Boston

After a 10 hours drive (googlemaps said 6.5hrs!), 45mins in the midday sun at the American boarder, in a massive tank of a car, we finally reached Boston, and both of us were very glad to have SatNav, otherwise we may still be driving around Boston lost right now.

I think its fair to say we both suffer from a poor sense of direction...  

“Don’t worry about getting lost”, I confidently explained to Laura as I led her in completely the wrong direction from the station we were trying to get to.  “I’ve been here before, I’m practically local”.  I went onto to make up some lies that were not believed about how much the city had given me, and how I had repaid Boston for all the good times.  Confidence, dear reader, is key.  When you have no idea what the deuce is going on, keep on doing it confidently, and chances are not great that you will be stopped.  Of course this falls down somewhat when you realise you’re a bit... well... lost.

With a population of about 600,000, the chances of bumping into someone you know is pretty slim.  However, on our first morning, we left the hotel and headed to the subway, and stood outside the subway looking a bit lost and disorientated was Nick's old flatmate Jamie.  We knew he'd be in Boston when we were there, but considering none of us at this point owned a mobile phone and only had email to communicate with, the chances of bumping into one another were slim.  So now the tale of the two hobbits  gladly turned into a tale of two hobbits and their companion in Boston.

The history of Boston plays a significant role in American history, being the initial place where the American Revolution started, sadly involving tipping a lot of tea into the river.  Sacrilege!  I fear this is also why the Americans can't make a good cup of tea.  So this meant that there was definitely plenty to see and do.  The first tour we took was along the Black Heritage Trail.  I didn't really know very much about slavery in America (apart from what Nick had tried to tell me before hand), so this tour was very interesting.  The tour guide took us around some key places, including Beacon Hill where the black population had lived.  Later on that day we visited Quincy Market where you can find pretty much anything to eat, but we both made sure we tried Boston's famous clam chowder.  On our second day we toured around the Old State House (photo below), which is the oldest public state building in Boston and where the Declaration of Independence was first read aloud to the Bostonians.  The Boston Massacre also happened right outside this building.  Later that day we walked to Fenway Park where the famous Red Sox play baseball.

Jamie was working during the week days so we only met up with him in the evening for dinner and drinks.  On Saturday it was his day off, so early doors we headed to Samuel Adams for a brewery tour.  Its fair to say that the main event was drinking beer (at 10am!) because after we'd left neither Nick nor Jamie knew how to make it.  The brewery was tiny and I wasn't convinced that actually made any beer there because none of the machinery was in use, but the beer was tasty and we learnt how to taste it and what to look for in a good beer.  So a few beers later we headed back to the city centre which had become mobbed.  Boston's ice hockey team had won the Stanley Cup and all of Boston had come out to cheer the team when they returned from Vancouver.  It was pretty much impossible to get anywhere fast.  Finally we reached the start of the Freedom Trail, which we followed for the rest of the day.  For those of you like me, who don't have a clue what the Freedom Trail is I'll explain briefly.  It is basically a 2.5 mile red bricked path which goes through downtown Boston, leading you past 16 significant sites.  We didn't manage to finish and decided to finish the next day, blaming it on the sun (and I'd probably also blame it on us having beer for breakfast!).

So the next day we finished off the Freedom Trail, with the highlight for me seeing a reenactment at Bunker Hill Monument of the British Redcoats firing their weapons.  The last stop of the trail took us to the USS Constitution, which we were able to board.  This vessel has huge cannons and sails, and we were all very much surprised to find out it is still commissioned and could get sent out at any time.  Imagine seeing that coming towards you at sea!!  Later on that evening, we'd googled the best local place to eat in Boston and it was a very tiny Italian restaurant in the Italian district.  So we headed there and queued for about 45mins just to get a table.  Opposite was a famous italian pastry shop called Mike's Pastry, which another massive hoard of people waiting outside to get their sugar fix.  I was sent to that queue to get desert while the boys waited in the restaurant queue.  Luckily I just managed to get our sugar fix, chocolate chip canolli's before we were seated.  Dinner was amazing with us all having a seafood pasta dish, and jamie splashing out to get half a lobster in his! 

On our last day Nick and I went Kayaking on Charles River, which turned out to not be that romantic because the river was filthy!  And its still fair to say that kayaking is not a skill we both possess.  For lunch we met Jamie in China Town and then said our farewells before heading to the train station for what would become a 12 hour overnight train journey to Washington DC.