'Jew wanna another drink?'

We decided to check out some of the older parts of Philly today so headed to a place called Elfreths Alley, its one of the most historical spots and dates back to the start of the 18th century (hardly very old!!). It was an adorable cobbled street though full of cute little houses which was quite the contrast to the Philadelphia skyline behind it.

We failed to eat breakfast (again) so were soon ravenous and in need of food! We headed to Society Hill which is a quirky street full of cool shops and cafes, here we stumbled upon ( literally, stumbled - the heat here is intense!) a little family run Greek cafe which turned out to be a complete gem!

We got fresh juice made from a mixture of fruits of our choice to accompany a huuuge platter of chicken , houmus, rice and salad. Just the job!

Full from our greek feast we decided that wandering around in 34 degree heat was not going to be fun, especially with such high humidity. So of course, we found the nearest Jewish museum!

The National Museum of American Jewish History was amazing and so interesting, one striking piece from the museum was a video based on letters written by Jews who made the journey over to America. Photographs were projected onto a screen of the people whose letters were being read out, the screen resembled scattered letters which also represented the waves of the ocean. Very cool.

By late afternoon we were all Jew'd out so headed back to see what the craic was at the hostel. Tonight was pub crawl night - excellent!

The room was packed full of travellers talking about 'gap yahs' and such, the hostel staff were topping up bottles and mixers of all sorts! Sparks and I filled up on gin (standard) and made our way into the mix of travellers for a bit of bantah.

We soon met Liz and Tom, both Brits traveling around. Liz is from Hertfordshire and was filling us in on her amazing travels around the world. Tom on the other hand was from Yorkshire, and thats all we found out haha! We were soon joined by Jessie, a Scottish girl from our dorm. Within minutes we had created quite the British invasion.

A couple of drinks and a lot of laughs later Tim, our wonderful pub crawl guide who works at the hostel rounded everyone up before heading to the first bar.

This is where thinks get a bit fuzzy... To summarise:
There was inbetweeners esk dancing, some bumping and grinding, proposals, Britney and lots and lots of drinks...

Its here that my memory is clear, after the last bar Tim persuaded us to go to a transsexual bar. Well, me, Amy, Liz and Jessie were game from the get go but Tom took some convincing. We somehow managed to convince a few other groups of people to join us so all hopped into taxis headed to the bar.

We arrived at the bar to find Jessie had disappeared with the Scottish lads and Liz was wandering around crying 'Im gonna chunder!' - fantastic!

I turned into head nurse with Sparks and Tom as my assistants, though we were all pretty drunk so all we managed to do was direct Liz to a bin and grab cups of water.
Once Liz had de-toxified (for the most part) we thought it best to head home.

Back at the hostel Amy took on the mission of getting Liz to bed, which was pretty amusing as Liz was very sure of what she needed and how it was going to happen, even giving us a briefing of the layout of her dorm before we took her to bed.

If only we knew how we'd feel when we woke up...

Holy Moly.

Dead man walkin'

The first thing we did this morning was head for breakfast at a little diner-esque place the hostel gave us 10% off vouchers for. It was proper old school, with stools around two counters and the waitresses working in the middle.

After a standard breakfast of bacon, eggs and hash browns we headed off to the Independence Visitor Centre. Our hostel is in an amazing location, right in the middle of Old City, literally around the corner from the Liberty Bell and several other top tourist attractions.

We had decided that today we wanted to hit up the Eastern State Penitentiary, the first penitentiary prison in the US which was closed down in 1971, so we meandered inside the Visitor Centre to ask about tickets and how to get there.

It turned out we could get a bus straight there from outside the building. In Philadelphia there is a special tourist bus called the Phlash bus that goes between all the major tourist attractions in a loop. Very handy! To make this experience even more fun the bus is basically a cable car on wheels as opposed to tracks. And it's purple. Enough said.

So we got on the Phlash with a guy about our age who had also been waiting outside the Visitor Centre. He had obviously heard us talking so when we sat down on the bus he asked us whereabouts we were from; he was called Ollie, he was English too, also headed to the prison, and staying in our hostel. So many coincidences! He was very easy going and had been to pretty much all the same places we had. He'd even stayed in the same hostel as we had in New Orleans and thus knew Mike (Mike if you're still reading this, your worldwide fame is slowly growing!). It's a small world after all.

