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PHILLY POST. PHILLY TOAST.
I don't know, guys.
Here's the Philadelphia trip recap! Saturday, Feb 2, Canes @ Flyers.
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celerywench & I met up Saturday morning at Union Station in DC at 8:30, swept through Au Bon Pain for our absolutely necessary coffee, and managed to just get on our Megabus to Philly. We snagged free roundtrip tickets from DC to Philly (applicable to dates of our choice) back in the summer and originally planned to use them for the Hawks @ Flyers preseason game in September, but obviously that fell through...
The ride was fine, though we drove right past the Wells Fargo Center and all the way around the city to Drexel University, where we were dropped off, so we had to navigate our way back, essentially. But we'd done our Google Mapping before the trip so we knew our step by step plans to get to downtown.
We ran into such friendly people at Philly! A conductor-type guy at 30th Street Station helpfully pointed out that we could take the local light rail across the river to the Market East stop for free instead of paying $2 for the subway - we still don't know why it was free, but hey, who looks a gift horse in the mouth?
Once we got to Market East, we had to navigate to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch - and while staring at the GPSes on our phones, another helpful guy gave us directions. Let me tell you, a human who knows the area? Way more helpful than a GPS.
Reading Terminal Market was great! So busy and bustling on a Saturday afternoon, and so much fresh produce:
We got some delectable grilled cheese sandwiches from Meltkraft of Valley Shepherd Dairy:
The melter skelter was various cheeses, pickled green tomatoes, jalepenos, and watercress. Plus a side of KETCHUP CHIPS. (I thought of you,kasugai_gummie, who love them and first clued me in on their (apparently very Canadian) existence.
It was also great to see so many random people in orange Flyers gear. Welcome to Philly. ;)
We only had about 3 hours to kill so we spent it downtown and wandered to Chinatown and the Shanghai Bazaar, which was frankly more Chinese than China, in my opinion.
I acquired hot milk tea because it's mandatory every time I'm in a Chinatown, and it was glorious. We then wandered to the AIA Design Bookstore, which was pretty much the cutest place selling architecture and design books, and kids' crafts & toys.
Clearly, we had some fun here. (For the record, we left the Giroux up, and so did subsequent customers, at least up through the time we left.)
We saw city hall, and then we made our way to the subway (we'd initialy asked for directions to the City Hall metro and were met with cluelessness, but asking for the subway got us directions). Figuring out tokens and bus transfers confused our very cold brains, and the station manager kindly gave us two transfer tickets for free. SO NICE.
Though we managed to end up on the bus going the wrong way... Well, what's a trip without an adventure getting lost, right? Eventually we got to Tony Luke's for their famous Philly cheese steaks, and while Lille was not impressed, she discovered, by cheese steaks in general, I thought they were excellent for what they were. Delicious cheese steaks, nom.
We spent about 20 minutes in the freezing cold and wind (WHY, WIND) waiting for the bus that'd take us back to the subway and to the Wells Fargo Center, but we got there eventually! And it was orange. So much orange. So delightful. :D (But cold.)
Lille traded my dead Penguins shirt for an obnoxiously orange Briere hoodie, and I caved and got one of Bryz because goddammit, he's the only stellar player this season so far.
But I totally wore my Giroux jersey during the game, and my Canes shirt underneath it because, hi, they are the team of my heart, and this was reaffirmed when the two teams took the ice and I basically couldn't stop staring and freaking out over MY TEAM, MY TEAM. LOOK, IT'S STUPID CHILD AND THE STAALS AND SASHAAA AND WHOA THEY'RE STARTING DAN ELLIS?
I imagine Semin & Bryz are bonding in Russian. :D :D :D
Stupidest child doing manual labor.
And also, you know, the Flyers.
I was THRILLED to see my favorite teams and favorite players, but it was also agonizing because I cheered for both teams (one aloud and one silently...Flyers fans are true assholes and it's kind of the best). I really need to go to a Flyers game against any other team now, lol, where I can whole-heartedly join the "ASSHOLE" chant at the opposing team players and not flinch a little and whisper to myself, "But I looooooove youuuu, Canes!"
I'm sad I didn't get to see Jordy score his first goal for the Canes, but Eric scored! And seeing Semin on ice is just, ugh, he's so good. I'm so glad he's with the Canes and I hope we keep him.
