'Uh oh oh woke up today, feeling the way i always do...good morning Baltimore!'

It was a short hours drive away to get to our next stop the city of Baltimore. Parked up and had a nice wander round. Well it would have been nice if it wasn't pouring with rain. I suppose I can't complain really  we have had 3 months of lovely sunshine, but I guess it's back to having British weather for the next 3 weeks now as it's the beginning of their wintery weather. Booooo!

We wandered for a little while and then took our drowned rat looking selves back to the car. It was time to get the chefs hats out again and get some food for our next three days in Philadelphia.  We had a kitchen again! Yay! Yet another walmart stop was needed. All walmarts are usually exactly the same layout, and i should know,we have been to most of them in the US. We had started to get to grips with the layout of the store... Mainly where the 'Hot Chicken' was. Haha.  Well we walked into this one and went left to go straight to get some chicken to find that there was no counter. What???This was very confusing to us and as we started to walk around nothing was where it should be. There was no salad,fruit,  hot chicken. Just crap food. They should think of renaming the place because as a walmart professional this does not qualify to be one!

After having a munch in the car we drove the last 2hours before getting to Philly. No word of a lie Adele 'someone like you' was played at least 10 times...the overplaying is getting worse. Even when we turn it over, there it is again. It's like your subconscious...it's always there, it never goes away. I think if I ever see Adele I will want to punch her so hard in the face. 'want' being the key word there as I probably wouldn't punch her, she is bigger than me and would probably just knock me out.  

It took us a while to find the hostel. We had driven passed it three times but with all the roads being one way, nowhere to pull over and the impatient b*****s behind me we just had to park up in a carpark down the street and walk there.

The hostel is cool...very hip and by far one of the best we've stayed.  It was a bit of a mission getting to our room mind...you couldn't have put us further away from the lobby if you'd tried. Top floor, no lifts just an extremely narrow staircase. We got settled in nicely when we eventually reached the top.

There wasn't long for us to get ready so we could join everyone in the bar crawl happening that night. We sipped on a few free vodkas in the lobby and began the crawl. We lasted two bars...two? What has happened to us? I was exhausted and if I'd stayed out any longer I would have been sleeping sitting up. Not cool!

Early morning for me...i just cant seem to sleep in after 8am...it sucks. Well as i was awake I watched Bride Wars on my iphone before finally getting out of bed and getting ready to wander the streets of Philadelphia. It's very old school England with it's cobbled roads, horse and carriage rides through the streets and big red brick buildings. Its a very pretty place. Plus a lot of people who worked there were dressed in traditional colonial outfits. I actually felt like I'd gone back in time.

We took a walk to the pier the weather wasn't great though so there wasn't much of a view to be honest just a blue bridge surrounded by fog. It wasn't too exciting. We strolled back and happened to pass another palm reader...which was only $5. we thought we'd go in just to compare both readings. Well what a pile of garbage! Seriously she barely said anything right about me...it was blatantly scripted the first three sentences she said to me she repeated to Liz. Let's just say it was a pile of s***.

On our way into the centre of the city we popped into the tourist centre to check what there was to do around here. There was a haunted house, ghost tours and surprise surprise a zoo... no thanks I'm not paying to see yet another animal. I know what a lion, tiger and giraffe looks like. I don't need to see them again.

We chose to do our own tour of the city... Ended up Walking through a slightly rough area. How did we know? We were surrounded by freaks and a woman walked out of a shop  in her pjs...grubby ones at that!

We went into 'Ross' a clothing store that have the most disgusting clothes. For some reason I thought it would be fun if me and Liz chose outits for eachother and try them on and Omg did she pick some hideous clothes for me! My outfits were bad for her...brown trousers, glittered top and a massive fur coat she looked like a pimp. But her outfits to me were horrendous! One being a red an black dress patterned dress which looked like a horrible curtain pattern and to make things worse in my second outfit I could have pulled off being Pat Butcher! Ewwww! I've never worn something so hideous in my life haha!

