Photos

Hi everyone,

I thought you might enjoy a couple of photos of Boston so here goes...
George Washington and the skyline:

Old State House:

Quincy Market:And just for fun... here is me curling:

At Risk Passengers… this way to collect your ticket to embarrassment please…

Well hello again folks – how are we all? I thought I would give you all an update of the rest of my stay in Boston (you lucky things, you!). Yesterday was a beautiful day in Boston so I decided to skip my indoor plans of visiting a couple more museums and set out for a wander instead.

I took in Commonwealth Avenue on my trip in down town, which is a really wide, tree-lined avenue with different memorials dotted along it for about 12 blocks. It was really interesting and I liked the way that each block had a different theme going. There were also lots of traditional brownstones to admire while I was wandering, not to mention plenty of locals out walking their dogs in the sunshine! Slightly less enjoyable was watching two police officers suggesting a homeless guy “move on” but I guess it couldn’t be all too picture post-card or I might have forgotten that I was in the US!

After Commonwealth Avenue I explored Charles Street and the rest of Beacon Hill. This is the fancy area of Boston (where JFK used to live incidentally) and still has cobbled streets and genuine gas-lamps which shine 24 hours a day. There were lots of little cafes and antique shops so I sat down and people-watched for a while, yet again marvelling at all the dogs in Boston! They do market themselves as the walking city of the US, which is true except for the maniac drivers who are not the slightest bit interested in stopping for red lights and the maniac pedestrians who just wander on the road randomly!

After all that excitement I visited the New England Aquarium, which was great. I hung out with the Little Blue Penguins for a while – just catching up on the news from home, and then admired the massive coral reef set up they have there. Basically they have an enormous tank which goes up about five floors and is a replica of an actual coral reef in the Carribean so you can see what kind of fish would live at each level – great stuff!

I visited the Cheers bar for my lunch – let’s face it, tacky as it may be you couldn’t go to Boston without doing it right? One final Samuel Adams and cheeseburger later, I did some last minute souvenir shopping and visited the holocaust memorial before heading back to the hostel to get my bags. The holocaust memorial was really beautifully done – six tall glass columns (one for each recognised death camp) with names etched on them and you walk through with little spurts of steam coming up and various plagues with people’s quotes on them. Not what I expected to find in Boston, but lovely nonetheless.

My last stop was a wander along Newbury Street, admiring all the fancy shops and restaurants and then I caught the subway out to the airport… and that is when the real excitement began…

I knew that the travel gods had been very kind to me thus far on my travels and that at some point that luck had to turn… I think yesterday may have been it! I was apparently identified as an ‘at risk passenger’, although no-one would actually explain to me why so suddenly found myself being taken in one direction to be searched, my passport being taken in another and my bags in yet another! This was all after a very loud “full search coming” yell had been made across the security area so everyone got to have a good gawp at me! The actual search etc was all fine but man those US customs people can be rude – they were just about to rip into my backpack before I suggested that it might be easier if I unlocked it for them and then left my belongings all over the show and wandered off without telling me if I was OK to leave or what! Obviously they found nothing so I was free to go and did what any good Allison or Freeman would do in the same situation and went to the bar!

Anyway – after all that excitement I arrived safely home to Toronto and even had a nice walk for five minutes in a light snow shower to get back to the hostel where I proceed to sleep like a very tired girl!

Hope you are all well and talk to you soon!

Clare and the Boston Kreme

Hi all from Boston! I just got gifted ten free minutes of internet and thought how better to spend my time than to update you guys on my Boston trip so far?!

I left Canada early on Thursday morning, went through US customs before I left Toronto (odd but OK - ever friendly US customs officials were exactly the same even if they were in another country!) and boarded my very little commuter flight to Boston. Brave Clare came to Boston and negotiated the subway system to my hostel, which I am surprised to report is in a surprisingly great location and is excellently clean and bright. They let me check in straight away and so I dropped my bags and coat off (it was 19 degrees... hello global warming...welcome to North America) and headed in to town.

I explored around Boston Common and the Public Gardens, which were very pretty although perhaps not their best during the between fall leaves and snow seasons. Then I started out on the freedom trail, which is a painted red stripe on the streets of Boston taking you around all the historical sights... and this city is BRIMMING with history. I really love it all, hearing about the American revolution, the signing of the declaration of independence, the Boston Tea Party and on and on. Historical buildings are found between all the high rises and the people are much friendly than I have found in Toronto or other American cities.

Some of the highlights were the Old State House (where the Boston Massacre took place and where the Declaration of Independence was signed among other things), Fanieuil Hall and Quincy Market (an old town hall which is now fully of shops and food markets and restored really beautifully) and Paul Revere's house. After that I retired to a pub where I drank a Samuel Adams Ale while looking out on Sam Adam's grave marker - bizarre but felt like a must do!

I also joined one of the girls from the hostel at the official lighting of the Christmas tree, thereby continuing the Clare Allison Christmas Tree Tour! It was really nice to be at something like that at 7 in the evening rather than at home when we have to wait until 10 or whatever for it to be dark. I am finally understanding what my northen hemisphere buds mean about Christmas not seeming the same in Summer - it is definitely easier to get in the mood with all the dark and cold etc around - well it will be if and when the snow ever arrives!

Yesterday I started off by trying to visit the Boston Tea Party ship... one problem... it burned down recently so there is nothing to see. I was pretty bummed out about that so when it started to rain I decided to jump on a city trolley tour to stay dry and see some more sights. We took in Little Italy (very authentic, lots of italian accents and old fashioned pizzarias), the USS Constitution (the oldest commission workship in the US) and Beacon Hill. Afterwards I went and had some Lobster Bisque, a pastry from famous Mikes Bakery and wandered back to the hostel down Newbury Street - Boston's answer to Rodeo Drive.

Today I headed off to Harvard first thing (pronunced Hahvahd in the local accent) and took in the unofficial tour of the campus, which showed you all the historical buildings as well as tid-bits like where Matt Damon's room was, where JFK's room was, Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones dorm (they were roommates!) and all the rest. Lots of fun and even though Harvard was not as pretty as I expected it was still really interesting.

I ran into some people from the hostel after that and we all got together to head to the JFK Library and Museum... this has to be one of the best museums I have ever seen. It chronicles JFK's presidency and has lots of displays of his actual speeches, campaign posters etc etc etc. It is also in a beautiful setting right by the Charles River and all in all was fantastic.

Anyway - I am now thinking about heading off to get some dinner and maybe see a movie with some of the gang so I hope you are all well and I will write more soon.

Cheers,
Clare