Philidelphia in 2018
Jan. 22nd, 2021 07:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitewriterA conference, a side trip to Philly and family in Canada
The conference.
In 2018, I finally pulled my socks up and took up the offer to apply for, and attend (with a lot of planning and forethought) an overseas conference on the dime of the Australasian Neuroscience Nursing Association (ANNA). That event was the highlight of my neuroscience nursing career (that I do mention as being the best thing about working there). That if you planned properly, you could have a free overseas holiday yearly (oh and like, the educational opportunity, of course).
This was my first and so far, only overseas conference I ever attended.
To get the deal (flights and conference paid for up to 2800 AUD) I had to:
Find the conference that I was interested in, had appropriate dates to suit life schedules (not too close to Christmas, or important dates for dragon boat at the time, etc.), and was in a decent place I actually wanted to visit.
Then apply for annual leave to cover the time I wanted to be away - and also, at the same time, prepare to ask for study leave (as study leave would be better to take than annual leave, but if the approval isn't granted then I have a backup and I don't lose "everything" so to speak).
Find an obscure form called an oracle 12, and fill out some forms for the ANNA detailing the conference/why I wanted to attend/proof that I was employed full time >1 year in a neuroscience nursing job. Provide quotes for the flights and the conference cost.
There was a slight nervousness in booking everything because they wanted my receipt before they would reimburse me. 2.8g was no small amount to sniff at! - but I knew a member on the board of ANNA who reassured me it would all work out, so I took the plunge (and it worked out!).
The study leave even got approved so I only ended up needing to take 2 weeks of annual leave and still get basically a whole month off. I managed to get approval for travel time also! So 5 days study leave -- and if you stack your shifts either side: you could drag it out to 4 weeks.
The conference was the American Neuroscience nursing association annual meeting, this time planned for San Diego. It was 3 days long and came with an afterparty. One other workmate was also planning to attend, but her main deal was to spend time with some family on that side of the USA, so I had prepared to be alone for most of the conference.
I booked additional flights and made plans to visit family in Canada afterwards.
I actually attended a lot of talks at the conference, it was really interesting to see how it was run, to see the posters people made and stood by (and I even talked to a few of them) - and took photos, to prove that I attended (and I also used those photos in my "post conference essay" which was a mandatory write up that if you didn't write: you likely wouldn't get funding for another conference in the future).
The photo was me posing with a portable EEG monitor that was some new technology to replace the (apparently 2 hours, but I swear it's more like 1 hour) to set up a formal EEG monitor on a pt with ?seizures. This new monitor supposedly could give as good a analysis as the formal, but take 5 minutes to set up.
There's another photo of a bed for patients with anxiety and confusion: it basically looked like a mini camp bed, with walls and a ceiling made out of canvas: with mesh windows. It's supposed to provide them both privacy and safety so we could monitor them whilst they're inside their mini- "cave". I could never imagine nursing someone whilst they were inside one of those things. Not considering the absolute un-private space that is the open ICU that I love so much (and btw, as of late is going out of fashion for glass walled enclosures with glass that can turn opaque at the press of a button).
I was overall a little lonely during the conference but really enjoyed the break away from Australia.
But it was so exciting! I could do whatever I wanted (but, was keenly aware of my own budget and that I had a mortgage back home). I stayed in a 2 bedroom room (bunk beds it turned out to be) at a hostel which was $25 USD a night- hostel, so no room service. I just paid for the other bed and had the whole room to myself. They included breakfast in a roach infested kitchen (I didn't see any roaches but I could hear the other residents talking about it) and a very homely shared bathroom. But I loved it because I didn't need to think about tipping, the internet was good, and it was a 5 min walk from the conference hall.
The conference hall, is the same one they use for the famous comic con that I had coveted when I was a full blown TV nut/fangirl so just being there was pretty cool. I could never afford to attend the cons and often would avoid watch the live streams because they just were too amazing. It's so unfair when your a whole world away, and the cool stuff is happening- and you can't be there. Australian cons are lucky to get 1 star per show. The US cons have .. THE. ENTIRE. CAST. I digress...
I got to try out walgreens!
And go to the cheesecake factory again (last time I'd been was a trip to Hawaii in 2015).
I saw the sights of San Diego on foot mostly or via bus.
