Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Well, here I am traveling again. It just seems like I can't stay in one place too long! I am in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the Society of Biblical Literature Conference. Actually, my husband Steve is here for the conference. I am here for some sight seeing, visiting friends, eating stuff I don't eat at home, and whatever else happens.

So, there are a bunch of things that I have been thinking of writing about and I have been taking some pictures. What I will do is to write a few different posts so that none of them are too long. Here are the topics:
Philadelphia Touring (history here and in Greece)
The Irish in Pennsylvania
Comparisons of Conferences (SBL and my technology ones)
The Body Worlds Exhibit

I have enjoyed walking around the center of Philadelphia. The slogan for the city is that it is the city that loves you back. There is so much to see and compared to many places in the United States it has SO much rich history. This is the place where Betsy Ross made the first flag. It is the site of the first Constitutional Convention. It is also Ben Franklin's home town and he is everywhere! They are celebrating his 300th birthday this year. This is where you can see the actual Liberty Bell (if you want to stand in line for a while, but it is free). You definitely need to put this on your list of places to visit.


I ate a Philly Cheese Steak. It was good, but not the healthiest thing I have eaten. Sonny's uses Cheese Whiz for the cheese (they made it sound like that is traditional... but I am not sure since it is the only place I went). The other thing that I will need to do today is to have a hot pretzel. I have read that they are unique.

The Delaware River runs right past the city. It is huge. I have noticed what I learned about in books at school, that cities mainly are situated near large bodies of water. Corinth, Greece was an important place in history because of how close it was to a large body of water. The shipping trade made it important. This is also true of Philadelphia. The Delaware river is big and was an important place for shipping. The one thing that Corinth had that was very important in ancient times and Philadelphia does not have is an 'acro' or nearby mountain for protection. In ancient times people would go up to that spot for refuge when they were attacked. Why didn't Philadelphia (or any modern city for that matter) need a place of refuge like that?

Many buildings in Philadelphia were built when people had a special interest in Greek Civilization and beauty, so they have architectural features of ancient Greek buildings. One thing I saw was pediments. This is the triangle in front and on top of the building which has actual statues in it for decoration. The other thing I saw were columns. It was interesting. At the Philadelphia Art Museum there is a pediment with statues of all of the Greek Gods and it is painted just like statues were painted in ancient times. We tend to think of them as all white, but that is only because the paint has worn off of most of them. Interesting...