Martine přijde navštívit Philadelphii

I was going through some pictures from 8 months ago when a Czech friend came to visit me in Philly. So I brought him to all of the things I thought a Czech should know and see in Philadelphia. Here is a nice selection of some fun memories!
The night started out with Martin deciphering the SEPTA schedule. We did end up making it downtown okay. 

According to this, there are lots of numbers.

We got to Suburban and were IMMEDIATELY and forcefully welcomed to Philly by my bank. Martin said "HELLO!" back.

Thank you, Wells Fargo!

We met Brooke Natalie at McGillin's Old Ale House, they opened the year Lincoln was elected President, according to their website, "that's shortly after the Liberty Bell cracked and long before ground was broken for Philadelphia City Hall. The beer taps have been flowing since 1860- making it the oldest continuously operating tavern in Philadelphia. It has outlasted Strawbridge’s, the Civil War and even Prohibition."

He looks so American, doesn't he?

Drinking at some bar I don't remember. It was very nice though.

Smooth transition to the next day.....
This was outside of Reading Terminal Market. I freaking LOVE Reading Terminal. I'm not messing around. If you want a real Philly experience, head there for some eats. Here's my professional recommendation: I always go in the same entrance, on 12th just above Filbert. It's seriously set up like an outdoor market but indoors. there are "streets" labeled I think with letters and crossed by numbers with little street signs hanging at each "intersection." I don't ever look at them.

This is just the kind of thing that happens in Philly.

Go in the second entrance above Filbert, from there grab a mini baguette from the Market Bakery for $1.50 (if they're out, you can have them cut a full baguette in half, same price.) and a coffee because, duh, coffee. Then you continue down that market street/aisle until you hit Hershel's Deli on your right, make a left then a right in front of the Smucker Family meats. You'll recognize them, they'll be wearing heat coverings and looking very Amish. Beck's Cajun Cafe is right next to the Amish place. I like to get a chicken corn chowder and I request some rice on the bottom, then I forgo the utensils and eat it with my mini baguette. SO Good. 

Don't worry, if you get lost or confused, find some old guy sitting at a counter who looks like he lives there. I'm not referencing one specific guy, that is just the exact stereotype you will see. Ask him where the Cajun place is, and you will get exact directions. That's just how Philly Rolls. 

Not this type of Philly Roll.

OH! Absolute necessity for tourists: skip the cheesesteaks, skip DiNick's pulled pork (no one's got time for that line), get a Train Wreck from Beck's Cajun Cafe in Reading Terminal. Just ask this Czech guy- you'll thank me later.

You're Welcome.

The next day we saw some of the non-drinking sights. You know, just to be different. We were walking through Old City when Mercy spotted this fun store!

We really do love Rocky for no apparent reason.

Brooke and Mercy and I were very excited about the "Love" Sculpture at JFK Plaza. I need to preface this- Europeans, at least all of the ones that I know, have this weird obsession with New York. It's weird, especially because I can't stand New York City so I really have no comprehension as to why everyone gets their panties in a twist about it. Martin tried to go to Philly one day in the summer before this, they had GPS issues and ended up driving in circles and having an awful time and never actually parked the car and got out, and then they got lost in Camden. Happens to the best of us.

How lovely

So, when we giddily brought him to JFK Plaza he just kind of shrugged and said they have that in New York, too, right? We all simply glared at him. It doesn't take long to see why OUR Love Sculpture is better than New York's. Philadelphia's Love sits high up on stilts so you can do pictures underneath! Also, it looks straight down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (we really do love him) and you can see the Art Museum in the back. It's quite lovely.

We have a fountain.

Because Martin is Czech we HAD to visit his First President's Historical Marker! (Brooke and I may have a thing for Historical Markers) Tomas Masaryk. It reads: 

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk

(1850-1937)

1st President of Czechoslovakia (1918-1935). On October 26, 1918, he led a gathering of 25 delegates from 12 Central & East European nations at Independence Hall, and delivered the Declaration of Common Aims, a Declaration of Independence for these nations.