I contemplated taking a day trip to Mexico to try some "real mexican food" supposedly, but then decided against it incase something went wrong, and the whole $50 to go over the boarder in a van with a group of randoms sounded a little... dodgy.
I could have hired a car and taken myself (but driving on the wrong side of the road sounded dangerous) or, gotten a better quality tour (more expensive), but decided against it.
Instead I walked from the conference center to Baloba park and toured that and a museum inside there. Walked randomly around the city.
I got myself into some slightly dangerous situations: when I was coming back from the park, I randomly was across from the public library, and literally without realising it, stepped into a homeless commune. I swear it was right on the side walk. And there were cops (omg American cops! -- I was like woah this is like on the TV...) talking to the homeless. Whom with their shopping trolleys loaded with their stuff, and their bare feet, didn't seem dangerous but still.
Here I was this little idiot from Australia walking around the city like I owned the place... clearly I was in the wrong place... I quickly hightailed it out of there.
It was a quiet city. There was a boulevard type walk thing I did one morning with the workmate before she left to go do more of her family thing.
I went to the after party alone, because: free dinner: plus it was on a ship! there are all these ships from wars dotted across the jetty area of San Diego, and it was cool to go inside one of those.
I left that gig early and on the way walking home to the hostel, there was a weird event in a hotel, with people screaming, and some fancy cars... I took photos because I didn't know what was going on, but figured it wasn't something interesting after the fact.
The conference only provided food on day 1 so I also got to try out a few places to eat (besides the roach infested free breakfast at the hostel, heh). Soft tacos, and a donut place are what I can remember. I'd google "what to eat in San Diego", look at the list, and use google maps to find the place. The best thing I found was probably getting to try in and out in LAX on the way to San Diego actually. I had a 6 hour layover, and I decided instead of waiting in the airport that I'd take the public bus from the airport, and see what there was to see nearby (turns out not much). The bus stop was populated with people I wasn't sure I could talk to if I needed help. I'm going to be mean and say they looked poor/had a hard life - [at least, not drug effected, which would be worse]. I'm sure if I needed to I would have spoken up, and they would have pointed me in the right direction. But I felt out of sorts. The people back home looked - at that time to me- friendlier, or more approachable somehow.
I managed to figure out what bus to take to go somewhere not too random-- I think I aimed for the jetty thing in LA (but wasn't planning to go all the way there because I had limited time) - but not one stop from the airport, I found an in and out. Got off the bus (which I paid for with coins in my memory...) and pretty much walked back to the airport afterwards because, well. I could see where to go (lol).
I was keenly aware of the time: because I've missed planes before.
In and out was okay. They sold milk! in single serve cartons -plain. I thought that was odd but a good option (we don't have that in fast food outlets in Australia). They even sold a t-shirt - it looked cool so I bought it.
My online friend Rosy advised me a little regarding what to order. She lives in San francisco (so she said, we've never met and I've never seen a photo) but we chat a lot on Hangouts. It was nice to know at least I sorta knew 1 person in this whole massive place.
At the same time I also found a citibank which was really good because I had a very low amount of USD on me for safety sake.
I went past LAX on the way home too (after Canada), and this time made it onto the same public bus, and took it all the way to the jetty to go see that "Santa monica Pier" that everyone talks about on TV and movies and that was really cute and sweet. I had a very expensive taco opposite the jetty, and then took myself back on the bus to LAX to go back to Australia. I remember sitting on the bus and thinking that that main road looked a lot like "parramatta road" in Sydney. It was a 6 lane road (almost a highway but only went at 60kmph) and was very full of traffic, lights, stores along the side but nowhere to park. Dusty. None of the buildings were higher than 3 stories. The sort of road you go on to go somewhere but wouldn't want to live along.
Philadelphia
When you travel for work (which I never did) you forget how much time is spent "getting there". There's the planning. The packing. The calculating how much time you need to get to the airport - then the waiting at the airport (thanks 911), 3 hours prior to an international flight is the standard. The getting through security. The boarding. The actual flight itself. The collecting your baggage: and then the airport is likely nowhere near your accommodation: so you need to figure that out: (and I'm a public transport connoisseur) and before you know it your 14 hour flight to get to xyz really means 2 days of your life.
I planned to go to Ottawa from San Diego.
