Philadelphia - Cheesesteak and Custard!

Philadelphia - 39°57'8.00"N 75° 9'51.00"W

I flew into Philadelphia from New Orleans. I arrived early evening, picked up my bags and made my way out to the taxi rank to catch a cab to the home of the family that I would be staying with for a couple of days.

There were loads of cabs waiting, so I jumped into the one at the front of the queue and told the driver the address that I wanted to go to.........

Silence.......

I repeated myself, and then the driver turned around and in his own language murmered a whole bunch of words that I didn't understand before grabbing the piece of paper with the address on from my hands. He begins shouting wildly into his hands free kit at the guy on the other end of the phone back in the cab office. A frantic and unintelligible exchange between driver and office ensues until I offer "it's o.k mate, if you don't know where you're going, I'll jump in another cab and see if they can get me there"........

Brmmmmmm (that's the sound of the cab driving off with me still in it)

"WOAH!......pal.........what are you doing?.......I'm not about to pay for you to drive around Philadelphia in the wrong direction not knowing where you're going!".........

Cab stops, and the driver turns and asks me "Where this address?"

"How the hell do I know, I don't live here and you're the taxi driver sunshine (I was getting angry)"

Brrmmmmmm

"WOAH!!!! The meter's been running now for 10 minutes nearly and we've not even left the taxi rank!, I am NOT going to pay you a penny until you work out where we're going, or I"m going to jump in another cab!"

It was then that I spotted the Sat Nav system on his dashboard - "Why don't you put the address in that thing and it'll tell us how to get there" I suggested.

"Not work, NOT WORK!!" replies the driver.

"Not work, or you not know HOW to work?" I ask.

"............I not know how!" he replies.

So I climb into the front of the cab and proceed to program the Sat Nav for him, with the address of where I need to go, all the time slapping his hand away from the control panel every time he thought he knew how to use it. On three occasions he managed to touch a button that he shouldn't and reset the entire thing.........I was close to throwing him out the door and stealing his taxi!

So, in the end, with the Sat Nav programmed and the dirver now thanking me for teaching him how to use the thing, we made our way out to the family that I would be staying with. - Did I tip the guy?........you must be joking!

Cathi, Dan and their two daughters Leanna and Coryn were fantastic hosts. The next day, Cathi and Leanna took me out for a walk around Fairmount Park, and after a good leg stretch and some fresh air, Cathi casually suggested that we all go and get some Custard to eat.

I wasn't entirely sure how to reply. Sure, I like custard, but I failed to see how you could get a takeaway version of it. I started getting visions of Americans sat around with huge cups, full of warm yellow custard, pouring it down their necks and making comments like "Damn, I love custard" or "there's nothing like a cup of custard after a hard days work"..........

But, I agreed to go and get custard, dubious about what exactly I was going to get out of the whole experience.

Ice Cream..........that's what Custard is apparently. It's not yellow OR warm. I was relieved and explained to Cathi how I'd been confused about what exactly I might have been letting myself in for. She'd never heard of the English interpretation of custard. As soon as I get back to the UK, I"m going to send them a jumbo sized packet of Birds finest!

We ate Chinese downtown that night and went to listen to Leanna play the Irish fiddle in a bar. It was a good night out. When we got back to the house, the family invited me to take part in their Hanukkah celebrations and Dan asked me to light one of the candles on the Menorah whilst they sang a blessing. Cathi then gave me a T-shirt as a Hanukkah gift. I wasn't sure what to say, I felt quite priviledged to have been allowed to take part in their celebrations.

The next day I said my goodbyes and caught a train downtown with all my baggage to spend a day at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn for short). I had a full days worth of work related stuff to do and I met loads of great people who work in the Centre for Community Partnerships there.

Later on, I checked into a youth hostel and made my way out for a beer with a couple of people who I'd met at Penn earlier in the day. Then, back to the hostel, good nights kip and up the next day to see some sights and do some shopping.......in the vain hope that I might find something for my cousins who were going to be putting me up for Christmas.

I went to Liberty Hall, saw where George Washington and all his buddies drafted and signed the declaration of independence, and then met up with Leanna for some lunch. We went to Jimi's, a famous and much loved haunt amongst Phildelphians who like a good Philly Cheesesteak! Mine was awesome!

I managed to get a couple of gifts together for my cousins, before I went back to the hostel, ate pizza, drank beer and then went to bed to get a good night's kip before my trip to Washington D.C the next day.

In the morning I jumped on a train and headed south to the Capital!