Summer Road Trip: Philly Edition!

Last month one of my best friends and I went on our first road trip of summer 2015 together. The idea just started of as kind of a joke but we then decided that we should just be spontaneous and go on a little adventure. We decided to go to Philadelphia because my mom had been there and had told me that it was really nice. Philly is also only 2 hours away from New York City so it was the perfect place for our first road trip as "adults".

Getting There

This year I discovered the amazing and convenient transportation method that is MegaBus. It's a quite popular bus company that people use to travel from city to city or even state to state. I absolutely love it because you can find tickets at great prices and the travel experience is pretty good. This was our first time using it and we really liked it. We were able to find roundtrip tickets for only $21.00 each! Furthermore, the bus was spacious, had plugs for convenient charging, and the best part of it was that it was double decker! 

Because we were only going to be there for a day we wanted to make sure we would have enough time to do a lot of sightseeing so we left at 5:00 a.m to arrive there at around 7:00 a.m. Because it was so early not a lot of stores were open so we just went sightseeing which worked out perfectly because there weren't too many people around so it was nice and quite. 

Exploring Philly

The bus left us at the Amtrak station near Center Philly so from there we made our way to the Center to see City Hall and the Love Park which were part of the list my friend and I had made the night before of key locations/things we definitely did not want to miss!

As we made our way to Central Philly we saw a few of Philly's subway stations. We didn't end up riding the subway but the outside reminded me a lot of Harry Potter and London because they used phrases like "Trolley Lines".

In front of City Hall. The architecture was beautiful! The pole with the street sign behind me also had  another sign that gave directions to other location which I thought was so helpful when trying to get to places.

Following the directions from the signs, we were able to find the Love Park and took this "instagram worthy" picture. It was so nice because there was barely anyone around so early. Behind the Love sign was also this huge water fountain. 

Being in Philly felt like we were inside a Monopoly game. Near city hall was this little plaza where there were life size monopoly pieces as well as a building with the Pennsylvania Railroad Station. It made me reminisce about my childhood when I played Monopoly with my family.

I can't remember the name of the street but this was like a main road for shopping. There was a wide range of stores from Tiffany's to H&M and Nordstrom Rack (just a few of my faves).

Because we had left so early in morning, we hadn't had breakfast at home so we waited until stores opened and went to IHop for a delicious and filling meal. I couldn't decide if I wanted savory or sweet so I went for both! I also did my makeup while we were waiting for our food (how new yorker of me) since I was too tired to do it at 4 in the morning.

A Little More Exploring

There were so many different things that we wanted to do and see in Philly; however, after looking at a map we realized that they were really scattered and that we would either have to walk a lot or spend a lot of money on the bus or subway. But just as we were getting ready to plan out what we were going to do, we found about this amazing bus called the Phlash. It's basically a tourist bus but 100x better! So how it works is that you can pay $2.00 for a single ride or $5.00 for the whole day. This bus takes you all over Philly including key locations like museums and parks. It was so convenient and a complete life and time saver! The only downside is that the bus only runs until around 6:30 but either way it was totally worth it and made our trip around the city so much better!

One of the best ice-custards I have ever tried! Too bad you can't find it in New York :(

Conquered the Rocky Steps

A gorgeous view of Philly from the Steps

A few selfies riding the Phlash 

Liberty Bell 

In Ben Franklin's House

Philly Cheese Steaks!

Of course we couldn't leave without trying their famous cheese steaks. With the help of Siri we found this cheese steak place called By George which was located at the Reading Terminal Market. This market is pretty much the equivalent to Chelsea Market here in New York. It was really nice.

We were extremely tired by the time we got the philly cheese steaks so we started the long walk back to the station. We waited inside until it was time to go to the bus stop. While I was waiting I ate half of my cheese steak. It was absolutely delicious and totally worth the $9.00.

Overall we had an amazing time in Philly. I loved the atmosphere and the people there were pretty friendly. We would definitely like to go back and do all the stuff that we didn't get to do like go to the huge Philadelphia Zoo. 

Anyway, I wonder what our next trip will be???…..