Days 47 & 48 - Six Flags and learning about the American Revolution!

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So we were so shattered from our day at Six Flags yesterday that we didn't get to update the blog, so once again, this will be a combined blog of the last couple of days!

We were up early yesterday at 6:30am, as we had planned to catch the 318 bus from Philadelphia to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. We got washed and dressed before having some cereal for breakfast. We had read some reviews for Six Flags online, and many people were moaning that you have to pay for the lockers to put your bags in before the rides, so we just took things with us that we could carry in our pockets - unfortunately, this meant that we couldn't take the camera, so we don't have any pictures from this day, but you can find plenty of photos and videos of the park/rides online if you want to search for them!

We set out of the hotel at around 7:30am, so that we could catch the 7:45am train to Market East station, just opposite the Greyhound station, where the 318 would depart from at 9am. We made our way to the ticket window and purchased our bus/theme park ticket combo from the lady (who was quite excited for us when she handed over our tickets - must be a fan of Six Flags!). We paid $52 each, which is an absolute bargain being as the tickets alone are worth $62, plus you get a ride there and back!

The bus arrived right on time at 9am, and we left shortly after once everyone had boarded the bus. The drive there took around an hour, and we soon saw 'Kingda Ka' (the tallest rollercoaster in the world) looming in the distance. Unfortunately, we had read in reviews from the previous day that it was not actually open (apparently this happens a lot - it's not the most reliable ride), so we didn't get our hopes up that it would be open today either.

We got off the bus and walked over to the entrance turnstiles, where a guy scanned our tickets and let us into the park. We were a little early - the park didn't open until 10:30am - so we walked over as far as we could towards Kingda Ka, before reaching a barrier preventing the small crowd from going any further into the park. Eventually, 10:30 came and the barriers were brought down. We walked first over towards Kingda Ka dubiously, but our fears were confirmed when we saw people walking back the other way saying that a member of staff had told them that Kingda Ka would be closed all day. As we were expecting this, we weren't too upset (in fact, it gives us an excuse to return at some point in the future to ride it!), so we instead headed over to the newest ride in the park; 'The Green Lantern'.

There was just a very short queue once we got to the station, and we were soon on the ride. This was a stand-up rollercoaster (similar to 'Shockwave' at Drayon Manor, but longer!) which was full of loops, corkscrews and barrel-rolls, giving us a nice adrenaline rush and leaving us ready for more rides! We went next to the 'Superman: Ultimate Flight' ride, which is a suspended, flying coaster (like 'Air' at Alton Towers, but again, a bit longer). This was pretty cool, especially at one point where the track dives down into a loop so you kind of do a gambole - which was a very strange sensation!

We then went on 'El Toro' - a large wooden rollercoaster with a very high and very steep (almost vertical) first drop! We weren't really sure what to expect from this, as we haven't really been on many wooden rollercoasters other than the few at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which are all quite rough! However, it was probably our favourite ride of the day! We sat on the seats, put on the seatbelt and pulled down the lapbar (leaving us feeling a little vulnerable, knowing how high it went - we're used to over-the-head restraints from our many trips to Alton Towers!). We went up the lift hill, shot around the corner at the top and went down the drop. It was INCREDIBLY fast, hurtling over the huge hills at stupid speeds (we later read that it was 70mph, but it felt even faster!) and shooting around the corners so fast that you couldn't even control the direction that your head was being thrown in. It was just hilarious, and we laughed all the way around it, even though it was quite rough and we probably couldn't do it several times in a row (although we did do it again straight after riding it first time!).

After our two rides on 'El Toro', we walked around towards another roller coaster called 'Bizarro' (who apparently is a comic book character that is a mirror image of Superman), which was like a normal steel coaster but with no floor. As there was literally no queue for this, we went on the front row, which was strange seeing the track right under your feet, as you went over the loops it felt like you could literally run along the track! We got back to the station and there were just a few people in the queue, so they said that we could re-ride again if we wanted without having to go around. As some people were waiting for the front row, we moved back a couple of rows and had another ride on the middle of the train.


At this point, it was around 11:30, and we had done all of the 'big' roller coasters on the side of the park that we were on. We therefore walked over to the other side of the park to ride 'Nitro' - a huge steel coaster that has a track that is over a mile long, reaching heights of 230 feet and speeds of up to 80mph. Once again, we had just a little lapbar, but this gave you lots of freedom to throw your hands in the air and just enjoy the wind in your hair!

