Continuing publishing my looong backlog of photos. Today: my first (and only, so far) trip to the United States of THE AMERICA (imagine jetplanes now flying in the background and an eagle soaring through the sky).
No, but seriously, it was interesting to verify the image that I’ve built of USA from watching all the movies and TV shows from there. Of course, this is just one data point – I’ve only visited Philadelphia. So that’s like saying I’ve seen Poland after visiting Poznań – Kraków is a different experience, Gdańsk as well, not to mention Wrocław or some smaller cities.
Aaaanyway, Philadelphia is a crucial part of American history – Declaration of Independence, Liberty Bell, the stairs that Rocky run on… And parades, lots of parades.
Of course, I could not pass up an opportunity to take some night photos of the city. The view was truly beautiful, with a different vibe than during the day (kinda similar with my experience in Sky Tower in Wrocław). During the night, it’s especially apparent how these cities follow an uniform grid – much unlike any European city I know. On one hand, it makes navigating the city easy (take 5 streets down, then 2 to the left). But I guess there’s a charm in windy roads and weird alleys 😉
Since it was just before Christmas, can’t miss some Christmas-y garden next to the City Hall:
An interesting place I visited was the Eastern State Penitentiary – a former American prison in Philadelphia. It’s the prison where they kept Al Capone 😉 It’s been defunct since 1971 and becoming a ruin – but lately, they’ve started preserving it and you can take tours. It’s an eerie place – great photo opportunities, but I don’t think I’d like to take one of their night tours (yes, they have those).
Change of pace – after the dark prison, let’s switch gears. Behold Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens – “non-profit organization, folk art environment, and gallery space”. What it is exactly? Ummm, scrapyard meets art gallery? It’s quite big and full of corners and stuff. Lots of stuff. Pictures don’t do it justice 😉
Last but not least, the Academy of Natural Sciences. They had some cool and realistic scenes of stuffed animals in their “natural” habitats. I like these photos – you can tell it’s not exactly real, but it almost looks like.
Aaaaand a nice surprise at the end of my trip – since I landed back home on December 6, Santa Clauses greeted us at the airport XD
Photos by Igor Klimer 
Piękne zdjęcia. To musiała być fajna podróż. Amerykańska historia, historią, ale jeśli o mnie idzie to pierwszym skojarzeniem z Filadelfią jest piosenka Springsteena, której mogłabym słuchać na okrągło.
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