Philly with Ben, Jordan & Rocky

After a week in Boston I got a $3 'Megabus' ride (2 hours late but you can't really complain) down to New York and met up with my mate Ben who I lived with during my exchange at Cortland Uni in 2002. We jumped straight on another bus at Penn Station and went to Philly. Jordan who was the Dept. head of the ski team at Camp Vega was nice enough to pick us up and have us stay at his family's place for a couple of nights.

We went straight from the bus station to meet a couple of his friends at a bar downtown then we all went to the famous Geno's for a Philly Cheese-steak. Unfortunately I ruined mine with excessive amounts of the hottest hot sauce known to man.

We went back the following day and sampled the wares at Pat's which is Geno's most fierce competition and located right across the street. Jordan had ordered for us at Geno's but now it was our turn to learn the propper etiquite whern it comes to ordering a Philly Cheese in Philly.

Compliments of eHow... (read full article)

Expect to order your meal in two phases. At the first window, you will order your Philly cheesesteak. At the second window, you order French fries, other sides, and your beverage.

Skip the friendly greeting at the window and don't expect one. Your Philly cheesesteak order should consist of exactly three words. The first word is a number, indicating how many cheesesteaks you want. So, if you want one, the first word is "One." The second word indicates the type of cheese you want on your sandwich. The third and final word is either "with" or "without," indicating your preference for fried onion. So, an order for the most authentic Philly cheesesteak would simply be, "One, whiz, with." That's it.

Take your cheesesteak, which will be handed to you in a matter of second. Move down to the second window, where you can order other items and pay for your meal.

I got it right, got my cheese-steak and could actually taste the steak this time which was great!

After Pat's we strolled down through the 9th Street Italian Market district and sampled some freshly made mozzarella at Claudio's Specialty Foods and some water ice with frozen custard.

Jordan had to go to class from 6-9pm so we dropped him off and drove around exploring north-east Philly for a bit, taking pics and playing some pool at a random bar. We then met up with one of Ben's old bosses from Qatar for an Italian dinner at Radicchio Cafe which was pretty darn tasty!

Jordan met up with us later on and just after midnight we drove right up to the top of the 'Rocky Stairs' at the Philly Art Museum and took a bunch of pics and watched as random groups of drunk people showed up to do their own reenactments of the famous scene.

We also got some great pics of the boat houses of Boathouse Row which are all lit up year-round at night with Christmas lights.

The next day Ben and I walked around downtown and had an awesome mini feast at the Reading Terminal Market before hoping on a bus to NYC.