From memory it meant going back to LAX, then stopping over at probably Chicago O' hare for 1 hour, and then onto a flight to Ottawa.
which is a similar route I took back in 2004. I remember in 2004 being excited to physically be in O'Hare airport (weird right) because there was an E.R. episode at that airport I think, where Carol is running down the hall-- something to do with Doug, I can't remember and I thought it was really cool that I was in that place.
Apparently snow storms still happen in March, and when I got to LAX, the lady at the desk looked at me funny and was like "yeah your flights cancelled... there's a snow storm in the East".
and I was thinking, crap. And its March... how is it still snowing?!
Now what.
(I didn't have data or an American sim card or roaming for phone calls on my phone because the tight arse I was - was relying on public wifi to get me through this trip.) For emergencies I think my sim would have worked and the cost I'm sure would have been exorbitant.
She looked at me with my one carry on bag and was like: "your a long way from home little lady, are you by yourself?" (I'm not little... at 5"10 and 80kg at the time, certainly not little). I confirmed yes.
and then she said "I'll see what I can do for you".
I remember thinking I am 30! And I have a job, and a credit card. and I'm not little - I act poor but I'm not - so what's the deal here-
I was thinking oo maybe I could get rerouted and go via New York (dreamcometrueee) "I'll put you on a flight to Philadelphia, you'll have to find accomodation for 1 night, and then the next day, from Philadelphia I'll put you on a plane to toronto, and then take the connection to Ottawa."
I was like. damn. not NYC. Okay. Whatever. So I'd be 2 days late to Canada. no biggie.
Quick I hopped onto the public wifi at the airport and tried to find a place to stay. It was : near the airport v. near the city.
Little adventurer I am (who also didn't learn from when she missed planes in the past) chose near the city.
I picked another hostel, which had rave reviews and was slightly on the more expensive side but also had dinner included for $40 USD a night. Something nearby to Benjamin franklin's grave.
Then I settled into the hour wait for that flight, by planning out things to do in philly when I got there and figuring out their public transport option from the airport (a 1 hour train that comes every 30 mins or so, and costs peanuts to take).
I asked Rosy later what was the deal with the airline lady and she's like :
Looters.
I immediately thought of that episode where Scully delivers the baby in a hurricane "Agila Mala".
She explained that when there's a snowstorm (and this one activated a state of emergency also)- that the electricity poles go down, and then looters roam and it can get rather dangerous.
I had no idea to be honest.
I was on a 3 week trip with only carry on luggage.
I had prepared a large knee length Kathmandu down coat but beyond that, my shoes definitely weren't snow worthy (I had one pair and it was basically no more than ballet flats).
I get off this hour long train ride after staring out at residential houses sitting in snow. Also wondering what I was going to do if the trains stopped working due to the snow (and thinking it would have probably been safer to have stayed at a hotel nearby to the airport)... There was about a 10 block walk from the large train interchange in Philadelphia to the hostel which was closer to the historical end of town (rather than the business end which was where the train was) and whilst that looked really close on the map, in hindsight it really wasn't.
I think it was an odd time of day because in my memory, nothing was open.
I don't remember being hungry but I remember wanting to try philly cheese steak (seriously overrated) and also something called scrapple (which was described online as everything from a pig in a loaf including the snout). I think I had hoagie on my list too but, I only had 24 hours ...
So I'm on this sidewalk, in my ballet flats which have zero grip. With my one bag.
In my giant jacket (so lucky I had that with me. because, stores were closed: where would I go?!) stepping precariously on the very slippery cement thinking about that Airline lady calling me: "little lady" and feeling every bit the little lady all alone in the city.
I maybe saw 2 people the whole trip down the 10 blocks and I found the little side street the hostel was on and it was caked in thick snow.
The place was open, I got my bunk. The showers were fantastic (not disgusting like the San diego place) despite being shared showers.
I roamed the common rooms thinking about what to do tomorrow for my 10 hours in Philly provided the snow stopped coming down.
Met a random librarian at dinner and we got talking.
She was in her 60s and in town for some conference thing too - some librarian conference - where you meet authors, who are there to sell their books: convince schools and etc. that they need to have their book in their library for the year.
She invited me to go to the conference too. I was like... tonight? And she's like yeah We'll find a taxi and you can come with me. I didn't have any other plans so I agreed.
She was leaving at 1930 so I just had to be ready and meet her at the front door at that time.
I think I was nothing more than company. I'm rather bubbly when I want to be.
