OK, OK! I’ve dragged myself back to the — well, “real world” is probably an inaccurate description, but — my world, I suppose.
SO I finally said goodbye to these little idiots —
— and Terra drove me up north of Baltimore — and then drove me up to the Delaware station, because, as she put it, “Look, I’m just going to make sure you’re on the train, so after that, if you die, it’s totally out of my hands.”
I respect this.
So I discovered the joy of hauling a bike + possessions onto a commuter train at 4:58pm (thankfully into Philadelphia, so the train was only full, not, like, suffocating) and got berated a couple of times for not snugging my bike into the approximate half a foot appointed for the two-per-train bikes. But it worked out. And then biked through Somewhere, Philadelphia and ended up downtown.
I had a brief scuffle at the reception desk — a few months ago I was mugged at gunpoint outside my apartment, and since I don’t really drive, getting a replacement driver’s license wasn’t a priority, so it ended up coming to my old apartment a few days after I had to leave (license – Massachusetts; resident – Wisconsin), etc etc — and dude was like umm, per our corporate policy you need either a foreign passport or a US license/ID with an address not within x miles of here, and I’m like well, motherfuck. But he (as he was not actually trying to be an asshole) called whoever needed to be called and it worked out.
Long story short, I have again secured my top-bunk kingdom.
The denizens of this hostel seem quite friendly/night-owlish, by which I mean I haven’t yet figured out if people have been flirting with me or just think I’m an amusingly dumb American chick. Or both is also not unlikely.
OK so I have to vacate the hostel (well, the dorm room, anyway) for a few hours at least tomorrow afternoon, and I still don’t really know what to do in Philadelphia for a day or two. Reading Market has been recommended several times, so that’s probably a go — I’m not super into the generic tourist things like the Liberty Bell, ’cause like yo I lived in DC and Boston, but the Franklin Institute looked awesome… anybody here Philadelphia folk and have any suggestions for a broke little nomad?
Bike the Pain Away 