The last roller coaster that we hadn't rode was 'Batman: The Ride', which was just next to 'Nitro'. This was a suspended roller coaster (like 'Nemesis' at Alton Towers), and it was at this point that we faced our first queue of the day. As it was a Sunday, and the Halloween event 'Fright Fest' has started, we had anticipated that the morning would probably be fairly quiet, but that more people would start turning up during the afternoon for the events that take place later in the evening (the park was open until 10pm). We queued for around 20 minutes and finally got on the ride, which was pretty intense to say the least! It felt like we were upside down most of the ride with the endless loops and corkscrews, and we were left feeling very disoriented during the ride and very dizzy after the ride!

Satisfied that we had at least done all of the main rides at the park, we decided to have a break from the roller coasters and see what else the park had to offer - plus the fact that we could see that the park was much busier now and big queues were now starting to form at all of the rides. We had a look around at the different eateries around the park to try and find somewhere to eat that wasn't at an extortionate price - $12 for a hamburger and fries (not even a drink!) seemed pretty ridiculous! We eventually settled on a 'Nathan's Famous' hot dog each, and split some fries and a drink between us. It still cost us around $9 each which was still probably over our budget, but we have been under-spending on food recently anyway so we didn't really mind.

Once we had finished eating, we knew that there wasn't much point in going on any rides just yet, as our food needed to go down a bit - we didn't fancy seeing it again! We checked our map and noticed that there was a small 'zoo' area within the park (there is a larger drive-through safari park too, but we couldn't do this as we didn't have a car!)., so we decided to check that out. We found our way to this area, where we saw animals such as pigs, kangaroos, giant tortoises, goats and various birds. One of the birds (a big horn-billed thing) was chasing the kangaroos and biting their tails, which was pretty mean! In a cage just next to this enclosure were two little lion cubs, who were fast asleep. We saw on the map that at 3pm (whch was in around 45 minutes), there would be a 'lion cub presentation', so we decided to come back to them, assuming that they would be awake by then!

A member of staff was giving a talk to a couple of people with a parrot on her arm, so we listened as she told us about the parrot and demonstrated her talking skills - she mainly just said 'hello' 'I like crackers' and her name (Annie), but would occasionally mimic some of the guests when she felt like it. As the woman was telling us about the parrot in the cage next door, who likes to shout out to the guests for attention, a little girl said "I heard him", after which Annie the parrot immediately said "I heard him!" which was pretty funny!

We walked a bit further along, where we saw two bear cubs in an enclosure (they were around a year old so they weren't that small, but they were still pretty cute). After a short while, they were moved inside while a staff member placed some food around the enclosure, then they were let out to eat their dinner (mainly consisting of fish, oranges and what looked like dry dog food), while another member of staff gave a short talk about them. Apparently, they had been abandoned by their mother in the safari park and had been hand-reared by staff, but were now getting too big/aggressive for staff to come into contact with them. Eventually, they will be re-introduced to the other bears in the safari park. We watched them for a while, before sitting on a bench for a little while, trying to get Annie the parrot to talk, as her cage was just behind us.

At around 2:50pm, we went back over to where the lion cubs were, and found that one of them had just woken up. She was still very sleepy and wouldn't stop yawning, and was just kind of stumbling around, watching the kangaroos and the evil bird in the enclosure next door. At 3pm, two members of staff went into a gate attached to the fence that we were standing around, and opened the cage that the cubs were in (the other one woke up when they heard the keys), so that they could come out and play for a while. There were plenty of toys in their cage, which the two women brought out and got the cubs to play with while they told us their story. Like the bears, the cubs' mother had also abandoned them (apparently she is a good breeder but a rubbish mother - she has done this several times now!) and so the cubs are being brought up by the staff until they are big/strong enough to be re-introduced to the pride of lions in the safari park. The cubs were three months old and were at a very playful stage - they were just like a couple of playful kittens, only with much bigger and sharper claws and teeth! At one point, one of the cubs started creeping behind a tree, looking in our direction, before running towards the fence towards where we were standing, as if to try and grab our legs, at which point we were told that we should take a step back to prevent getting scratched!

