3rd World Smell

So I'm in Philadelphia for a work trip this week. I can't seem to get the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air out of my head. I guess that shows how old I am. My first impression of the city was okay. We landed at the airport and everything seemed nice enough. We were given directions to our hotel, which we found without much difficulty. However, that's when things started going down hill. Upon exiting the vehicle, there was a foul stench in the air. The likes of which could only be compared to the business end of a collection of zoo animals, a diahrreal baby, or a never-cleaned port-a-pot in the 100 degree heat and humidity of South Texas. The air was so putrid, my 6 hour old lunch was tempted to make a re-appearance, and came very close to doing so. My fellow monkey soon referred to this as (what he liked to call it) the "3rd World Smell." He called it this because he has spent considerable time in underdeveloped countries while part of the military. Having spent some time myself in countries and locations such as this, I can only hope that this is not something this town is known for.

We decided to venture out to seek out an authentic "Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich" as we are both big fans of them. After driving 20 minutes to locate our famed restaurant du jour, I quickly came to the conclusion that Philadelphia is one place I could never live. The houses were what I like to refer to as vertical shoebox type of homes. On top of that, the neighborhoods drove through lead one to believe Philadelphia is just rough as people are led to believe. When we finally reached our eatery for the night, I was eager to taste an "authentic" philly cheesesteak as I enjoyed them so. Unfortunately, the legend did not live up to my expectations. My sandwich was rather bland. I'm hoping tomorrow's food expedition leads to a better tasting sandwich as this is not the way I want to feel about an "authentic" Philly.