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...
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