And while I'm sad the Canes lost, they could afford it more, and the Flyers really, really needed that win. I GOT TO SEE DANNY SCORE, AND CLAUDE (AT LONG FUCKING LAST), AND BRYZ BEING AMAZING. The Flyers were totally outskated and outshot throughout the entire game, but the special teams made the difference. They actually managed to capitalize on 3 power plays! They killed off all the Canes' power plays! I was like, what strange world am I living in? (They really owed so much to Bryz.)
It was really, really fun to see a game live, even from way up on the mezzanine level. It's great to feel the energy of a crowd cheering their team, and then laugh a little at how sullenly silent it is when the other team scores. At least with TV commentators, they get excited any time there's a goal, and then enthusiastically break down the play that brought it about.
The music was loud and trashy and wonderful. The drinks were horrendously overpriced. The game and the city and everything was great (except for freezing to death) and we totally need to go back on a nicer day.
Have a Brioux bro pic.
And to wrap up: LAST NIGHT'S CANES GAME. ♥ Cam Ward on form like a badass! Jeff with 3 assists! Jordy scored! Eric scored! Sasha is made of magic! Let's see if we can't keep this up - and step up the defense while we're at it, because all of my teams need to work on that.
Today I was wearing my Bryz hoodie while running errands after work and ran into a Philly fan - the first non-asshole Flyers fan I've met yet! It was kind of hilarious and great. So, let's go Flyers. You need some more Ws. (Still no Simmonds though, which is tragic.)
I've taken up two Coursera classes and it helps keep me busy, along with work and hockey and running errands and trying to nap (my body hates me forever) and sneaking in some fic-reading time. It basically means I've fallen off watching things though - wait for me, Elementary, Top Chef, Running Man! Wait for meeee.
Here's the Philadelphia trip recap! Saturday, Feb 2, Canes @ Flyers.
So
celerywench & I met up Saturday morning at Union Station in DC at 8:30, swept through Au Bon Pain for our absolutely necessary coffee, and managed to just get on our Megabus to Philly. We snagged free roundtrip tickets from DC to Philly (applicable to dates of our choice) back in the summer and originally planned to use them for the Hawks @ Flyers preseason game in September, but obviously that fell through...The ride was fine, though we drove right past the Wells Fargo Center and all the way around the city to Drexel University, where we were dropped off, so we had to navigate our way back, essentially. But we'd done our Google Mapping before the trip so we knew our step by step plans to get to downtown.
We ran into such friendly people at Philly! A conductor-type guy at 30th Street Station helpfully pointed out that we could take the local light rail across the river to the Market East stop for free instead of paying $2 for the subway - we still don't know why it was free, but hey, who looks a gift horse in the mouth?
Once we got to Market East, we had to navigate to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch - and while staring at the GPSes on our phones, another helpful guy gave us directions. Let me tell you, a human who knows the area? Way more helpful than a GPS.
Reading Terminal Market was great! So busy and bustling on a Saturday afternoon, and so much fresh produce:
We got some delectable grilled cheese sandwiches from Meltkraft of Valley Shepherd Dairy:
The melter skelter was various cheeses, pickled green tomatoes, jalepenos, and watercress. Plus a side of KETCHUP CHIPS. (I thought of you,
kasugai_gummie, who love them and first clued me in on their (apparently very Canadian) existence.It was also great to see so many random people in orange Flyers gear. Welcome to Philly. ;)
We only had about 3 hours to kill so we spent it downtown and wandered to Chinatown and the Shanghai Bazaar, which was frankly more Chinese than China, in my opinion.
I acquired hot milk tea because it's mandatory every time I'm in a Chinatown, and it was glorious. We then wandered to the AIA Design Bookstore, which was pretty much the cutest place selling architecture and design books, and kids' crafts & toys.
Clearly, we had some fun here. (For the record, we left the Giroux up, and so did subsequent customers, at least up through the time we left.)
We saw city hall, and then we made our way to the subway (we'd initialy asked for directions to the City Hall metro and were met with cluelessness, but asking for the subway got us directions). Figuring out tokens and bus transfers confused our very cold brains, and the station manager kindly gave us two transfer tickets for free. SO NICE.
Though we managed to end up on the bus going the wrong way... Well, what's a trip without an adventure getting lost, right? Eventually we got to Tony Luke's for their famous Philly cheese steaks, and while Lille was not impressed, she discovered, by cheese steaks in general, I thought they were excellent for what they were. Delicious cheese steaks, nom.
