Boston

Boston! One of the oldest cities in the US and largely inhabited by the Irish, giving rise to its unique accent. We arrived early on Friday morning and managed to locate our hostel with the help of a friendly local who was also only too happy to point out the best eating places nearby, Indian for lunch then... Scotty and I immediately decided to run off all the picnics and poutine we’d had over the previous week and set out along the very picturesque albeit black watered Charles River. We stayed right next to Fenway Park - home of the Red Sox - so decided to have a nose around there that afternoon, unfortunately the home games were not scheduled during our stay so we missed out on that (Yankees game in NYC tonight though!). We made friends with some Brits and had a little predrink party – no drinking in the hostel so we had to smuggle the wine in and the bottles out of our room – and then headed for a night out Fenway style. Saturday saw us head to Harvard (est 1636) which we were able to pretend we went to for a couple of hours, we even got asked if we did go and we ummed and ahhed while we were tempted to say yes before we finally said no – as if our Kiwi accents and the conversation didn’t give us away anyway. A stroll along the Charles River and a stop off at MIT before heading back to a Saturday evening that followed in much the same fashion as the previous night but included a conversation with a very patriotic and inebriated marine at the local bar.

Over the next couple of days we managed to fit in all kinds of things touristy. The Freedom Trail took us on an historic walk through Boston and into Charleston. We found Mike’s Pastry who famously serve cannoli’s – what I can only assume is deep fried pastry filled with some kind of cream, the one I chose was then dunked in chocolate with chocolate chips on the outside – thank god we’d barely started the walk because it needed to be burnt off somehow.

On Monday we headed to the “Cheers” bar for lunch where for decades we’d been promised that everyone knew our name, but they didn’t. At least they were glad we came. We wandered around Beacon Hill (beautiful old houses where old money from Boston Brahmins (European immigrants) rules) and took a swan boat ride through the pond in Boston Common (very loser touristy). I explored the city some more for the afternoon, discovered the Boston Tea Party site but was disappointed to see that, like everything else in this country, the museum and ship were being renovated and there was actually nothing to see. I wandered around the harbour walk, the Quincy Markets, the Financial District, Chinatown and intrigued by the movie “The Town” tried to get myself lost in real Charlestown only to be disappointed by rows and rows of beautiful townhouses before arriving at the Bunker memorial site and the U.S.S Constitution once again. The evening resulted in me dragging my new found German friend Johannes up to the 52^nd floor of the Prudential Building to the “Top of the Hub” bar for scenic views of the city and expensive cocktails. 

We woke up yesterday morning to discover we’d got our days mixed up and that we were leaving tomorrow (today now) and not the day after, all activities for the day were booked, Scotty and Aimee went to Salem for witch hunting while I headed out with Tacey and Corny to go whale watching. On the brink of seasickness we finally arrived at the whale feeding area and saw several Humpbacks having a munch and showing off.

Unfortunately I’ve missed out on the Samuel Adams Brewery tour and actually going into Fenway Park but gotta leave something for next time! NYC now, hopefully we get out alive Jxx

Photos next time! I'm sitting in Bryant Park in NYC (where they have NY Fashion Week) and the internet is crap. Cool view of the library though xx