Eventually, after a while of wrestling with each other and playing with their toys, it was time for the cubs to go back inside (apparently they sleep for over 20 hours of the day, which is why they only need a small cage), so we then left the zoo area to go back on some more rides. As we enjoyed it so much before, we went over to 'El Toro', which had a much bigger queue this time around. After around 45 minutes or so, we finally got on the ride, which was every bit as awesome as the first time round!

We had another look on our map at the other rides, and decided to try the 'Houdini' ride, although we weren't really sure exactly what it was! We ended up queueing for around an hour for this (the park was REALLY starting to get busy now!), and the ride was basically a small walk-through part, during which an unseen narrator told us about Houdini's death and their goal to resurrect his spirit. It was all a little creepy, and we were then moved into another room, where we took a seat, the lapbars came down, and the seats started moving and the walls started spinning, so that it felt like you were going upside down. It appeared that most of the people on the ride had never experienced this type of ride before, and quite a few of them were getting a bit freaked out by it, which was pretty entertaining for us!

Once off the ride, it was approaching 6pm and just starting to get dark. We checked the map and saw that there was an 'Awakening' show by the ferris wheel, during which the ghosts, ghouls and zombies that would roam the park after dark would make their first appearance. Just before the main show started, we saw a big line of these creepy characters come past, some walking, others riding in/on hearses, complete with coffins. The show started, and several zombies filled the stage, who one-by-one 'awakened' before dancing to music, eventually leading to them all doing the 'Thriller' dance (we thought that was coming really!).

We were starting to get a little hungry again, so we decided to split a meal of chicken tenders and fries between us to save a bit of money. We sat for a while once we had eaten, contemplating whether or not to risk queueing for another ride, knowing that our bus was leaving at 8:30pm. We decided not to risk it, and instead see some of the halloween-style attractions around the park. As we walked around, we were constantly harrassed by the ghouls around the park, who would follow us, snarl in our faces or just stare creepily at us! We stopped briefly to watch a 'freak' show, which was primarily a guy performing various 'gory' illusions (such as hammering a nail into his nose), before he brought on his assistant, who went on to swallow a sword.

We then walked through the 'lakefront cemetry', a walk-through scare zone full of 'the dead', who would hide around corners and jump out on people, chase them with spades, or follow people round trying to scare them. Emma, being a little blonde girl, got picked on quite a lot, so we quickly moved through, getting quite a few scares in the process, but it was all good fun! It was approaching 7:30pm, and we passed a stage set up with band equipment (drums, guitars, microphones, etc.) and we noticed on our map that some live music would be starting soon. We found a bench and watched as a band called 'Woods of Arden' from New York played a few of their songs. They were pretty good, and we picked up one of their CD's which they were giving away for free, although we won't actually be able to listen to it until we get back to the UK as we don't have a disc drive in the netbook!

By 8:10pm, we thought that we should head over to the bus stop ready for our bus, which should leave at 8:30pm. We waited.. and waited.. and waited some more. Eventually, 9pm came and went and there was still no bus. Everyone was starting to get a little annoyed as it was now pretty cold and our feet were hurting from being on them all day. A driver from a different bus eventually told us that the bus was on it's way from Philadelphia, and had set off at 8:30pm - obviously our first driver had told us the wrong time in the first place! Finally, the bus turned up at around 9:20pm, and the driver on it told us that he was told that we weren't supposed to leave until 10pm! As everyone was there, thankfully we left straight away, and we were back in Philadelphia at around 10:30pm. We walked back over to the train station and caught the airport line back to our hotel, where we got straight into bed and fell asleep within about 5 minutes flat!

Today, we didn't have much planned aside from a last bit of sight-seeing around the historic district - which we didn't do on Saturday due to it being sooo busy - so we had a bit of a lazy morning. We got up at about 8:00am to grab our breakfast from near reception, both having a bowl of cereal (Craig remembered to take his pill so he could have regular milk), then returned to our room to actually eat it. We watched a little bit of T.V whilst we ate, but soon after finishing we were still very tired from the day before so had another couple of hours sleep before waking up properly at about 10:00am. We took it fairly slow getting ready, and were ready to venture out by just after dinner time.

Since arriving in Philadelphia we have been wanting to sample the delights of a genuine 'Philly Cheesesteak' sandwich, so before leaving the room we had a little check on the internet for a place to get "Philadelphia's best cheesesteak" from, with many websites having a top 10 list to choose from. It turned out that about 45 minutes from our hotel is an area (particularly South Street) that is world famous for their version of the classic sandwich. We chose an eatery that was the closest to us (which happened to be voted No. 3 best cheesesteak in America) and worked out how to get there. Basically we ended up catching the usual train from down the road, then a simple bus ride on the number 40 took us straight to South Street.