When we arrived, the prison looked pretty intimidating even from the outside with its ridiculously high walls and watchtowers. It was the first penitentiary prison built in the US, opening in 1829, created so prisoners were isolated in their own cells and therefore encouraging penitence. The way it had been designed was like a wheel, so the cell blocks all came out from one central point like spokes. If you stood in the middle of the centre building you could spin around and be able to see all the way down each of the cell blocks without having to move. Very clever.

My personal highlight of the whole experience was that the audio tour was narrated by Steve Buscemi. You really can't beat a tour of an old creepy prison whilst listening to Steve talking in your ear. When the audio tour ended we were free to roam around ourselves. We checked out the death row section and most importantly, Al Capone's very comfortable cell (picture included). We also visited the prison hospital block where apparently he had his tonsils removed. There was part of the prison which had been used as a film set, so Kitty got very excited that she might be stood on the same ground that Brad Pitt had once stood on. I was more excited to be in following in the footsteps of Al Capone. My gangster obsession is even starting to worry me...

By this time it was about half two/three o clock and it was ridiculously hot. In America, the hottest point isn't the middle of the day, the heat seems to build up in a crescendo until about four o clock and then slowly get less intense, but not necessarily cooler. Anyway, we were beginning to melt. Because there wasn't really a plumbing system in the prison, i.e. no water fountains, we bought two bottles of water each and took them with us into the harsh light of day.

We wandered down towards the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a broad road featuring lots of trees, grass and world flags, and where most of the city's museums are to be found. The first one we came to was the Philadelphia Museum of Art, known for the infamous 'Rocky Steps': the steps he runs up at the end of the film. After admiring the Rocky statue at the bottom of the steps, we stood and stared up, debating whether to do the run ourselves. Eventually we went for it, Ollie was obviously in the lead, but I followed close behind, with Kitty bringing up the rear due to a flip flop failure. It was surprisingly much easier than we expected and the view at the top was excellent, looking back down towards City Hall.

Up at the top of the steps we noticed three guys milling around. Ollie pointed out that they were all wearing the Chelsea strip. One of them must of heard we were English so approached and asked if we would take a picture of the three of them. At this point, Ollie outright asked them if they were with the Chelsea team and they confirmed that they were. I instead commented on the fact that one of them had a pink camera. Ha! Christ knows who they actually were, but even hardcore fans don't waltz about in full kit. They were even wearing socks. English football teams seem to be following us around the continent; the Liverpool team turned up in Toronto whilst we were there too.

After this amusing incident, we went back down the steps and wandered down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to catch our little Phlash bus back. As we walked we agreed that Philly is the first American city we've been to where some of the buildings actually feel old. Some of the buildings are really pretty epic.

Once back in Old City we headed back to the hostel to chill out for a couple of hours. Being out in the sun all day is exhausting business. We passed an Indian restaurant on our walk back to the hostel so the two of us decided to go there for dinner and check it out. We've come to the conclusion that all curry in America is crap. It's not that it's not nice, it's just not the same. The mild korma I ordered was more spicy than Kitty's medium tikka masala. This was tres upsetting to say the least. No more American curry. Ever.

We're going to have an early night tonight in preparation for being eager tourists again tomorrow and searching for Philly cheesesteaks...

'The Mega Bus Experience'

This morning we bid Toronto a fond farewell and set off to the land of cheese steak, Philadelphia.
It had been so nice to see Emma again and meet James and her adorable pets! As I write this on the bottom bunk in this huuuge 16bed dorm I would much rather be falling asleep cuddled up with Jack, their adorable and hilarious dog. Thank you for an amazing visit Emma!!

Now on to the Mega bus... Unfortunately this tale will not be like the famous 'Greyhound Experience' post we did earlier, instead it will be me trying to make a very gentle, relaxing and secure journey seem terrifying. Let me know if it's convincing.

First off today we had a bit of a brain fail in what time we were catching our bus. I blamed Sparks, of course, but really it was my fault (a bit) too for not checking. We left Emma's aiming to get to the station between 10:30 and 11:00 as our bus was at 11:30am... Well we thought it was.

As we walked up to the list of buses on the screen we realised our bus left at 11!! We both said a rather rude word very loudly and ran manically towards the bus terminal, fortunately we got a seat okay and had a few minutes to compose ourselves before leaving.
Within seconds of being on the bus a lady came over who looked a bit like our dear Kray from Chicago, she asked if we could look after her as she'd never been on the bus before. We both smiled politely and said yes before turning to eachother mouthing the words 'She be cray!' fortunately she was actually pretty cute and despite the fact she spent the entire journey smiling at us, she was alright.