Anyhow. So we found a taxi, - for this trip roughly the similar distance to what I had walked earlier. I don't know how the taxi made it through. The wheels seemed to slip and slide all over the joint and he could only go at maybe 20kmph.
But we made it. (and I thought about how I walked in the snow earlier that day)
To this thing where authors did talks about their books (and I had no idea because I hadn't read the book: the books were unreleased) --
and after the talking bit. (which i did stay alert for, surprisingly) - they all sat behind their tables and gave out free copies, which I think they signed. I'd follow the librarian to the tables and when they went to write in their book I'd say "Hi I'm from Australia, I've never been to philly before" lol every bit the idiot pollyanna I was.
I ended up with about 6 or 7 books I never read, nor have no idea where they are now. I think I left most of them in my cousins house in Canada.
I went back to the hostel with the librarian (whom, when in hindsight could have been an axe murderer) and thanked her for the interesting evening.
The next morning - I was up at the crack of dawn to tackle my list. The snow had stopped, and it seemed some streets had been plowed but not all. And the side walk, I think had been salted somewhat.
I got to visit Benjamin Franklin's grave.
His house (well, a metal replica of the outline in the place where it once stood)
and
THE LIBERTY BELL (remember that episode... where Scully describes it as a big bell with a big crack etc.) it wasn't as big as I thought it would be, - and I literally rushed past all the exhibits in the hall prior to getting into the bell - for which they have airport style security for, mind you.
Some sort of historical post office? I think I even sent out some postcards from there.
And eventually, I found scrapple. At some indoor market nearby the train station.
I traipsed up and down that slippery sidewalk about 4 times that day looking at the historical sights before finally saying goodbye to philly (which turned out to be even better than visiting NYC for one night and half a day: because realistically, I would have been much too overwhelmed with what to do in NYC and probably would not have been able to achieve 1/10th of what I'd like to see there whilst in Philly I pretty much did it all) and boarding the train back to the airport to go to Canada.
Looking back, I was quite the adventurous spirit. That was my one and only trip overseas alone. Usually I'm with someone: family, or a friend, or Pete. But that trip was just me and my little carry on bag. I didn't get shot, and Trump was in the White House (that was slightly unnerving). I got to explore two amazing cities, have a crazy adventure that couldn't have been planned - all on a fairly tight budget.
The conference.
In 2018, I finally pulled my socks up and took up the offer to apply for, and attend (with a lot of planning and forethought) an overseas conference on the dime of the Australasian Neuroscience Nursing Association (ANNA). That event was the highlight of my neuroscience nursing career (that I do mention as being the best thing about working there). That if you planned properly, you could have a free overseas holiday yearly (oh and like, the educational opportunity, of course).
This was my first and so far, only overseas conference I ever attended.
To get the deal (flights and conference paid for up to 2800 AUD) I had to:
Find the conference that I was interested in, had appropriate dates to suit life schedules (not too close to Christmas, or important dates for dragon boat at the time, etc.), and was in a decent place I actually wanted to visit.
Then apply for annual leave to cover the time I wanted to be away - and also, at the same time, prepare to ask for study leave (as study leave would be better to take than annual leave, but if the approval isn't granted then I have a backup and I don't lose "everything" so to speak).
Find an obscure form called an oracle 12, and fill out some forms for the ANNA detailing the conference/why I wanted to attend/proof that I was employed full time >1 year in a neuroscience nursing job. Provide quotes for the flights and the conference cost.
There was a slight nervousness in booking everything because they wanted my receipt before they would reimburse me. 2.8g was no small amount to sniff at! - but I knew a member on the board of ANNA who reassured me it would all work out, so I took the plunge (and it worked out!).
The study leave even got approved so I only ended up needing to take 2 weeks of annual leave and still get basically a whole month off. I managed to get approval for travel time also! So 5 days study leave -- and if you stack your shifts either side: you could drag it out to 4 weeks.
The conference was the American Neuroscience nursing association annual meeting, this time planned for San Diego. It was 3 days long and came with an afterparty. One other workmate was also planning to attend, but her main deal was to spend time with some family on that side of the USA, so I had prepared to be alone for most of the conference.
I booked additional flights and made plans to visit family in Canada afterwards.
I actually attended a lot of talks at the conference, it was really interesting to see how it was run, to see the posters people made and stood by (and I even talked to a few of them) - and took photos, to prove that I attended (and I also used those photos in my "post conference essay" which was a mandatory write up that if you didn't write: you likely wouldn't get funding for another conference in the future).