The bus dropped us off right outside the place we wanted to visit, but we had to get some cash from an ATM first. We found one, got some cash, then headed back to the place - which was called 'Jim's Steak', by the way. We went in and joined the queue - which was already at least 10 people long - and browsed the menu above the serving counter. There were all different types of cheesesteak to choose from, but we both settled on 'Whiz, without, with Pizza Sauce'... In "Philly-Speak" that means a cheesesteak, with 'Whiz' cheese (like a liquidized cheese LOL), without onions/mushrooms, covered in pizza/tomato sauce. If you're not entirely sure what a cheesesteak actually is; it's premium rib-eye steak thinly cut and grilled, then chopped and stuffed into a sub-style sandwich bun where cheese is added for that extra YUM factor. It was absolutely delicious, it was literally rammed with meat and the sauce/cheese/steak combination is just WOW. It looked pretty bloody appetizing too - see the picture!

Whilst we were eating, our eyes wandered the walls where pictures and autographs of famous customers we plastered on every square inch. Mostly they were famous American sports personalities and T.V actors, but there were a few notable big names such as Bruce Willis and Billy Joel! We finally finished the monster sandwich and went back out onto the street. As we said earlier, we planned to do a proper tourist-y sight-seeing thing today and visit Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, so we checked our map for the best way to get there. It turns out there was a bus stop at the next street where we could catch the number 57 bus that would take us 95% of the way there, so we waited and caught the bus when it arrived.

When we got off about 10 minutes later, we took the short walk down the street to the visitor's centre where we could get free tickets to get into Independence Hall. We got our tickets from the counter and walked back out to the street and crossed over to the area where we could enter the 300 year old building, passing through a security bag-check, then waiting in a small line to the rear of the building. At this point it was about 2:45pm, and our tickets were for the 3:00pm entry, so we waited for a while before finally being lead in by the tour guide.

We were basically guided through the rooms of building, stopping in each one whilst the guide talked us through its original (and subsequent) uses during its history. Essentially the entire building was created for the British when still in rule of most of America (King George III's corrination was celebrated there before he declared war against the American colonies who wanted independence). The building, however, is probably most famous for being the "birthplace" of what we now know as 'The United States of America', as the Declaration of Independence was drafted and signed there. Aside from just that historic document, the American Constitution was also drafted and finalised there (the constitution is a set of rules/laws that the States - and Government - in American must abide by), we also saw the chair that George Washington sat in during this period!

It might sound slightly boring, but it's interesting if you like history (which we do!), and was made far more bearable by the witty tour guide - well done sir! Soon enough the tour came to a close so we exited the building and decided that we would go to see the Liberty Bell that was just across the road/park. We went into the building where the bell is kept and walked through various displays of information regarding it's history and symbolism. We reached the end of the corridor where the bell now stands and took the opportunity to take a few pictures and have a good look at the iconic symbol of independence. The bell was originally housed in the bell tower of Independence Hall, but the first time it was rang, a huge crack appeared down the side (now it's most notable/famous feature) and was taken down for re-casting - which appeared to never actually fix the problem! You may have seen both Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in the film 'National Treasure' with Nicholas Cage.

It was about 4:30pm-5:00pm at this point, and we knew we needed to get back to the hotel fairly early as we needed to pack our things away before checking out tomorrow morning. We decided to call it a day and walked back to the train station, stopping in CVS Pharmacy along the way to get some snacks for tea (neither of us were hungry for a full meal after our massive cheesesteaks at dinner). We finally got back to our room at about 5:45pm and ate our food (some pineapple chunks and chocolate/crisps), but never actually ended up packing our things! Doh! Instead we've (well, Emma mainly :P) spent aaagggeeesss writing this HUGE blog, and generally just chilling out watching T.V (which up until arriving here we hadn't watched for 3 entire weeks of course; we're catching up on lost time!)

We intend to be up fairly early tomorrow (Craig's birthday!) to pack our stuff, and be checked out by just before noon. We'll probably grab some dinner before getting a train from 30th Street Station towards Atlantic City, hoping to arrive by about 1:00pm-2:00pm.

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