It was not a direct train ride, we had to stop in Trenton, N.J. to change trains. During the train ride, all you could see was blight, miles and miles of abandoned factories etc. and garbage. The landscape of New Jersey is pretty depressing.
At Trenton Station, this town, the state capital of New Jersey, is also pretty depressing, we were hungry and there was nothing near the train station except for a deli 1-2 blocks away run by Mexicans.
Inside the train.
Arriving at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, it turns out that this station isn't located in downtown or what Philly calls the "Center City" but across the river from it. So after asking a police officer for directions, because there was no visitor's information of any kind, we boarded the train again.
Once we arrived in Philadelphia, we were surprised at how empty and kind of run-down the downtown (Center City) was (at least compared with New York in terms of street life).
We went directly to the Independence National Historic park area.
We were also quite disappointed at this "historic" area because it did not even look historic. I guess the recent renovations gave this area a sort of fake historic look.
Inside the Independence Hall.
At some kind of square outside the Old City area.
Streetscape of Philadelphia's Center City.
Going towards the South Street area. This is one of the places the police officer at 30th Street Station told us when we asked what areas were worth visiting. This area is better than the downtown area and had the officer not told us, we would have never known to come to this area. It wasn't on any of the information maps that we had gotten.
The USS Becuna at the Independence Seaport Museum.
The USS Olympia.
The South Street area. This was were we decided to eat cheesesteak, its funny how almost everyone in Philadelphia has their own opinions on which is the best place for eating cheesesteak.
In the afternoon is started to snow, this is the newly opened National Constitution Center, it was already closed by the time we went there, although we had no intention of paying to see it...
The Chinatown of Philadelphia. It was pretty much dead except for a couple of stores.
Boarding the train back to New York, it was around 5pm and it was snowing and getting dark and there wasn't much left to see, so we went back.
Inside one of the newer commuter trains.
The underground platform at New York's Penn Station.
Penn Station.
Taking the subway back home.
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