On Saturday we took a rickety old school bus to Philadelphia to spend a couple of hours exploring the city in the freezing cold! The university organised the trip and it included tickets to go see Isaiah Zagar's incredibly impressive art installation, Magic Gardens, a plot of land in the middle of South Street that has been transformed into a crazy "mosaicked visionary art environment" (according to the website!). We initially went because it was free with the bus ticket, but it was actually really cool. It's hard to fully capture the space with photos, but I hope you get a feel for it! I absolutely loved Zagar's use of words within the installation, and the broken images of people. I would highly recommend it if you are in the area!
One of the great things about being dropped off at the Magic Gardens was that we were automatically placed in an area that I probably wouldn't have explored otherwise. And South Street was amazing, whole buildings covered in murals and mosaics! And in between, there were beautiful streets of red brick houses that I would love to live in- though we looked up the rent and it is extortionate! I didn't take enough photos of the area itself, so you'll have to use your imagination or visit!
I'm not really sure what any of us expected, but it was a bit underwhelming! As such an important symbol for America, I am glad that we went, but at the end of the day it was just a bell in a room with a bunch of tourists (us included!).
I suggested that we go find the river, and en route we made friends with this adorably fluffy squirrel who wanted to play with us. We stood there for ages as he got slowly closer and closer, every few steps stopping like this and staring at us. He was adorable!
When we got to the river, I didn't even take any photos, except of this random $100 note! There was a submarine docked which was pretty cool, but not much else, so we wandered back round to South Street and ate at a vegan Chinese place which Delia was very excited about!
I loved exploring a little part of such a diverse city! A big thanks to my mentor, Eden, for alerting me to the trip. It was a great way to spend a Saturday and I can't wait to come back and see more of Philly in November when I go to see Dead and Company. I feel so lucky to be so close to such great cities. Next stop, Florida!
