I'm back with more details about our trip to Philly! To get there we caught a Greyhound bus from Port Authority in NYC, which is pretty conveniently located in midtown. Our bus was leaving at 8am and we were stressed about getting there because sometimes people like to take their time getting ready in the morning, it happens. It was both of our first time catching a bus so we didn't really know what to expect. Well let me tell you, it's A LOT more casual than catching a plane. We showed up there like 10 minutes before we were supposed to be leaving and people were all over the place not really knowing what's going on. Our tickets had numbers and apparently you're supposed to line up or something but this was a case of free for all, which was okay.
The bus was okay, definitely not the most luxurious method of transportation. Luckily there is free wifi and plugs to charge your phone so that was convenient. There is also a bathroom on the bus which is reassuring, but our trip was only 2 hours long so we didn't take advantage of that feature, darn! The bus ride felt super quick and we were really surprised when we were already arriving in Philly. Overall, taking a bus is cheap and I would recommend it for destinations that are close by.
Our bus stop was right beside Reading Terminal Market which turned out to be a really cool spot. It's a marketplace with lots of tasty restaurants and stores. It was pretty busy but the lines weren't too long for most places which was nice. We walked around for a solid 20 minutes exploring all of the options that were available.
Of course I couldn't walk by a huge variety of desserts without snapping a pic! I was very tempted to try everything but I stayed strong and walked away. You can spend a long time just wandering through here, probably passing the same dessert stand like 10 times! We didn't have any breakfast that morning so we really wanted a nice brunch to start off our day in Philly.
We really liked the fact that all of the food was so much cheaper than back in New York, so our trip was off to a good start. I ended up going with the classic Eggs Benedict, because you can't really mess with perfection. Alex got a surf and turf Benedict because he really wanted to live it up. After our filling meal we made our way to our hotel. Saturday was very rainy there but it was worth the nice stroll exploring a new city.
Halfway to our hotel we stopped by a coffee shop called La Colombe to dry off a bit and got some coffee. It was a nice little spot very close to Independence Hall. Our hotel was in the Old City, which is such a gorgeous area. After making it to our hotel we dried off some more and prepared our trek to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It's a bit far away from where we were so we took an Uber there. Uber rides are SO cheap in Philly. That ride cost us like $5. It was very entertaining too because our driver was a 70 year old man who was full of energy and was very chatty.
That museum had a lot of beautiful artwork and artifacts. We really enjoyed strolling around everywhere and were happy that this is the kind of museum that you can actually explore in one go, unlike The Met here which I've been to like 3 times and still haven't seen everything. I highly recommend coming here if you go to Philly. After we were done exploring we decided to go back to Old City for some happy hour. It was a Saturday so not a proper happy hour but it still counts.
We stopped in at an English pub by the river called The Victoria Freehouse. It had great beer options and we enjoyed some pub grub. The Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale was delicious, and I highly recommend it if you like sweet beers. The we went strolling around the area in search of some Philly cheesesteak. I was full so I just got onion rings but Alex got himself a sandwich.
The night was still rainy so we didn't get to stroll around for too long but we enjoyed it anyways. I feel like there are twinkly lights everywhere here, and it must be so nice especially on a nice, warm summer night. After grabbing quick dinner we went back to the hotel where we passed right out, the bed was so comfortable! I want whatever mattress and pillows they've got.
The next morning we decided to start things off by grabbing a quick coffee and a snack at Old City Coffee. That coffee shop was located on a really cute street, but I feel like all of streets here were so nice (and clean).
Coffee cups in hand we made our way to Elfreth's alley. It's a very picturesque and the oldest residential street in the US. We really liked it there and were very surprised by how quiet and empty it was, not something that you'd expect from a tourist attraction. I highly recommend going there if you're in Philly. From there we made our way to the Independence Hall were we saw the rooms where the magic happened. It was nice, the tour was very quick, it took about 30 minutes to see both rooms and I think that's perfect because long tours tend to get boring quickly. We didn't go in to see the bell because the line was long for that, but if that's something that you're interested in it's free to do and also the tour of the two rooms is also free. If you want to reserve a specific time for a tour you might want to book in advance, luckily the convenience fee for that is only like $2.
After the tours we got a bit hungry for lunch, and we had to make our way back to the bus terminal to catch our bus back home. We took an Uber to that area and it was once again very cheap, so we were happy campers. The weather on Sunday turned out beautiful so it really made up for the cold and rainy Saturday there.
We went to a restaurant called Cleavers, which is quite good and you get to choose how you want your cheesesteak served up. I went for a chicken cheesesteak, which turned out great! Then we strolled through the shopping area and past the city hall which is a gorgeous building. Overall the trip was great and we would love to come back here again and explore more.
Have you been to Philly?
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