Bloody hotel and it's broken internet. I really wanted to document at the end of each day while it was still fresh in my mind but...wait a minute. Why didn't I just type it in Word or write it out by hand?? I figured the internet was down so blogging impossible. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that I was so exhausted at the end of each day from Bostony goodness that I could barely think straight.
So anyway, let me try to remember what I can.
Can I just say straight off, if I haven't already, how great seeing a city on your own is? It's great. You just don't have to compromise! I really enjoyed having a vague plan that I was free to change or adapt as I saw fit.
I began day 2 with the plan of a) eating some damn seafood by the sea
and b) following the freedom trail, a marked trail of red paint or red brick you can follow from downtown to the north end. I said in my first post that the riverside park stretched for 4 miles but it was waaay longer than that. It spans the whole northwest part of the city and divides Cambridge from Boston. The freedom trail is the one that is 4 miles. You can follow it and stray when you like. All the historical buildings and places along the way have plaques and explanations.
I saw the graveyard with the victims of the Boston Massacre where Paul Revere is buried (cheery). I saw pile of churches...Boston is insane. It looks like a crazy person designed it. Like a wealthy person who had lots of beautiful buildings and parks but then went sort of nuts and threw it all together in a crazy way. Everything is just everywhere. I liked it. Really relaxed, organic style of putting a city together. Lots of gorgeous architecture and winding streets. As crazy as it all is, it somehow seems right.
The metro is hilarious! Sometimes it's a bus, sometimes it's a street car, sometimes a real subway car. The lines are all over the place, it's all so haphazard but still manages to be pretty fast and efficient.
Have I mentioned yet how bloody friendly everyone is?? Holy crap, this is by far, the friendliest place I have been. I guess it's a particular contrast to me being used to the coldness of Montreal folks but still...everyone I talked to was so happy to help, people make way for you on the street and hold open doors and smile. Even in the touristy parts. I was impressed. Even with my socially inept and big weirdo style of asking questions, people were still nice. eg: I go up to the man selling tickets to a trolley ride in the middle of a busy tourist section and say:
"Do you give out free information?"
He gives me a puzzled but not unfriendly look.
"What I mean is, I would like to know a good place to get seafood. Not expensive, not grilled salmon with a bottle of white wine seafood, but like cheap but really awesome, those-in-the-know seafood."
He didn't even flinch after this spiel. Just reflected for a moment and then drew on my map where to go. I followed his advice and got exactly what I was looking for! I ended up way in the east end in a shipyard that has a hidden restaurant called the No-Name. Sort of in one of the pier buildings that you would NEVER come across without knowing where it was. Right on the harbor. Fishing boats and seagulls, the whole works. You can see in my photos the freaking ginourmous plate of fried seafood they brought me. I thank you friendly trolley ticket man, for giving me the goods instead of telling me to go screw myself.
I also happened to fall in love with Boston's little Italy. Much smaller than Toronto's for example but waay kicks Toronto's ass. I'm not sure I can put my finger on it exactly. Just so much character. I brought Tennessee back in the evening to have dinner there and again, we ended up going to the exact right place. I felt like I was in Moonstruck. A little mom and pop place with alfresco ceilings and and bustling waiters in black and white speaking in heavy italian accents. I had perfectly cooked penne with perfectly cooked vegetables and T had pesto and gnocchi, also perfect. Afterward, to fulfill T's only desire in Boston, we walked a few minutes over to the north east of the city to the harbour to see the Atlantic. A bay still counts.
Day 3 saw me walking across the bridge to Cambridge to see MIT. For some reason I expected it to be this one building with a bunch of guys in khaki pants holding calculators standing outside of it. It's huge! It goes on for blocks with a million buildings and a million people. I strolled on a little but it was super hot that day(by the way, day 2 and 3 were the most perfect, crisp, fall weather days.)and Cambridge is actually not a very interesting place so I said to myself, Hah. I can do whatever I want. I'm going back to Boston. So I took the tram back and went to Chinatown instead where I had an amazing Buddhist vegetarian lunch and bought some oddly flavoured candy (prune and pine, I have still yet to work up the courage to try them.)
On my way back to the Backbay part of town where our hotel was, I tried out the bathroom at the Four Seasons. There was a separate room in it for a huge red couch that looked fancier than the couch in our hotel lobby. Everything was marble and the towels for drying your hands were as close to cloth as paper can get. In a way, it's more extravagant than real towels because you just throw them out. There were also trained monkeys that powdered your nose and a machine that polished the cuffs of your pants and embroidered them with the Four Seasons logo in spun gold.
Being right across the street from Boston Commons, I took one last little rest before having to meet up with T to leave. Once again, Boston Commons is a beautiful park with big weeping willows and ponds and little white picket bridges. Boston really is a gorgeous looking city. SO much green space and water front parks, old buildings and friendly people. I give it a thumbs up.
I stopped at one last place to buy the angora gloves I saw while browsing the first day. They are the colour of grape juice and and were on sale, my souvenir of Boston.
So long Boston. Smell ya later.
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