More than just cream cheese

For the past few days I've been having a really good time with my friend Matt in Philladephia. I've seen a lot of stuff that I didn't even know was here. For Example the steps that Stallone runs up in Rocky. I spent yesterday looking around the historical part of the city. They are very proud of the fact that Benjamin Franklin lived here for most of his life. He was a pretty interesting fellow, not only was pretty important in founding the country, but he also did a load of science things. He was a printer and head of the Masons twice. He is totally worshipped in this city, I even paid $2 to see his grave. After walking around all the Franklin stuff I checked out the Liberty Bell. It is famous for being the bell that was rung to call people to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independance. After this I went to see Independence Hall which is famous for being where the Americans gave up on the English by signing the Declaration of Independence. It was here that they also signed the Constitution as well as having been visited by many other famous American presidents. I basically had a day being schooled in American history. In the evening, Matt and I went out to West Philly to watch an acoustic bluegrass band who were absolutely outstanding.

Today I saw another famous part of the city, the city hall and it's free mason lodge. The some of the rooms in the lodge where very impressive and the view from the city hall was amazing. Upon the top stands an 11 metre statue of William Penn, the city's founder. In the afternoon I walked around the art gallery, which is the building that Rocky runs up. There were some really good classic impressionist European paintings that appeal to me including paintings by Van Gogh, Monet and Cezanne. However there was also a lot of modern stuff that does nothing for me. We spent this evening rock climbing, which I need to practice more at because I like it but I'm not very good. We're off to New York City for the weekend where we're going to a comedy club night. So it's been a pretty eventful couple of days.