philly- day 1

 for my birthday this year, ryan was in philadelphia working

so i came up to visit him and the city.

our first stop was downtown to try a philly cheese steak from both pat's and geno's to decide for ourselves who has the ultimate cheese steak.

if you haven't heard, the city's greatest rivalry for cheese steak joints is between these 2 establishments which sit right across the street from eachother.

of the 9,846 places in philadelphia that you can get a cheese steak, these 2 are the most fun

because of their long time rivalry.

i mean, steak and cheese on a homemade bun... can it get any more american?

obviously, geno's is the most flashy and attractive of the 2

but who's actually tasted the best??

well, lets start with a little history, shall we...

pat's was established in 1930 and he is known for being the first and the originator of the philly cheese steak. hence the name, "pat's king of steaks"

geno's opened accross the street in 1966 in an effort to take down the reigning champ.

well, they call him the king of steaks for a reason...

because pat's was SO MUCH BETTER than geno's.

their meat was finely chooped, while geno's was thick, fatty slices. and their homemade rolls were soft and warm, while geno's was just a cold bun.

so after our bellies were full of melty, cheesy goodness, we headed over to america's very first and most historic prison, eastern state penetentiary. it was once the most famous and expensive prison, but stands today as a haunted world of empty cells and guard towers.

it was super cool!

as we self-toured the eerie, creaky prison, we listened to an audio tour narrated by

steve buscemi. he explained every inch of the prison and even included some

interviews with past prisoners. it was incredibly interesting and creepy all at once.

we loved it!



out front of the prison







an old cell





listening to the audio and reading about the inmates



poor pep. he was our favorite of the inmates.



a row of cells down one of the 8 wings



 this was the most interesting of the cells. it belonged to al capone, who spent his days in relative luxury. they decorated it to look like his once did, including oriental rugs, fine furniture, and a radio. 




just a peek



set up to show you what they looked like back then

 

this demonstrates the progression of the identification process. it's funny that it started out by measuring the size of a person's head... good thing we discovered fingerprinting and DNA for more effective measures.



a super creepy section of the prison that was closed off because they were setting it up for
a haunted house this halloween... talk about scary!
a haunted prison is almost creepier than walking through a cemetery on halloween.

this was once the prison's hospital- notice the red cross on the gate that identified it as such.

the guard's tower

jack's bar is right across the street, so we headed over for a drink after the tour. i think this place is haunted as well.

after our prison tour, we walked around downtown philly for a while.
we liked this building's painting:

and the huge trees!

although philadelphia is full of history and activity, one thing is for sure... it is old and dirty.
practically all of the buildings look like this:

but then you have some cool ones that look like this:

either way, we had a blast!