The photo was me posing with a portable EEG monitor that was some new technology to replace the (apparently 2 hours, but I swear it's more like 1 hour) to set up a formal EEG monitor on a pt with ?seizures. This new monitor supposedly could give as good a analysis as the formal, but take 5 minutes to set up.
There's another photo of a bed for patients with anxiety and confusion: it basically looked like a mini camp bed, with walls and a ceiling made out of canvas: with mesh windows. It's supposed to provide them both privacy and safety so we could monitor them whilst they're inside their mini- "cave". I could never imagine nursing someone whilst they were inside one of those things. Not considering the absolute un-private space that is the open ICU that I love so much (and btw, as of late is going out of fashion for glass walled enclosures with glass that can turn opaque at the press of a button).
I was overall a little lonely during the conference but really enjoyed the break away from Australia.
But it was so exciting! I could do whatever I wanted (but, was keenly aware of my own budget and that I had a mortgage back home). I stayed in a 2 bedroom room (bunk beds it turned out to be) at a hostel which was $25 USD a night- hostel, so no room service. I just paid for the other bed and had the whole room to myself. They included breakfast in a roach infested kitchen (I didn't see any roaches but I could hear the other residents talking about it) and a very homely shared bathroom. But I loved it because I didn't need to think about tipping, the internet was good, and it was a 5 min walk from the conference hall.
The conference hall, is the same one they use for the famous comic con that I had coveted when I was a full blown TV nut/fangirl so just being there was pretty cool. I could never afford to attend the cons and often would avoid watch the live streams because they just were too amazing. It's so unfair when your a whole world away, and the cool stuff is happening- and you can't be there. Australian cons are lucky to get 1 star per show. The US cons have .. THE. ENTIRE. CAST. I digress...
I got to try out walgreens!
And go to the cheesecake factory again (last time I'd been was a trip to Hawaii in 2015).
I saw the sights of San Diego on foot mostly or via bus.
I contemplated taking a day trip to Mexico to try some "real mexican food" supposedly, but then decided against it incase something went wrong, and the whole $50 to go over the boarder in a van with a group of randoms sounded a little... dodgy.
I could have hired a car and taken myself (but driving on the wrong side of the road sounded dangerous) or, gotten a better quality tour (more expensive), but decided against it.
Instead I walked from the conference center to Baloba park and toured that and a museum inside there. Walked randomly around the city.
I got myself into some slightly dangerous situations: when I was coming back from the park, I randomly was across from the public library, and literally without realising it, stepped into a homeless commune. I swear it was right on the side walk. And there were cops (omg American cops! -- I was like woah this is like on the TV...) talking to the homeless. Whom with their shopping trolleys loaded with their stuff, and their bare feet, didn't seem dangerous but still.
Here I was this little idiot from Australia walking around the city like I owned the place... clearly I was in the wrong place... I quickly hightailed it out of there.
It was a quiet city. There was a boulevard type walk thing I did one morning with the workmate before she left to go do more of her family thing.
I went to the after party alone, because: free dinner: plus it was on a ship! there are all these ships from wars dotted across the jetty area of San Diego, and it was cool to go inside one of those.
I left that gig early and on the way walking home to the hostel, there was a weird event in a hotel, with people screaming, and some fancy cars... I took photos because I didn't know what was going on, but figured it wasn't something interesting after the fact.
The conference only provided food on day 1 so I also got to try out a few places to eat (besides the roach infested free breakfast at the hostel, heh). Soft tacos, and a donut place are what I can remember. I'd google "what to eat in San Diego", look at the list, and use google maps to find the place. The best thing I found was probably getting to try in and out in LAX on the way to San Diego actually. I had a 6 hour layover, and I decided instead of waiting in the airport that I'd take the public bus from the airport, and see what there was to see nearby (turns out not much). The bus stop was populated with people I wasn't sure I could talk to if I needed help. I'm going to be mean and say they looked poor/had a hard life - [at least, not drug effected, which would be worse]. I'm sure if I needed to I would have spoken up, and they would have pointed me in the right direction. But I felt out of sorts. The people back home looked - at that time to me- friendlier, or more approachable somehow.
