Yesterday I decided to take a day trip out to Philadelphia since I’d never been before and it’s close enough to catch a bus to and from New York City. Chinatown buses run regularly between the two cities each hour from early in the morning to late at night and it’s extremely cheap at only USD20.

It was a beautiful day in Philadelphia with almost perfectly clear blue skies and it made walking around to all the various tourist attractions quite nice. I first took a trip to the Visitors Centre and did the round trip of all the sights in the Old City. The famous cracked Liberty Bell sits just a block down and is easy to find once you make your way through all the security points. It’s not as big as I thought it would have been but the crack certainly is. Independence Hall sits one block further and you can take a free guided tour of the place where the Declaration of Independence was first approved and where a few of the original draft copies still sit.

I also tried visiting the US Mint but it had shut for the New Year break so I took to walking around town for a little bit more. Lunch I had at Iron Chef Morimoto’s awesome restaurant for lunch (another entry soon to come). I also ended up visiting the Reading Terminal Markets – apparently the equivalent of the London Borough markets but definitely lacking its wide variety and I finally walked past City Hall and the tallest building in Philadelphia, One Liberty Place.

Given the fantastic weather, I thought the city was quite nice with many large walls around town painted with colourfully bright murals. I did notice a huge number of homeless people though and even saw a few people causing trouble being dragged away by the police. Before heading home for the evening, I popped down to Pat’s King of Steaks – the place where the famous Philadelphia Cheese Steak apparently first started and just down the road from its overly neon lit competitor Geno’s. I had been advised to skip the Cheese Whiz and went for the Provolone instead and ‘wit’ (meaning with onions). It was alright but I don’t think I’ll be ordering it again anytime soon. Philly is a great day trip from New York and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who’s seen all the sights of New York City. You can see more pictures from my trip here.