Post 4: Philadelphia

Cause one of my great friends asked me today about the next post (which gave me an absolute boost to keep on going), here you go man ;)

When I was about to leave NY, Jordyn was persistent on buying me a ticket to Philadelphia. He said it was way to dangerous to go there on foot and with the hurricane coming, he literally said: you are not gonna die on my watch. So he bought me a ticket to Philadelphia and ask me what my next location was. I replied DC.. He immediately bought me a second ticket to DC since it was even more dangerous to pass thru Delaware on foot he explained.. I wouldn't have expected this when I started this trip. Really nice!

So I took the bus to Philly. Upon my arrival I already had found a couchsurfing address (Norristown) that was 28km on foot from the city. So I knew what to do.. I must admit that Philadelphia is actually a really nice city..  with nice big buildings and a huge hospital.. that was pretty noticeable since you see one white coat after the other.. :)

Eventually I found a grocery that was kinda like an Exki. All organic BUT really cheap (in contrary to exki :p). I bought some pitta bread for 2 dollars that could still my hunger for the next two days or so plus some cream cheese with leek. DISGUSTING!! But I was hungry so no other option but eat it all up..

Of the record, I am sitting in a McDonald's in the city while I am writing this and a guy just came to me and offered me a pizza.. Wauw! Instead of giving people burgers, now I am the one who gets to experience the other side of the deal. Guess 'you get back what you give' is really in place here. Awesome!!

Anyway, on my way to Norristown I crossed a really bad neighbourhood.. it started off from one street into the other which was a bit weird cause all of sudden the nice buildings and houses were gone.. replaced by old and left alone stone made things. You can't even call it buildings cause the only things left were walls.. I felt my stomach getting worse and worse while I was walking.. just a strange feeling. But I had to pass thru. I was walking for an hour and it only kept on getting wurse.. it was what we Belgians would call a getto (as it is not really since there are even worse places).. I also asked to some people if it was getting any  better the further I walked, but it seemed that they were all stuck in time and just wondering around without realizing a thing of what they are really doing.. not easy to discribe so I'm trying my best here :p.

Every time I saw a cop car I tried to hichehike but even they wouldn't stop.. Mom I don't want to scare you here ok, just trying to explain what I saw ;). After an hour of walking I was past the bad nabourhood. The same way as I entered, all of a sudden the houses were pretty again.. so so so weird.. BUT a must see I would say.. A lot of people would finally open there eyes and realise in what kind of luxury we are ALL living in.

After a 6 hour walk I finally arrived in Norristown. I tried ringing the door but nobody was there... I rang the neighbour' bell to ask whether she had some more contact info or maybe call them to see where they were.. Again a stunning exemple of how you welcome people you don't even know. You offert me tea and a blanked, and to be honest with you I STANK LIKE HELL! So she probably had to wash that one after :p.

Withing the next 30 minutes the people got home and I have to say I was a bit suprised. Really cool and funky veggie people, with an extremely warm hart. I could do whatever I wanted. They had a shared fridge with all kinds of vegetables they had harvested themselves in there big garden farm. Also beer and other food was in the fridge, I could take and eat whatever I wanted. Or I could go take it myself in the garden. Incredible! I don't know a lot of people willing to do that
Notting but good words come to mind when it comes to discribing them. Just Wauw.  I told this guy named Tom (husband of one of the housemates) that I might work along the road. He just said, you're hired. Hahaha. I'm like, what? :p yeah you can earn some money tomorrow, I got a small job for you... so the next day I helped moving a guy out for 3 hours and made 60 dollars.. unbelievable..

It just kept on going better and better
I helped out on there farm, which was the least I could do in my opinion, and you could just feel how much they appriciated it.. Also did Tom trust me enough to let me help him out in his house he's rebuilding. I really don't know the name of what I was doing, not even in dutch, but I was kinda fixing he wall with cement. As a way of saying thanks for helping him out he took his wife and me to this awesome Mexican restaurant. The food reminded me so much of Guatemala. God that vacation back then gave me such great memories..

As if this was not enough Tom took me for breakfast the next morning too.. it just kept on surprising me how kind all of these people are.. than while I was preparing myself to go, they gave me a bike. :O just like that.. here you go, take this bike it will make your life easier.. besides the bike, Caleb (the house owner) offert me his camping stove which I have to send him by post when I'm done using it. Crazy how much trust these people have no? Ok I hear you thinking, it's a stupid stove, but really that's not the point... ;). The only thing missing was a chain to lock my bike with. So they gave me an address to go buy one. I asked the owner how much it costed and he replied 12 dollars. Hmm, as I explained him what my plans were I asked him if there would be a way of earning that chain instead of paying for it. He talked to the manager and after an hour of wiping the floor he gave me the lock.. haha so cool!

So new plan right? Tomorrow  I'll sell my busticket and start my cycling tour down to Miami :). Again thank you so much Tom, Caleb, Anja and Amie for your exquisite hospitality and your advise and tips for the rest of trip. it helped me a lot to get a little more secure and gave me strenght to just keep on going and stay really positive ;)

Talk to you all soon!

Greets,
Lenn