However, despite the cray crays, this was a 10 hour journey with only 1 stop in Buffalo which was purely to go through US security. To last us the 10 hours all we had between us was two half empty bottles of water and a half eaten gluten free cheese sandwich #awkward

Amy reassured me we wouldn't die of starvation and we even began to see our 10 hour fast as a good thing - we are both a bit plumper thanks to all the American food we've been eating, a bit of fasting could be beneficial! So we got comfortable in our reclinable seats feeling positive about our new weightloss strategy... 2 hours in and our stomachs was having other ideas.

I was ravenous - I could have eaten a small child. And to make maters worse we had to go through immigration with border control - super!

Everyone waddled off the bus stiff and with the beginning of cankles, we had a big dog smell our bags first which was rather amusing, then we had to scan our bags even though the man 'watching' the screen was too busy helping people put there bags on and off the belt to notice anything people may had stashed in their bags!

After the bag fiasco we had the joy of queuing to be questioned. Our guy was nice and seemed to be so baffled by the amount of times we'd been back and forth to the states that he just let us go before giving us the 'you best not be getting a job here!' lecture.

Once back in our swanky bus Sparks checked with the driver and we were relieved to discover we were stopping to have a food break in 3 hours time. Wahoo! We obviously slept for these 3 hours

Once we arrived at the bus station we had 10 minutes to hike up to the building and buy food - quite the task! Everyone hurdled off the bus and ran to the station in need of a decent toilet, water and most importantly FOOD! Amy went to subway and was served by possibly the dumbest woman I have ever seen. Watching her putting through Amy's order was ridiculous, she couldn't understand our accents (because she was a cretin) so kept saying 'what?!' 'erm... What did you sayay?!' in her ridiculous valley-girl-on-crack accent. Hearing Amy repeat the words 'meatball' and at one point 'balls of meat' was priceless though.
Eventually someone helped her and we were on our way. She be cray.

We arrived in Philadelphia just after 10pm and made our way towards the station, to catch the subway to our hostel. We ended up going in the wrong direction for afew stops before realising we were heading the wrong way- easily done - but after so long on a coach we were past caring. Once off the subway we headed to the hostel and passed some people sat outside a bar, one rather merry woman was amazed by us and when she found out we'd been traveling was sweet enough to offer to buy us a drink. We politely thanked her but explained how we needed a bed ASAP so she let us go shouting 'You go girls!' as we left. Lad.
So far the people in Philly are pretty friendly!

We quickly found our hostel and were welcomed by two lovely staff at reception who made us feel very welcome. The rooms are huge here and our 16 bed room is like a huge sleepover party ... Minus the party, and with more foreign people. Fun!

Toronto Police Fail

We used this morning wisely to catch up on our long neglected blog (hence the six posts all at once). Eventually we made it out and headed to the Toronto Island which is a seven minute ferry ride away and has wonderful views of Toronto.

Some rich people do live on the island, but it's mostly like a huge park, where people have their boats. On the opposite side to Toronto there is also a beach so we headed there to chill.

We found a tiny little beach where Lake Ontario was literally making waves like the sea and set up camp. It was probably a good thing we hadn't made it out until the afternoon as it was really hot and muggy. Predictably, we all lay down and fell asleep in the afternoon sun.

When we woke up we ate our little picnic of sandwiches, crisps and peaches before heading back through the park aiming to walk around the island. We were in for one of the more interesting half an hours of our lives...

Whilst walking through the park, we saw a group of young people up ahead of us. We could hear them shouting as we approached but I thought they were joking and messing about. As we got closer it became apparent that they weren't joking. There was a group of about eight of them, all shouting, some were pushing others about and others were trying to intervene. At one point, a girl was completely pushed to the floor. We could catch random snatches of what was being shouted, but, as you can imagine, it's not really blog appropriate. What was clear though was that they were all at least drunk, if not high on something.

