Each time I re-visit Philadelphia, I fall deeper in love with the city. It’s because the city does something very right, something I wish more cities in the US did: Philadelphia celebrates its past with an almost reverent abandon while it has its feet firmly planted in its present, all the while focusing a steady gaze at its future.
Here’s a brief chronicle of the impressions and memories I gathered the few times I’ve been in the city.
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If you want to explore the different facets and histories of a city, there’s no better way than to go directly to its honest (and unvarnished) roots. And how do you do that?
- By seeking out the varied and mouth-watering local produce and homemade goodies in its farmers’ market(s)
- Or walking through the hallways of its long-standing monuments or along the well-worn cobbled streets in its residents’ shoes (or in their ancestors’ attire, as the case may be 😊)
- Or adding your own colors (not literally, of course) to the murals of its walls that bear a silent and detached testimony to the changing times and mores
- Or delighting in the hidden gardens you happen upon, which you didn’t know existed
- Or…the best avenue yet: losing yourself in its quaint independent bookstores bursting at their seams with treasured books. I’ve lost my heart to these rare gems of bookstores at first sight and will definitely re-visit them whenever I’m in their neighborhoods
House of Our Own Books
I look forward to adding more pages to my continued discovery of this wonderful city.
How do you make friends with a new city? Please share!
Wading Through Words 