I managed to figure out what bus to take to go somewhere not too random-- I think I aimed for the jetty thing in LA (but wasn't planning to go all the way there because I had limited time) - but not one stop from the airport, I found an in and out. Got off the bus (which I paid for with coins in my memory...) and pretty much walked back to the airport afterwards because, well. I could see where to go (lol).
I was keenly aware of the time: because I've missed planes before.
In and out was okay. They sold milk! in single serve cartons -plain. I thought that was odd but a good option (we don't have that in fast food outlets in Australia). They even sold a t-shirt - it looked cool so I bought it.
My online friend Rosy advised me a little regarding what to order. She lives in San francisco (so she said, we've never met and I've never seen a photo) but we chat a lot on Hangouts. It was nice to know at least I sorta knew 1 person in this whole massive place.
At the same time I also found a citibank which was really good because I had a very low amount of USD on me for safety sake.
I went past LAX on the way home too (after Canada), and this time made it onto the same public bus, and took it all the way to the jetty to go see that "Santa monica Pier" that everyone talks about on TV and movies and that was really cute and sweet. I had a very expensive taco opposite the jetty, and then took myself back on the bus to LAX to go back to Australia. I remember sitting on the bus and thinking that that main road looked a lot like "parramatta road" in Sydney. It was a 6 lane road (almost a highway but only went at 60kmph) and was very full of traffic, lights, stores along the side but nowhere to park. Dusty. None of the buildings were higher than 3 stories. The sort of road you go on to go somewhere but wouldn't want to live along.
Philadelphia
When you travel for work (which I never did) you forget how much time is spent "getting there". There's the planning. The packing. The calculating how much time you need to get to the airport - then the waiting at the airport (thanks 911), 3 hours prior to an international flight is the standard. The getting through security. The boarding. The actual flight itself. The collecting your baggage: and then the airport is likely nowhere near your accommodation: so you need to figure that out: (and I'm a public transport connoisseur) and before you know it your 14 hour flight to get to xyz really means 2 days of your life.
I planned to go to Ottawa from San Diego.
From memory it meant going back to LAX, then stopping over at probably Chicago O' hare for 1 hour, and then onto a flight to Ottawa.
which is a similar route I took back in 2004. I remember in 2004 being excited to physically be in O'Hare airport (weird right) because there was an E.R. episode at that airport I think, where Carol is running down the hall-- something to do with Doug, I can't remember and I thought it was really cool that I was in that place.
Apparently snow storms still happen in March, and when I got to LAX, the lady at the desk looked at me funny and was like "yeah your flights cancelled... there's a snow storm in the East".
and I was thinking, crap. And its March... how is it still snowing?!
Now what.
(I didn't have data or an American sim card or roaming for phone calls on my phone because the tight arse I was - was relying on public wifi to get me through this trip.) For emergencies I think my sim would have worked and the cost I'm sure would have been exorbitant.
She looked at me with my one carry on bag and was like: "your a long way from home little lady, are you by yourself?" (I'm not little... at 5"10 and 80kg at the time, certainly not little). I confirmed yes.
and then she said "I'll see what I can do for you".
I remember thinking I am 30! And I have a job, and a credit card. and I'm not little - I act poor but I'm not - so what's the deal here-
I was thinking oo maybe I could get rerouted and go via New York (dreamcometrueee) "I'll put you on a flight to Philadelphia, you'll have to find accomodation for 1 night, and then the next day, from Philadelphia I'll put you on a plane to toronto, and then take the connection to Ottawa."
I was like. damn. not NYC. Okay. Whatever. So I'd be 2 days late to Canada. no biggie.
Quick I hopped onto the public wifi at the airport and tried to find a place to stay. It was : near the airport v. near the city.
Little adventurer I am (who also didn't learn from when she missed planes in the past) chose near the city.
I picked another hostel, which had rave reviews and was slightly on the more expensive side but also had dinner included for $40 USD a night. Something nearby to Benjamin franklin's grave.
Then I settled into the hour wait for that flight, by planning out things to do in philly when I got there and figuring out their public transport option from the airport (a 1 hour train that comes every 30 mins or so, and costs peanuts to take).
I asked Rosy later what was the deal with the airline lady and she's like :
Looters.
I immediately thought of that episode where Scully delivers the baby in a hurricane "Agila Mala".
She explained that when there's a snowstorm (and this one activated a state of emergency also)- that the electricity poles go down, and then looters roam and it can get rather dangerous.
