Miles Driven: 24,703
Trapped in the middle (or ends, I suppose) of a working class state are Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, two of the biggest cities in the nation. I always thought these two cities would be as dead as the rest of the state of Pennsylvania, but instead, they are two amazingly lively cities that bring up the quality of the state itself. My time in Pennsylvania proved itself to be a tale of two cities.. of two amazingly awesome and super sweet cities, to be exact.
Pittsburgh may have this stereotype of being some old school working class town, but with my brief tour through, I don’t see it. It was a nice town! I went to the downtown area for my game, and what I saw was a nice, clean and modern looking area. It didn’t feel like some old run-down Rust Belt city in the slightest bit. I was in some areas outside of town that were older so I guess it still hangs on to its roots at least a little bit, but it’s definitely a modern town. I wish I had the chance to do more there, but I didn’t. At least I had some time to see how nice it actually is.
In between the two big cities and seemingly every other part of the state is anything but high development. Instead, you get hilly forests, but not as hilly and not as forest-ee as the NE part of the United States. Still, it wasn’t bad. This area seemed way more rural and low-key compared to the high population centers. I totally get why the more innovate politicians (Barack Obama) get the big cities on their side and why the stodgy and useless old fucks (John McCain) get the rest of the area filled with people who have the same interest in the 1910’s. I get it now.. I GET IT.
The streets of Philadelphia have a lot going on. In a good way.. a very good way. I was expecting kind of a dead town, but it was anything but. My tour started in South Philly, which you may think is a weird place to check out since there’s an idea that it’s not the nicest part of town. I beg to differ! It was actually the most unique and interesting part of town, and I never felt threatened. All the spirit of the city itself can be found here. It is an area where all the immigrants from way back when moved to when coming to this country, so there are areas filled with different cultures, namely the Irish and Italians that really came heavily to this area. This Italian influence is best seen with a Philadelphia staple.. the steak sandwich, which originated here in South Philly. This was the main reason I shot down here.. to get a taste of the original of a sandwich I love. And there’s actually an interesting story to it.. there are two places most known for the steak sandwich.. Pat’s King of Steaks and Gino’s Steaks. They are fierce competitors with each claiming they were the first. It is only made more fierce when they are located.. 50 feet away from each other. Yes.. on one corner, you got one, and on the corner across the street, you got the other one. One has a huge sign, the other one doesn’t. Don’t you think that if you really were the original you wouldn’t need a big sign to bring people to you.. shouldn’t you just let your sandwich do the talking and not have to make up for certain inadequacies in your place of business? Don’t worry, I think that too. I went with Pat’s King of Steaks, who don’t need the show to hide their lie. They stick to the original sign, basically going “like it or not, we’re located right here. WE don’t need false attention.. we’re legit. Everybody else are nothing but pretenders.” As for the sandwich, it was fucking amazing.. like it was soo good. I got more of a kick out of eating from the original chicken wing place, but I think this tasted better. But, I don’t think Philly is even most known for that. There’s something else that originated from South Philly that EVERYBODY knows about. Confused? Don’t have a clue? Does the Italian Stallion ring a bell? No? Well you REALLY need to turn on TNT or USA on Sunday, ‘cause then you’ll know what I’m talking about.. ROCKY! One of my favorite things growing up was the Rocky movies, and he was a South Philly resident. You remember that scene where he ran up the stairs? Call me corny if you want, but that was must see for me. I went there and started giggling. I even ran up them. I don’t care how dumb it looked or how trite the activity is, because I ran up the Rocky steps. My life is now complete. The last thing I checked out was what Philly is most known for from the historical crowd.. the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. It was pretty cool, I guess. I was under whelmed by Independence Hall and I don’t really get why the Liberty Bell was ever that popular, but it was cool seeing what the two things represented. They are both big things for the history of the United States.. the Declaration was signed in the Hall and the bell was wrung at some key historical events. But actually seeing them was nothing special. But that’s okay, because I really loved Philly. All I thought I would enjoy was the historical stuff of Philly and not really care for the rest of it, but I was dead wrong. I actually enjoyed the other stuff more. It actually proved to be one of my more favorite cities on this trip, and not just because of the whole Rocky thing.
Pennsylvania proves that two P’s make a right.. a right state! That doesn’t make sense! I’m silllly. But anyway, Pennsylvania’s only two bright spots are its two huge cities.. the one on the west end with Pittsburgh, and the one on its east end with Philadelphia. Without those culturally diverse and lively cities, the deadness of the rest of the state would stick with me more, but those two cities DID happen, so I remember the state and I remember it fondly. But even with my affinity.. I don’t see myself living here. It’s true.. I loved Philly, but I loved other cites like New York and Seattle more, so they would win out if it came down to a city contest. However, if I ever had to move to Philly after getting some serious job or something, I would totally do it. Actually, that could prove to be a good thing. Everyday I could get up in my South Philly apartment, go get a Pat’s cheesesteak, and run it off Rocky style. Life would be good. It’s unlikely to happen, but life would be good.
1 comments:
p.s. I'm diggin' the "It's Always Sunny...." reference
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