Last Two days in Philly

I got into Philly and ended up crashing with a bunch of folks from the couch surfing website. It was kind of random and the first time I'd done it before. I got shown around the house by a girl I haven't seen much, since she works the night shift at a bar, it hasn't been that much of a problem since there are 6 people and a dog in the house I'm staying at. The rest of the house is pretty cool and I spent my first evening sitting around drinking a really good big bottle of Yuengling. For those who might be reading this, Yuengling is America's oldest brewery and makes some really good beer that you can't get in MA for some reason.

I then wandered around the city on my bike for most of the following day taking in a few of the sights. I saw Independence Hall from the outside because I'd been it already and didn't really want to see a bunch of empty tables. I checked out the outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was neat unto itself, it's painted neoclassical, and the Rocky Statue outside it. I also went all around Philly just checking out city hall and random cool buildings and seeing the scenery. The thing that is really cool about Philly is that it's a planned city and has numbered streets going from North to South which makes it easier to navigate, then say Boston.

I also checked out one of the historic Quaker meeting houses that is around the city. I met an older retired fellow and learned a good deal about Quaker history, on a one to one basis due to the high volume of foot traffic. It would appear that even as early as the 19th century there was discussions in the Quaker commune about the divinity of Jesus and the validity of the trinity. From what this older guy told me the Quakers split up about it some time ago. The church I was in had taken a more universal approached and it sounded like was not exactly overflowing with members. It was a cool learning opportunity, since I thought the Quakers were awe inspiring in their time. It got me thinking about large religious movements in the past, do we really need to form a new church just to have a profoundly positive affect on society and for God? I couldn't really come up with an air tight answer to that question. I just would like to believe that god can move without humanity not wanting to put a new label on it.

I spent today, both getting lost in random places in Philly and going to the Art Museum, which was really cool. They have some of the best collections of rooms from other places of any museum I've been to. What I mean is overly ornate rooms from medieval times and a lot of parlors from the 18th and 19th centuries. They also had a temple from Southern India and 

a formal room from a lower dignitary in China; which were truthfully the highlights. I'm just hoping that my pictures came out. I did feel sorry about all the places the museum got this stuff from as I'm sure many native people might want it back in the fullness of time. For example if the revolution hadn't happened, in China I wouldn't think they would have as much stuff as they did. In the mean time before that happens, it's was a cool museum and I really would recommend it to anyone to check out. 

I also tried to get to the Eastern State Penitentiary and over stayed my time at the museum, so it was closed. I also tried to go to the Edgar Allan Poe's house which was also more of a historic marker rather then an actual exhibit.

It was a good day and I biked way too much over the last few days my legs kills in ways they never have before, so I'm hoping that it isn't a bad sign. I also need to get a new bike seat some thing I know I've been saying it for a while.