I had no idea to be honest.
I was on a 3 week trip with only carry on luggage.
I had prepared a large knee length Kathmandu down coat but beyond that, my shoes definitely weren't snow worthy (I had one pair and it was basically no more than ballet flats).
I get off this hour long train ride after staring out at residential houses sitting in snow. Also wondering what I was going to do if the trains stopped working due to the snow (and thinking it would have probably been safer to have stayed at a hotel nearby to the airport)... There was about a 10 block walk from the large train interchange in Philadelphia to the hostel which was closer to the historical end of town (rather than the business end which was where the train was) and whilst that looked really close on the map, in hindsight it really wasn't.
I think it was an odd time of day because in my memory, nothing was open.
I don't remember being hungry but I remember wanting to try philly cheese steak (seriously overrated) and also something called scrapple (which was described online as everything from a pig in a loaf including the snout). I think I had hoagie on my list too but, I only had 24 hours ...
So I'm on this sidewalk, in my ballet flats which have zero grip. With my one bag.
In my giant jacket (so lucky I had that with me. because, stores were closed: where would I go?!) stepping precariously on the very slippery cement thinking about that Airline lady calling me: "little lady" and feeling every bit the little lady all alone in the city.
I maybe saw 2 people the whole trip down the 10 blocks and I found the little side street the hostel was on and it was caked in thick snow.
The place was open, I got my bunk. The showers were fantastic (not disgusting like the San diego place) despite being shared showers.
I roamed the common rooms thinking about what to do tomorrow for my 10 hours in Philly provided the snow stopped coming down.
Met a random librarian at dinner and we got talking.
She was in her 60s and in town for some conference thing too - some librarian conference - where you meet authors, who are there to sell their books: convince schools and etc. that they need to have their book in their library for the year.
She invited me to go to the conference too. I was like... tonight? And she's like yeah We'll find a taxi and you can come with me. I didn't have any other plans so I agreed.
She was leaving at 1930 so I just had to be ready and meet her at the front door at that time.
I think I was nothing more than company. I'm rather bubbly when I want to be.
Anyhow. So we found a taxi, - for this trip roughly the similar distance to what I had walked earlier. I don't know how the taxi made it through. The wheels seemed to slip and slide all over the joint and he could only go at maybe 20kmph.
But we made it. (and I thought about how I walked in the snow earlier that day)
To this thing where authors did talks about their books (and I had no idea because I hadn't read the book: the books were unreleased) --
and after the talking bit. (which i did stay alert for, surprisingly) - they all sat behind their tables and gave out free copies, which I think they signed. I'd follow the librarian to the tables and when they went to write in their book I'd say "Hi I'm from Australia, I've never been to philly before" lol every bit the idiot pollyanna I was.
I ended up with about 6 or 7 books I never read, nor have no idea where they are now. I think I left most of them in my cousins house in Canada.
I went back to the hostel with the librarian (whom, when in hindsight could have been an axe murderer) and thanked her for the interesting evening.
The next morning - I was up at the crack of dawn to tackle my list. The snow had stopped, and it seemed some streets had been plowed but not all. And the side walk, I think had been salted somewhat.
I got to visit Benjamin Franklin's grave.
His house (well, a metal replica of the outline in the place where it once stood)
and
THE LIBERTY BELL (remember that episode... where Scully describes it as a big bell with a big crack etc.) it wasn't as big as I thought it would be, - and I literally rushed past all the exhibits in the hall prior to getting into the bell - for which they have airport style security for, mind you.
Some sort of historical post office? I think I even sent out some postcards from there.
And eventually, I found scrapple. At some indoor market nearby the train station.
I traipsed up and down that slippery sidewalk about 4 times that day looking at the historical sights before finally saying goodbye to philly (which turned out to be even better than visiting NYC for one night and half a day: because realistically, I would have been much too overwhelmed with what to do in NYC and probably would not have been able to achieve 1/10th of what I'd like to see there whilst in Philly I pretty much did it all) and boarding the train back to the airport to go to Canada.
Looking back, I was quite the adventurous spirit. That was my one and only trip overseas alone. Usually I'm with someone: family, or a friend, or Pete. But that trip was just me and my little carry on bag. I didn't get shot, and Trump was in the White House (that was slightly unnerving). I got to explore two amazing cities, have a crazy adventure that couldn't have been planned - all on a fairly tight budget.
