Poverty

The car park suggested by the City's website seemed to be miles away from the centre of Philadelphia. But this was a blessing in disguise because I spotted on the Delaware River nearby the Battleship USS New Jersey, so I took a look around. Also conveniently there was a Ferry Service across the river. Into Philly there was once again some interesting buildings like the City Hall, as well as some fantastic skyscrapers. It was however noticeable that there is more poverty here than in any place I have been to on this trip so far. I passed maybe 100 people in a park sitting on benches with what was probably all their worldly belongings - I was very wary of being robbed. Most disturbingly, when I was in McDonald's (getting another salad of course!) a woman walked in off the street and started looking through the rubbish bin for food, and there was a bit of a slanging match when the staff escorted her off the premises. It nearly put me off my Burger...sorry, I mean my salad! On to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell - it's a Bell with a crack in it but it is symbolic of Americas independence. There was one more sight I went to see in this very historically important City - that's right, the Rocky Statue! It is situated near the Arts Museum, the steps up to which in one of the films Rocky runs up and jumps up and down with his arms in the air. Even though it was 97 degrees, I promise you all that I did run up the steps, although I wasn't brave enough to jump up and down with my arms aloft because there was a lot of people around! When I had recovered about an hour afterwards, I did the 3 hour drive to Washington.
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