A while back, Cherise and I went to Philadelphia. A while back, as in, er, last Thanksgiving. Between the great flood, moving, and going to India, I never really got a chance to post these. Until now.

The reason we were going was to visit Cherise’s brother, Lucky, who was one of something like 20 accepted from around the country for the freshman class of University of the Arts.

This is not his dorm. But it is one of the dorms. And it’s of note, because it used to be an insane asylum. I kind of wonder how students feel about this dorm, especially as they’re passing a row of foreboding bare trees to enter the place.

We checked out a place called Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens. The pictures will tell the story better than I can describe it, but this place is insane. Basically, a few decades ago an artist bought a block of buildings, and has spent the time since turning it into an extremely intricate, highly decorated mosaic. Imagine if a pile of glass, tile, wood, mechanical and metal rubbish exploded over freshly plastered church ruins, and you start to have an idea of what this place looks like. Not an inch is spared- allow me to show you.

The artist community in the area is thriving, to say the least. We walked around town at night and saw galleries all over the place, with some unique window décor. We also enjoyed some excellent pizza. Everyone says that New York has the best pizza in the world. I’ve had it, and it is excellent, but frankly, I found Philadelphia’s to be even better, especially at those cheap by the slice places.

Yes, those are various cooked fowl over the faces of those portraits.

After a day and a half in Philly, we made a day trip over to New York City. We got up a little late and took a good amount of time taking the train. When we arrived, we enjoyed some fine vegetarian dim sum. It sounds weird. In fact, it probably is a little weird. But it’s damn good.

It was quite late by the time we were done, and we went to see Times Square since Cherise and Lucky hadn’t seen it. I’m not a fan… frankly, it’s gaudy and ridiculously overpriced versions of stores you can find anywhere else.

But I guess it does have fun lit up trinkets.

There’s a few more pictures in the gallery. Click on the picture of me to have a look.