We spent about 20 minutes in the freezing cold and wind (WHY, WIND) waiting for the bus that'd take us back to the subway and to the Wells Fargo Center, but we got there eventually! And it was orange. So much orange. So delightful. :D (But cold.)
Lille traded my dead Penguins shirt for an obnoxiously orange Briere hoodie, and I caved and got one of Bryz because goddammit, he's the only stellar player this season so far.
But I totally wore my Giroux jersey during the game, and my Canes shirt underneath it because, hi, they are the team of my heart, and this was reaffirmed when the two teams took the ice and I basically couldn't stop staring and freaking out over MY TEAM, MY TEAM. LOOK, IT'S STUPID CHILD AND THE STAALS AND SASHAAA AND WHOA THEY'RE STARTING DAN ELLIS?
I imagine Semin & Bryz are bonding in Russian. :D :D :D
Stupidest child doing manual labor.
And also, you know, the Flyers.
I was THRILLED to see my favorite teams and favorite players, but it was also agonizing because I cheered for both teams (one aloud and one silently...Flyers fans are true assholes and it's kind of the best). I really need to go to a Flyers game against any other team now, lol, where I can whole-heartedly join the "ASSHOLE" chant at the opposing team players and not flinch a little and whisper to myself, "But I looooooove youuuu, Canes!"
I'm sad I didn't get to see Jordy score his first goal for the Canes, but Eric scored! And seeing Semin on ice is just, ugh, he's so good. I'm so glad he's with the Canes and I hope we keep him.
And while I'm sad the Canes lost, they could afford it more, and the Flyers really, really needed that win. I GOT TO SEE DANNY SCORE, AND CLAUDE (AT LONG FUCKING LAST), AND BRYZ BEING AMAZING. The Flyers were totally outskated and outshot throughout the entire game, but the special teams made the difference. They actually managed to capitalize on 3 power plays! They killed off all the Canes' power plays! I was like, what strange world am I living in? (They really owed so much to Bryz.)
It was really, really fun to see a game live, even from way up on the mezzanine level. It's great to feel the energy of a crowd cheering their team, and then laugh a little at how sullenly silent it is when the other team scores. At least with TV commentators, they get excited any time there's a goal, and then enthusiastically break down the play that brought it about.
The music was loud and trashy and wonderful. The drinks were horrendously overpriced. The game and the city and everything was great (except for freezing to death) and we totally need to go back on a nicer day.
Have a Brioux bro pic.
And to wrap up: LAST NIGHT'S CANES GAME. ♥ Cam Ward on form like a badass! Jeff with 3 assists! Jordy scored! Eric scored! Sasha is made of magic! Let's see if we can't keep this up - and step up the defense while we're at it, because all of my teams need to work on that.
Today I was wearing my Bryz hoodie while running errands after work and ran into a Philly fan - the first non-asshole Flyers fan I've met yet! It was kind of hilarious and great. So, let's go Flyers. You need some more Ws. (Still no Simmonds though, which is tragic.)
I've taken up two Coursera classes and it helps keep me busy, along with work and hockey and running errands and trying to nap (my body hates me forever) and sneaking in some fic-reading time. It basically means I've fallen off watching things though - wait for me, Elementary, Top Chef, Running Man! Wait for meeee.
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(Although I was really put out that Bryz didn't get first star, considering the stopped 39/42 shots on goal. Bryyyyyz.)
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(Bryz has been AMAZING this season!)
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Ugh, they're so great. <3 I still kind of wish Danny had gotten the C or something, but G has been - well, kind of trying to do everything. Hopefully the Philly D will step up more the way they did last night against Tampa.
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ugh Flyers, they stress me out. :( Such is the way of sports, I guess.
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haha I'm sorry you never enjoyed hockey games. They are really fun for me, but at the prices of the tickets, not going to be more than an occasional treat. Adult responsibilities, what are these things?! Finances. u___u
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In Asia there were all sorts of bizarre chips flavors like steak flavored (which was DELICIOUS) and kimchi flavored (I like actual kimchi better). I'm sort of annoyed the US doesn't carry most of these.
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(Kpop is much like that these days too. WHO ARE THESE NEW GROUPS. At least SJM/SNSD/Big Bang are around my age or older.)
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oh god aksdjfsl see, I can only watch Top Chef while eating dinner so I'm full and not desperately craving everything I make, but these days dinner coincides with hockey-time... I really should catch up though.
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