Obligatory visit to the Czech Historical Marker.

Typically when we are in Center City, or anywhere for that matter, and we see a historical marker, one of reads it out loud for the rest of the group and/or passersby. Whether you want us to or not. 

The Moon Tree!!!

Because we were already at 6th and Chestnut to see the Czechoslovakian President Marker, we meandered down to 6th and Walnut to see one of my favorite unknown sights, the Bicentennial Moon Tree! 

The moon tree is a beautiful sycamore that was planted in Washington Square Park in May 1975 from seeds that went to (surprise) the Moon on the Apollo XIV mission. This was the first official Moon Tree planted to celebrate the nation's bicentennial. The marker for the Moon Tree reads "Honoring Earth's Green World of Trees" at the bottom. Sadly, and kind of hilariously, the tree died a few years back, around 2008. So it's just a dead tree spindling as high in the air as its dead, branchless trunk can go, and awaits its removal, a definitive admittance of defeat for the Moon.

American Philosophical Society

This is taken from the American Philosophical Society website, both the website and the about page URLs are listed below.

Launching an Inspired Idea 

"The first drudgery of settling new colonies is now pretty well over," wrote Benjamin Franklin in 1743, "and there are many in every province in circumstances that set them at ease, and afford leisure to cultivate the finer arts, and improve the common stock of knowledge." The scholarly society he advocated became a reality that year. By 1769 international acclaim for its accomplishments assured its permanence. Franklin's influence and the needs of American settlements led the Society in its early days to pursue equally "all philosophical Experiments that let Light into the Nature of Things, tend to increase the Power of Man over Matter, and multiply the Conveniencies or Pleasures of Life." Early members included doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and merchants interested in science, and also many learned artisans and tradesmen like Franklin. Many founders of the republic were members: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Rush, James Madison, and John Marshall; as were many distinguished foreigners: Lafayette, von Steuben, Kosciusko.

Yes, that is a statue of Ben Franklin looking ever so stately in the outcove of The Fifth Street façade, Library Hall of the American Philosophical Society

Here is a closer view of him

http://www.amphilsoc.org/

http://www.amphilsoc.org/about

Ben Franklin's Firehouse

In 1736, Franklin created the Union Fire Company, one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in America. 

Philadelphia Fire Department: Engine 8, Ladder 2

The Philadelphia Fire Department's Engine 8, Ladder 2 station is a direct descendant of Ben Franklin's Union Fire Company. It stands at 4th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia's Old City, between the U.S. Mint and Girard Fountain Park.

Some history: Union Fire Company, sometimes called Benjamin Franklin's Bucket Brigade, was a volunteer fire department formed in Philadelphia in 1736 with the assistance of Benjamin Franklin. The first fire fighting organization in Philadelphia, though followed within the year by the Fellowship Fire Company. The fire company was formed on 7 December, 1736 after a series of publications in the Pennsylvania Gazette by Franklin and others pointing out the need for more effective handling of fires in Philadelphia and remained active until approximately 1820.

I also recall something I read at the Ben Franklin museum about his sister's house or friend's house burning to the ground in a different city, which inspired Ben Franklin to pioneer fireproofing inside houses.

About the Company: In the 1884 book History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, John Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott described the organization of the company:

The Union Fire Company was an association for mutual assistance. Each member agreed to furnish, at his own expense, six leather buckets and two stout linen bags, each marked with his name and the name of the company, which he was to bring to every fire. The buckets were for carrying water to extinguish the flames, and the bags were to receive and hold property which was in danger, to save it from risk of theft. The members pledged themselves to repair to any place in danger upon an alarm of fire with their apparatus. Some were to superintend the use of the water, others were to stand at the doors of houses in danger, and to protect the property from theft. On an alarm of fire at night it was agreed that lights should be placed in the windows of houses of members near the fire "in order to prevent confusion, and to enable their friends to give them more speedy and effectual assistance.'

The "Keys To Community" Ben Franklin bronze bust is just to the right of the Firehouse, and is made up entirely of KEYS! There is a small park with a fountain behind the brick wall.