Shannon Visits Philly: Eastern State Penitentiary

Okay so I joined my local library over the summer and one of the things I saw they offered was a free museum pass for the Eastern State Penitentiary- which I had never been too- but always wanted to go to! My boyfriend one of his friends and I have been to Philly a few times this year- so we know how to get to the train station there and it's pretty easy to get around in Philly- we walk a lot... but we thought we could get there with no real problem. Plus- the pass was good for up to 8 people I think? So we could get a lot of friends on the tour with us.

So I think we ended up with 3 of his friends and we did the daytime audio tour because that's what the pass was good for. The audio tour was narrated by Steve Buscemi- who's name I learned how to pronounce from this tour it's actually Boos-Sem- Ee not Boosh-Emmy. He did a great job- it was an informative audio and... I liked it a lot! The audio tour isn't a must- do... if you want to look around without the audio- it works too. There's a lot of exhibits to explore without it.

One wing of the prison that my group thought was interesting was where prisoners on death row request artworks or pictures... it's sad and beautiful to see what they want.

There was also an air conditioned exhibit outside of the prison about the new prison systems... you could confess things you've done and if you've ever been to prison or not- annonymously. And they hang some up and they light up which people have been to prison and who haven't... and some people that did some awful awful things did NOT go to jail for it. This has a video in it too and... it's just very interesting.

They also have where the death row prisoners were kept and that exhibit almost made me cry. They had a song that an inmate on death row wrote while they were in there playing... and they gave out a pamphlet with sheet music and I think they might have had lyrics or something to it also? It's been a while so I don't remember.

They also have Al Capone's cell. This is very famous in the museum- Al Capone was there briefly and he had a little bit more of a lavish cell than the other inmates... they renovated it because they originally had it a little bit more luxe than what it was... it was still more luxurious than most cells- but it wasn't quite as outlandish as they originally had the cell.

We went to Kura Revolving Sushi afterwords. I've been to this location twice and the Edison location once- this wasn't as good of an experience as the first time we went- so I would possibly recommend going during the daytime. Still a very fun time to go with friends!

Overall great time and an interesting place to visit. A must do if you live nearby. Especially if you can get free tickets!

Bye!

-Shannon