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Today has definitely been the most packed day of them all, and it happened in this place that is Boston. Firstly, I'll clear up some questions that people have been asking. No, it's not as hot as it is in New York, and not as humid, but still much hotter than back home! The place is so much different than anything else I've seen, but maybe that's because I've only been to two places here? I don't know, but you probably do :p Also, Willie left to go to Washington when I went to Boston. It's a shame, because he didn't leave or seem to want to give me any of his information, but I guess if I really wanted to get in touch, there aren't that many Willie Kunkel's in Washington state east of the mountain range who live on an Apple Orchard! If there are two though, I'm screwed! Anyway, now for today and last nights catch up.
I was so tired last night, I was nearly falling asleep at the keyboard! I dragged myself up to bed (From the common room, which I've been in for a while), watched Everybody Loves Raymond and the beginning of a movie called 'Summer Rental' (It's funny how I remember the insignificant things!) starring Jon Candy. Then, I turned over, remembered that the two British adults who were sharing my room came in and started asking me stuff such as 'Do you mind if I turn the air donitioning on?' and I just grunted a 'Yeah, no problem' to the best that my lazy body could muster and eventually drifted off.
And that's two paragraphs without anything about today. Back to the morning, I thought I'd slept until 1 O'Clock? Then I started to worry because this was going to be my only full day here, but I didn't mind as much because I know that if I'd woken up any earlier I wouldn't have felt right all day, so I made an enormous effort to wake up, have a shower and get downstairs. Checking the time, 8:40AM! I was chuffed! I thought that I'd take a gander at the city of Boston. Little did I realise how much I was going to take in in a single day!
I jumped on the shuttle, which is just a minibus (By the way, I don't think I mentioned yesterday that the people who work here are the nicest bunch of people I've met, and the free shuttle to the hostel was 6 people sharing a modestly sized car with my luggage and no bootspace!), and on it were two guys, one called Rogelio and the others name I cant remember, but we got talking about the Boston Red Sox and then what we were doing in Boston, and we ended up on the station, and Rogelio asked if we should hang around so I agreed because I too didn't want to spend the time on my own. So, our first port of call was the Freedom Trail.
The other guy left us to go to somewhere else, because he had plans, but he did have time to explain the best Broadway shows to see because he is taking theatre as his major in college and he wants to run his own theatre as part of his life ambition, which is a nice plan to have. SO we headed on the freedom trail. All I can say is that I'm glad I can do a lot of walking. I reckon in total I covered several miles, me and rogelio, and we covered a lot of areas. This time, you'll be glad to know, I took a lot of video today. All over the place, a lot of monuments, but mostly just nice places that we visited. So anyway, first stop was Quincy Market. Here was the first time I saw the 'thing', which I'm not going to say, because the video hints at it, and it might be a surprise, but probably not! So, we walked into quincy market, and there is this long hallway full to the brim of food and drink stalls either side. I picked a Chicken and Sausage Pasta Diablo, Rogelio chose an italian sausage sandwich. I picked the small portion, which turned out to be huge! I swear I will never get used to the larger portions here! And I know my feat of eating 21 pizza slices is good, but something in the air is destroying my appetite, as I couldn't even eat it all! I guess it's because I'm drinking loads. Also, while there, we were just talking about birthdays, and this lady sitting next to us with her mother and friend/sister said 'I'm February 25th', and then when a conversation was started, I mentioned I might be going to Chico in California, and that's where the other woman's daughter was, and she explained about it and it sounds awesome! So that's where I'd like to consider going now.
After we left there, we wound up at the USS Constitution museum with the ship just opposite. We took some pictures and I took some video, then we went into the museum. I filmed a bit inside there, and got a small 'No cameras in here' chat from one of the museum staff (See video when I get back!!!). Then we carried on to the freedom trail which took us to the Bunker Hill monument. The biggest part of that wasn't the minaiture battle map with figurines and soldiers etc in the tiny building, but the fact that there were 294 steps which took you to the top! In the slightly warmer and less humid weather of Boston I thought I could get there no problem, but I wasn't the only person sweating like crazy as we reached the small, warm room at the top. I filmed some of the view, which was even more spectacular because the bunker hill monument is already towering above the rest of the city as its on a hill.
That was the end of the freedom trail! But even though my description is short, it was quite some trip, definitely worth going to. Full of history and interesting buildings, and interesting stops. So after that, Rogelio's suggestion was to go to MIT which stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology, because that is where would like to go in the future of his course in ecomics. BTW, Rogelio is from Mexico, and he has a very interesting life and story, so being with him was definitely a good idea. Also, he is heading to New York tomorrow and until Wednesday so we'll be hanging around until then! When we got there, I filmed it, and it's very big and grand and beautiful. Lots of older buildings, grand in scale etc :p
Then, being mentioned earlier, we decided to head to Harvard. That place is really really nice! We walked around Harvard square for my pal to find a phone card, and after that just sat down in the harvard university square and drunk our drinks. There was this statue there of the founder, and it is good luck if you rub a certain appendage of his (Haha, its not as dirty as I made it sound, I just don't want to go re-explaining things that I've talked about on the video!)
So, we looked for a watch for Rogelio, and saw some very nice (And expensive) ones, and then I said we should go to Commonwealth avenue, which is THE most upscale neighbourhood in Boston. And damn right it was too! The street was divided by two roads, which were divided by a luscious section of grass populated with trees neatly placed on the sides. I've filmed it so you'll see what I mean. We came out in the Boston Public which is the nicest park I've possibly been to in my life? I could be wrong, but I really really REALLY liked this place! It had a small lake, wildlife, perfectly mowed grass and pruned flowers. Then, we took a detour to see the 'thing' mentioned earlier. It was fantastic, made my day!
Trying to speed this up now because the guy needs to use the computer and I've been hogging it for a while. So basically, we had a quick peek into Chinatown, into Downtown Boston, then headed back to the hostel (There was a little incident where we took the wrong train, and tried to cross to the other side but it would have cost us another token so we got the guard to let us through and tell this other woman guard to let us through cvos we made a mistake, and everything was ok and we didnt even miss the train so it was ok!)
When we got back, a quick change and then we went to a Brazilian restaurant. Instead of a normal restaurant, it was very strange. First, there was a mixture of pasta and salads and strange things to fill up the plate, all along the line to the 'meat window' (I named it). When there, you can ask for any meat you want which they have already cooked, and they pop it onto your plate. I got Pork Lamb and Chicken, but they also had beef, shrimp, and others which I didnt recognise! The weirdest thing though? They actually weigh your plate to give you yoiur price! I put mine on the scales, and as well as this odd choice of a drink made with corn (Yep, the stuff they use to make popcorn) it came to approximately 4.50 pounds. WHAT A DEAL! But it did fill me up, so I felt bloated all the way home, and after watching a film of Batman and X-Men in Spanish (I've been asking Rogelio to teach me little phrases which I am doing, such as No Dengo Ombre, which means I'm not hungry) and Fresh Prince of Bel Air in rap(????), and a few card games that i taught him, I came to this computer and wrote this. And thats it!
Sorry it was rushed, but I should have more time to write tomorrow, by then I'll be in New York! Good night everybody, have a great time whatever you do. Don't waste a moment of your lives people!
Russ/Epiq
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Dave
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You make my day sound so boring in comparision! You'll have to re-tell me all the stories you have as soon as you get back :) We should be having a party or something so you can come along :) *hair update : It's red!*