Boston
17th:
I landed around 11.30, my bag came out very fast, and in no time I was on the metro on my way to my hostel. The hostel is fairly central, and very nice, with a great selection of cheap places to eat around. However I had plenty of time left, it was still early-ish (14 or so), by the time I left. So I decided to go to Cambridge to see Harvard and MIT. The universities aren’t exactly pretty, Harvard is better looking than MIT, but still awfully bland, a sort of failed federal architectural style. There wasn’t the air of education around the places either, however I do know that I am dealing with two of the best universities in the world, I am just relaying my experience.
I was back at the hostel around 17.15, and killed the time until it was 19 o’clock, and a group of people assembled in the lobby, I had signed up for a free comedy show (Celtics played the LA Lakers in the finals of the NBA, so the comedy club must have known that they had to do something drastic), and went along with 9 other people to “The Comedy Connection” for an evening of laughter (or so I thought); the first 3 comedians weren’t funny, the jokes were poor; but the final 3 comedians, were brilliant, and I laughed till I cried, and so did most people present.
After the show all of us headed back to the hostel, and I fell in conversation with Amelia from Austin (Texas), and we ended up watching Fawlty Towers together, until late in the night. She had to get up early, as she had to go to an introductory course, she would soon start studying here in Boston, and it was late anyway, so I just went to bed and slept.
18th:
I got up very late, but as always, eventually got around. I spent the entire day walking along the Freedom Trail, entering all the museums (free one’s anyway), and lingering at many of the beautiful sights. I didn’t do a lot of different things, but I learned a lot about Boston history; Boston Common, State House, Park St Church, Granary Burying Ground, King’s Chapel, Old South Meeting House (Boston Tea Party), Boston Massacre, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, Hill Burying Ground are just among the things I saw on my trip around the city. Near the North Square I had a most amazing sandwich, not just the best sandwich, but an amazing Cuban sandwich at that.
In the evening I stayed in at the hostel, watched a movie and didn’t do much; for dinner I had a sandwich from the nextdoor place, very tasty indeed.
19th:
I started by eating breakfast at the hostel (this was the only day I had been up early enough to eat breakfast), and then walked to Fenway Park, home of the red sox, and waited 40 minutes for the next tour to start. The tour was really good, and I suddenly got a crash course in baseball, and now know slightly more. The tour took quite a long time, so afterwards I signed up for a sneak preview of Wanted, and walked around Copley (a part of Boston) and tried to get to the observation deck of the Prudential Tower (tallest building in Boston), but couldn’t as it had been rented for a private arrangement.
When i came back to the hostel, it was time to go to the cinema, so at the cinema I bought some popcorn, and watched a movie, which is one of my favourite movies ever, that movie really rocked my world, it had everything. A lot of people will undoubtedly draw comparisons to The Matrix, but disregard that, this movie is completely separate, and if anything, the only comparison is the blue collared guy hating his life; and The Matrix didn’t exactly pioneer that idea.
Not much else happened, I went back to the hostel and ate some dinner, did nothing for a couple of hours and went to bed.
20th:
Last day, oh what to do? At 11 o’clock I checked up, stored my rucksack in a locker; and went out to see the view from the skydeck, the Prudential Tower isn’t the tallest building in Boston anymore, but has the highest observation deck, and having the tallest building in the view is amazing, it is like a giant mirror. The ticket to the top of the Prudential Tower was 10 dollars, whereas both Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center charge 20 dollars, a nice change. The tour also included a free audiotour (but unfortunately it was quite boring), but the view was fantastic, better than the Chicago view and more stunning than the New York view.
After the tower I went to the Boston Apple Store, the largest Apple store in the world, and it really is enormous, 3 times the size of the flagstore on 5th avenue, 3 big levels. Both the most of the rest of the day, not much was accomplished; the Lonely Planet didn’t have many suggestions, other than those I didn’t have time for, so I sat around at the hostel, read in my book, and did random stuff to pass the time.
Eventually it was time, and when I was about to leave an English girl was headed to the airport as well, so we went there together, I never learned her name, but she was from Brighton Beach. Check-in was easy, and even though I bought my tickets separately, they checked me in all the way. After not much of a wait, I boarded the plane and left the States.
This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 00:58. It is filed under USA.
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