Two weeks ago, this girl from the Pittsburgh suburbs took the four-hour bus ride to Philadelphia for a bold first-time visit.

Granted, I had some incentive to take the trip: My boyfriend is from Northeast Philadelphia. This automatically made him my tour guide -- which, I soon found, embarrassed him because of my excessive camera use.

Before our excursion, he had given me only a vague idea of what to expect from the City of Brotherly Love. From my recent experience, I will try to address some of my preconceived notions about the city and gauge their truthfulness.

No. 1: Philly smells.

True? Yes -- but only in certain parts.
Our Friday night arrival left me unimpressed, but mainly because it was dark and raining and I had just been on a bus for four hours. As we left 30th Street Station, where my beau's mom picked us up, I noticed the first few similarities between the rival cities. We both have rivers -- Pittsburgh has three of them and Philly has two. My "tour guide" explained that he believes the bodies of water are the source of the distinct smell that Philly has. He claimed he could smell it, but I tried not to notice it.

No. 2: Philly has lots of homeless people.

True? Yes -- but only some of them ask for money.
On Saturday, I got a better impression of the city while strolling in northeast Philly under clear skies and snapping photos of things that weren't terribly noteworthy, much to the chagrin of my unwilling tour guide. A disheveled man toting some plastic bags noticed my photography and asked me if I was doing a college project. My boyfriend congratulated me on my first interaction with one of Philly's finest citizens.

No. 3: Philadelphians are loud.
No. 4: They love the Phillies.

True? Yes and yes.
Saturday night we made the trip to Citizens Bank Park to watch the Phillies play the Chicago Cubs. The only difference between that parking lot and one on a Penn State football Saturday was the team colors. In the five minutes we spent parking the car, I witnessed a yelling match, a beer pong game and about 10 people we had seen drinking earlier that afternoon in matching T-shirts, still drinking. In the stadium, fans near us yelled enough to shut up a lone Cubs fan, who eventually gave up cheering. The Phils won the game 7-1 -- a concept I'm not used to as a Pirates fan.

Don't let these simple observations deter you from visiting the fine city of Philadelphia. My unofficial tour guide proved to me there's a reason Philly is famous for its cheesesteaks, and I got to follow the footsteps of Rocky before viewing some amazing exhibits in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. If my boyfriend and I can see past the "soda" or "pop" argument, hopefully soon I can be his tour guide and help him explore some of Pittsburgh's misconceptions, even if they happen to be true.

Stacey Federoff is a sophomore majoring in journalism and a performing arts reporter for The Daily Collegian. Her e-mail address is sjf5034@psu.edu.