We walked past where they were on the nearest path, trying not to stare too much, and I noticed that there was another couple further away with their dog who were also watching nervously. They appeared to be on the phone, so we approached them and they confirmed that they were calling the police. All this time, the group were shouting and screaming in the background at a distance. After a while they calmed down, but the police were nowhere to be seen. The couple and their dog had wandered off so we followed their lead. At the same time, two girls broke away from the group and were walking in front of us in the same direction. As we walked over a bridge in the park, we saw four police finally strolling in our direction. The girls immediately turned tail and began heading back the way they'd come. The police reached us first so we confirmed they were headed in the right direction and notified them that the two girls had been involved. The couple and their dog appeared to confirm it was them who had called.

The police officer we spoke to kept asking us about a guy with a knife. We had no idea what he was on about, and because we said that we hadn't seen anyone being threatened with a knife from where we were, he didn't seem to be interested in going to check out the scene. The other police had called the two girls back and were listening to them spinning a story which included that the guy who had been threatening them had gone back to Toronto on the last boat that left, clearly to stop the police following them back to their friends. The couple also joined in on this conversation. One of the policeman was more interested at looking at a giant fish over the side of the bridge and none of them seemed to care much that the two girls were clearly drunk or stoned or both. Just to clarify, being drunk in a public place is a big big deal over here.

Whilst the police were talking to the girls, a shifty looking guy walked past and the couples little yappy dog went straight for his ankles, causing him to cry out and draw attention to himself. Kitty, Emma and I all saw this and watched as the woman ran over to grab the dog. She asked the man if he had been hurt to which he replied, 'Yeah, f**k, it hurt.' The husband came over and said that the dog didn't bite him to which the man responded by pulling up his suspiciously thick trousers to show the guy his lack of bite mark. Clearly the dog went straight for him because it could smell some kind of dodgy substance, hence why the paranoid guy overreacted. All of this was going on under the police's nose and once again they didn't realise.

They let the girls go back to their friends after having a nice chat, clearly they weren't interested, and got back on their little boat to go and rescue a kite surfer.

We got the ferry back, discussing how useless the police had been, not aware our point was about to be proven once again... Walking back to Emma's from the ferry, we walked into a scene on the pavement where a guy who was ridiculously intoxicated chucked a whole bottle of liquid at a couple just walking by. This guy was so drunk he could barely stand up. The couple were shocked and angry and we were a bit like what the hell, having just stumbled onto the scene.

Coincidentally, a police car was driving past in the closest lane. The couple tried to wave it over, and no word of a lie, the police woman inside just waved back. Seriously. They then realised what we were trying to do and stopped further up the road. Even more coincidentally, another police car was driving past and stopped. The drunk guy at this point was trying to stumble up the road. Emma spoke to the police officer that had just stopped and told him there was a very intoxicated guy wandering up the street. He responded by saying he couldn't do anything because he was on "paid duty". For real.

We left them to it, still in shock at how little the police had done in general in our eventful half an hour. On the way we witnessed the drunk guy stumbling across the busy road. Any normal police would have removed him to avoid innocent people hitting him with their car. It was all very interesting! And doesn't make us love Canada any less, don't worry.

When we got back to Emma's, she found out that she had got the nannying job she applied for and wanted which was exciting! We spend the rest of the evening packing and watching episodes of our new favourite show My Strange Addiction.

Free Fallin'

Today we headed out to Niagra on the lake, on the drive Emma pulled up at one of her favourite wineries - Stratus - where we tried 4 of their wines, one of which was their famous ice wines. Delish! The winery was beautiful and the woman serving us was thrilled to hear about our travels as she went to Europe for 2 months at our age herself.

On our way to where we were going to get our lunch we stopped off to grab a Tim Hortons before heading to a beautiful picnic spot hidden behind fort Mississauga. We sat and lunched staring out at the still water enjoying the peaceful view. To the right of us was the USA literally just a stones throw away!

After lunch we went by Adam beck power station before heading to Niagra falls! the drive took us past rows and rows of bed and breakfasts, hotels, casinos and restaurant chains. It's so bizarre how a natural wonder of the world could be surrounded by so much... Crap!

Once near the viewpoint Emma dropped us off and we followed the water down to get some great photos. It is such an amazing thing to see and the speed that it flows is unbelievable, I would definitely not fancy doing a Pocahontas leap down to the bottom.

The place was swarming with tourists so we decided to make a new game for you all - 'Spot the Cray' it will be the first of many! Good luck!

After getting snap happy we headed home where we feasted on pasta and salad whilst watching ' The Real Housewives of Vancouver' with the Rabbit and the hound. So cute.