Philadelphia: where the heart is

I'd like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do.

~ Mae West

Sometimes it is easier for travelers to daydream of future trips and reminisce about past ones than to appreciate where they are at the moment. I fall into that trap way too often, so today I am looking at Philadelphia, my home city, as a new destination.

I've lived in Philly for two years now, and most of my childhood was spent right across the bridge in South Jersey, so I can say with conviction that this city is completely unique. It has it all: small town sensibility? Check! Amazing historical sites? Check! Fantastic underground arts, theatre and food scene? Check! The meanest sports fans in the world and regular fights between cops and civilians? Yet another check!

It's a gritty town, no one would argue that, and it's possible that through the decades it has lost some of it's The Philadelphia Story glamor. But I think that the rough edges and lack of pretense is what makes the city so charming. Just don't insult the  Phillies in a public place if you prefer your eyes un-blackened.

Philadelphia has it's share of oddities too, and I don't just mean the guy who is constantly biking around South Street in a viking helmet. The Philadelphia Library owns Grip, a raven who was pet to one writer (Charles Dickens) and inspiration to another (Edgar Allen Poe). Preserved in arsenic, Grip's days of rapping at people's doors are through, but he is kept in a glass case to be viewed in the rare books and antiquities section.

More Philly sites and tidbits to come . . .

Photos from weheartit.