Well I have got to say Philly is a cool city. I didn’t get outside of the Old City during my stay but I liked what I saw there. It has sort of a European feel to it. Northern European – like Helsinki or Stockholm. I got lost a few times but once you get your head about this numbered street thing it ain’t so hard – I realised the city is laid out just like Melbourne – a series of squares. The only problem I keep having is that I look the wrong way when I cross the street – I can’t shake the habit of looking to my right and then stepping out. I suspect if I get hit by a bus then that could change.

I went sightseeing early on Friday morning. Just grabbed a map and started walking. Saw the City Hall – which is an interesting building with a huge statue of William Penn (the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania) on the top of a tower – which I may or may not have managed to get a picture of. Then meandered down to the Declaration House where Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Was fascinating to look at the ‘draft’ copies of the document with all of Jefferson’s corrections on it. Sometimes you forget that these sort of enshrined documents were created like anything else through drafts and revisions and changes. It is an amazing statement you know – one of the finest pieces of Lockean rhetoric ever produced – “We hold these truths to be self-eviden…”

On from there to the Philly Museum which was actually pretty dull – though they had one cool exhibition – a collection of Norman Rockwell’s Standard Post covers blown up. He was a clever painter – some very sharp cultural critique at work. It was also interesting because the covers usually included a couple of headlines from that issue – which gave little snapshots of life at the time.

Then to Independence Hall. Couldn’t get in – security and something to do with tickets – it was all a bit confusing – me and some Japanese tourists all listened while this Park Ranger launched into a long, convoluted explanation at the end of which I (and I suspect more so the Japanese tourists) was less enlightened than when he started. So I trotted off to queue up to get into to see the Liberty Bell. After yet another bloody metal detector scan (my possessions must be almost radioactive by now) I went through. I’d like to say that it didn’t move me but damn it did. The bit that got me was that the bell has always been re-invented and re-claimed by a new group who want to add its cultural capital to their cause – among them the suffragette, the anti-slavery and the civil rights movements. A powerful symbol for freedom and liberty in a country whose own values and history often seem confused about those principles.

And there was a chipmunk outside (there was also a pro-life activist yelling about murdered babies and blood coming out of the group but I was considerably less interested in her than the chipmunk). It was just running around on the ground and climbing trees and being chipmunk like. A real live chipmunk. I had a stuffed animal chipmunk as a kid that my mum brought back from Canada. I loved that damn chipmunk and now I get to see one up close and personal as it were. It was cute. Any doubts that I am a soppy and sentimental bastard have been completely cleared up.

Then my meeting. Went well – surprisingly well actually. Was very pleased. Went much longer than planned because it went so well. I really think we could do business with these guys. This is a great weight off my mind.

So here is where my day got a little crazy. I used one of my two super powers – Sense Bookshop (the other is Sense Alcohol) – and found a Borders. So as always in Borders I am in heaven – books everywhere. There was a woman giving a talk about her book – which was really good – I bought it and everything. Then there was conversation and then I used my other super power and then there was drinking and drinking and quite a few beers. I got messy and decided to call home. I am not sure exactly what I said but I am hopefully still married – I think I was embarrassingly soppy so I am fairly sure that all Lu will do is shake her head at her drunken sot of a husband. And alcohol and IM? Not a good combination. So hopefully other people are still talking to me too. Again I don’t think I said anything embarrassing but I feel I might have got a little sentimental there too.

I am currently writing this on the Amtrak to Baltimore. The train has power points. How cool is that? I think if we go to the US for a holiday that we are going to take trains. Train travel is cool.

All in all I enjoyed Philly. I would indeed go back. I even ate a Philly cheese steak – though I am somewhat regretting that this morning. Alcohol-fuelled eating is never a good idea. For all your drunken eating requirements in Philly I recommend Old Pete’s on Locust St – open 24 hours – have the cheese steak hoagie (sp? *shrug*) with cooked onions. Almost Lambs of Carlton souvlaki-like in its satisfaction of drunken cravings – a high compliment indeed.