Day 16: Philadelphia, PA

So the day before we checked once again on our visas’ status on-line. Finally, it had changed from something like “what visa are you fucking talking about” to a more “oh yeah, we have made a decision”, not stating what it is exactly that was decided. We assumed, of course, that had there been a problem, they would have let us know. So now we need to track the envelopes that we gave the French consulate in which our passports should be sent back to us. However, nothing yet at that point.

We didn’t want to arrive at Julia’s parents’ place before they do, so we decided to make a detour and stop by Philadelphia. We found a bar in which the special of the day was Philly cheese-steak sandwich and beer. Of course we had to go in, even more so since we both never had a Philly cheese-steak sandwich. I liked it. And the beer.

Philadelphia is, well, interesting. Very different than any city I’ve been to:

We walked on and stepped into the big indoor marketplace, and wandered there for a long time. Then we went to see the liberty bell, but only from the outside, since we didn’t want to stand in line. We also checked out a religious bookstore. Just for fun. We were pretty stressed about the visa situation at this point. We called Lady B. I’ve mentioned her before as the lady who takes care of MIT students going on internships in France. We’ve been trying to communicate our stress since this whole thing started going wrong, but from some reason she is not getting it. We explained the situation to her – We’re going to be in Baltimore, and our visas are processed, but our passports, which are still in Boston, haven’t been sent, and if they are not sent by tomorrow morning – we’re fucked. She said she’ll email the consulate and ask to come herself, pick up the passports, and mail them to us. We fell slightly, just slightly better, knowing that she has waken up and might take some actions.

We left Philadelphia and drove to Ellicott City MD, near Baltimore, where Julia’s parents live. Her sister, along with her corgy dog were there. We had dinner and went to bed seriously frustrated.

Day 6: Pennsylvania

It was time to head back north to pick up Julia’s for our meeting in the french consulate in Boston. I wanted to take a different route than the one I used to get to Baltimore, so following my cousin’s advice, I started driving towards the finger lakes in NY.

In Pennsylvania, I drove along the Susquehanna river. I saw some Amish women having a picnic on the river bank.

I thought it would be nice to have my own lunch on the river bank, but had no food. I then passed an Amish farmer’s market, and then a general store. I started driving back, picking up some bread, cheese and salami in the general store, vegetables at the farmer’s market and looked for a place to eat, not before accidentally stepping into an auction of produce.

 

I stopped in a parking area on the river bank, made some Israeli salad, and my lunch was ready.

I kept on driving, and found myself in “Reptiland”. I had to go in and check it out. It’s a small zoo dedicated, of course, to reptiles. They had a couple of crocodiles, tons of lizards and snakes, a butterfly garden where you hang out with a bunch of butterflies flying all around you, and the ugliest animal I’ve ever seen - an Alligator Snapping Turtle:

In the back, they had some robotic, full scale dinosaurs. One was even squirting water out of its mouth.

Because I got distracted from my course so much, I reached the finger lakes much later than I planned to. I stopped at Taughannock falls.

I then took a walk on a trail. In Israel, when you walk along a marked trail and that trail splits into two different trails, those are marked in different colors. Here, they both have the same color, making it impossible for you to know whether or not you’re walking in circles. Also, I lost the trail markings after a few minutes. Just as I realized that - I saw a deer. Now - my instinct told me to follow the deer, but then the voice of reason spoke to me - I will not fall for that, I’ve watched too many movies. When you’re lost, the last thing you should do is follow the deer. It’s a bait, luring you deeper into the forest, getting you even more lost, and turning you into the perfect victim for the Taughannock witch, or the Taughannock chainsaw murderer. I turned back and found the trail.

After walking for way too long, I found myself in an open field, with two shacks. One of them had a creepy drawing of a man on it. I assumed this is where the  Taughannock chainsaw murderer lives, and adding to the equation the fact that it was getting dark and that I have lost the trail markings once again, I started walking much faster.

Finally, I found the trail, and just as the sun was setting and I was positive I had been walking in circles, I found myself back at the car. I was saved!

I drove forever looking for a motel. When I finally found one, the office was close. So was next one. The third motel I found, in East Springfield NY, had a sign on the door of the office with a phone number. The dude on the other side of the phone told me to just go into room 8. The door was open and the key was on the table.

Day 4: Made it to Baltimore!

Today I mostly drove. I had a lot of driving to do in order to make it to Baltimore on a reasonable hour.

I’m not completely sure whether this is due to missing a turn or not, but I did end up driving through NYC. Manhattan, to be more specific. Of course I got stuck in traffic, and then I noticed that I’m not doing very well on gas. The fact that the gas meter was dropping rapidly while I was on a narrow, one lane bridge caused me a minor heart attack, but somehow I made it through, got out of NYC, and stopped for fuel at Paterson, NJ. It didn’t seem like the best place in the world, but I still wanted to park and hang out. Only when I realized I don’t have any quarters for the parking meter, I decided to drive on.

I stopped for lunch at Newark, NJ, in a Jamaican, well, place. they sell food and tickets for Reggae concerts. I had brownstew (?) chicken with rice and beans and some cabbage salad. That was pretty good. It was fun watching everybody play “don’t-stare-at-the-bald-white-guy”.

Next, I left the highway to visit Bethlehem PA. No special reason. turns out there’s an awsome music festival there soon. Other than that everything I ran into was closed. Maybe I didn’t go deep enough into the city, but I didn’t find it too exciting.

The rest of the drive through Pennsylvania was beautiful. I passed through small place like Kutztown, which looks just as cute as its name sounds. There’s a fair there on the 13th, which means we might catch it on our way from Maine to Maryland right before our flight.

I stopped for some coffee, ehem, somewhere, which was good since I got to witness this little place:

Witty, isn’t it?

And about an hour or two later I made it to Julia’s sister’s place in Baltimore, MD. Since her sister was not back yet from work, I took a seat on the bar in Dimitri’s Tavern, right around the corner. They serve peanuts, but there are no bowls for the shells. People just use the floor:

Also, a beer is only 1.75! I had three beers, and then went to Julia’s sister’s place, where I unloaded our stuff. Success!