It started to rain again so we ran back to hostel and chilled out on the beanbags to watch 'Dinner for schmucks'. It was at least the 4th time we've watched it since being away. But it never fails to make me laugh. It's just hilarious! We had a little chit chat with goonie to see if she was attending the game in Cardiff and to have a little gossip. We love our FaceTime sessions.

A few hours passed and we went to get ready for a long night ahead! Our plan was to go out quite late and try staying out until 4am to support the welsh in the semi final of the world cup. We dressed in red for the occasion and we began our night with a walking Ghost tour of the old part of the city...with our disguised water bottle of vodka and lemonade.
Lots and lots of ghost stories and weird sightings. We weren't too scared though. I am ashamed to say that I had no idea that 'independence hall' is a famous building and that it's one of the most threatened buildings in Philadelphia...it has bomb threats and everything! Plus its under 24 hour watch where most of the guards have seen ghost sightings. Eeek. So not only were we old some scary stories and myths but I actually gained some knowledge on that ghost tour. I did feel like I should know a lot more...oops. But my opinion on history...the past is the past, I live in the now and that's more important!

We passed the grave of Benjamin Franklin. There was a myth that if you throw a penny on his grave, as you walk away it gets tossed back at you. I thought i'd give it a go but nope it wasn't thrown back at me. He only went and kept it. I think it's a scam...think of the amount of people that visit and throw pennies over the years...the church would make thousands just picking up everyone's pennies. I might make up some sort of story at home try making myself a few dollars!

The time had arrived to go out and party. We had a small pre drinking session with Dennis the cool guy who works in the hostel. He lives across the way so he made us all some shots before taking us to the first bar. It was a pretty cool place actually and they played decent music but there was no dance floor. We are seriously just craving a dancefloor to show off our crazy moves haha. The other problem was the other guy that was with us...an Irish guy was soooooo boring. That is the first time I have said that an Irish person is boring but all he talked about was politics and we were on a Friday night out. What was going through my mind?  'Dude I couldn't give a crap so shhhh!'

We left a little while later to find the pub that was playing the game. We were pretty excited! Only thing was after one drink in there we got pretty sleepy yet again! I contemplated sleeping in the toilettes for a few hours and then wake up in time for the game. Not the greatest idea I've ever had...we decided against that anyway and went back to the hostel. Our second plan was to nap at the hostel and then stream the game from the computers. That plan also failed as i didn't wake up from my nap. Liz did and tried getting me to wake but it just wasn't happening ooopsie. The night didn't really go to plan haha. It was still fun though. Gutted the welsh lost...but still a very proud welshy!

Morning arrived again and we went to check out an autumn fair at the indoor Market. It was so cute there, all the outside was covered in hay and had lots of balloons with a little country band singing. So we perched our little bums on a pile of hay and sat down for a little while, then wandered on inside. We tried our first Philly cheese steak, apperently they are famous here.  They are very yummy I must say. I'm glad I tried it.

We continued our day by walking further into the city which lead us to a lot of strange people and tramps. I actually felt like I was back on Market street in San Francisco. When I turned to look at what street we were on it was surprisingly called Market Street as well.  It must actually be a known street for weirdos...so quick tip if you are near a Market street anywhere in the world...avoid it like the plague!

The fresh air did us good and we walked back to the hostel to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. It was a film day...Bridesmaids
Old school, Devil and suckerpunch some good films I must say. It was fun to just do nothing! Haha. We also had another lovely catch up with Dani G and Suzy Q...we love our little goss sessions.

An early start again tomorrow so a good nights sleep is in order. It has been a very chilled out weekend or us to power up our batteries. The only problem is I'm extremely agitated and not the least bit tired right now. Great news! Maybe lounging on the beanbags all day was a mistake.

Ah well maybe I'll count some sheep or sing myself a lullaby haha. We have a trip to new jersey and Atlantic City ahead of us. It's ping to be awesome?

We will be 'living on a prayer' in the Garden state! But hoping no amityville horror incidents happen to us! Eeeek!!! Fingers crossed!

Lots of love
J.L xxxx