'm just beginning to look through your previous looks and i love it! definitely something i'd wear for myself--i also love the "paired-up" boyish look-- blazers, pants, boots, name it! pretty much like my own style.:)

and i am so jealous of your Ann D's and Chloe's! if only it would be cheap enough to foot here in my own country, i'd buy them in a heartbeat.:(

p.s. let me know if you want to exchange links?


much love

eden
http://chicinthetropics.blogspot.com

Dominica said...

Great post !
I can see you were relaxing and enjoying that coffee on the terracce....
I noticed your bag too...:-)
VERY nice !
Well, I'm glad you did not like those cheesesteaks...they looks dry indeed when I just look at the picture ..MORE onions PLEASE !!

...
The room you've featured is absolutely lovely ...
it looks so peaceful and the chandelier caught my eye in an instant...
Thanks for sharing this with us !

Girl Interrupted said...

Hiya, thought I'd return the compliment and drop by to check out your blog ... it's very cool!

Love the pics! Hope you post more as I've always wanted to visit the US and this way I can live vicariously through your blog :P It looks like you had a great time

Oh, and I haven't had any breakfast yet so that cheesesteak looked pretty damned good to me! But definitely more onions please.

This chick's got style said...

That leather jacket is still the prettiest one I have ever layed eyes on. The trip sounds like a lot of fun! And I really like your blog :)

check out my style too at
http://thischicksgotstyle.blogspot.com

Rand said...

wooooooooooooow lovely pics
look like u are having fun:)
x

Egle Z. said...

yess. I just love posts like these. Including stuff about food and museums! I really want to visit the US one day :) thanks for the birthday wishes! Looking forward to your next post
xx

Elizabeth said...

those photos are great, looks like tons of fun!

PrincessImp. said...

Thanks everyone for stopping by, so I guess we can all agree that those cheese-steaks need more onions!!!!

hanna said...

Cute bag!!! and your jacket looks great too:D

L in progress said...

this just brought back so many great and fun memories of me and family attending bros graduation at wharton!
must say the campus was more fun than the actual town .....

THE DIVINITUS said...

Love the outfit, true city girl.

Brook and Lyn said...

I've never had Geno's but ever since I saw a special on the food network I've been obsessed...they were bad? Dream crusher! I'm kidding...now I'm obsessed with it again. One thing you really can't get in NY.

Also I might have already asked you but can you open your comment box to other bloggers not affiliated with the listed domain? My google account is old. Thanks!

THE CAT'S MIU said...

one of my goals in life is to eat a true philly cheesesteak.

PrincessImp. said...

Brook & Lyn - I know what you mean! I'm totally obessed with food network and I had to admit that Geno's was kind of a letdown, after they talked it up so much on TV. Sometimes I wonder is it just me? After all so many people supposedly raved about it... o_O

Alice - you'll never know till you try... ;)

PrincessImp. said...

Oh and comments now open to everyone!