Boston

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Today was to be our Boston 'Free Day', which meant we would be dropped off in the morning, and then we'd be picked up towards the end of the afternoon, and therefore have lots of time to explore around Boston. To start off with though we were dropped off at the Boston Tea Party Ship, in the Seaport District.

Unfortunately, the Boston Tea Party Ship was under renovation, and would not be open to the public until 2006, so that was a big shame as that was on my list of things to tick off. Anyway, we were dropped off, and immediately went on our Boston Old Town Trolley tour. This was already included in our tour, and is a hop on, hop off tour, where we could check out any of the sights along the way, get off when we saw something we liked, and then get back on later and stop off somewhere else. It was all commentated too.

Most of us stayed on, until we'd done a full 16-stop lap, before getting off where we wanted. We passed Faneuil Hall, USS Constitution, Old State House, Boston Common, Beacon Hill, the 'Cheers' bar, and many other places. It gave us a good opportunity to see a number of places, and take photos. I ended up getting off at the end of the first lap though, and then walked to Boston Common. It was yet another hot day and the Common was a nice place to start off at. I spent some time walking around here, taking photos of the Frog Pond, and off Park Street Church, and the swan boats too. It was a typically old English place to be. From here I walked over to the 'Cheers' bar, but didn't go in. Then I got the trolley tour again, just to save me walking my feet off. I then got off at the Old State House, which I went into. It was like an old church, and had wood floorboards that squeaked when you step on them. Also, when standing in one of the rooms, you can feel the vibrations of the T trains running underground.

From here I then went to Quincy Market, where I got some presents, and also went and had some lunch. I got a lovely turkey wrap here. Then I went to one of the music stores, and got some CD's from Borders. Time was getting on, and so I started to head back to the pick-up point, but on the way back down Congress St., Jonno had seen me walk past, and called out. He was with Breda, Maxine and Greig in one of the Irish bars. They'd been in there for a while, and so I thought I'd have a quick drink too. We all got on great, and this was where I found out Maxine was an Essex girl on my tour. She only lives 30 minutes away from me. How unbelievable is that?? So after a little while, we made our way back to the pick-up point, and only waited five minutes before we got picked up. A number of people had stayed out in Boston, and were going to make their own way back.

Those that were back by around 7pm had decided that we'd go back to that same 99 restaurant we went to the night before, as the food had been nice, and also they had a large bar there, so we wouldn't need anything else. At my table tonight, were Rebecca (Beccalicious), Juz and Paul, who was now becoming my 'drinking buddy', where we bought rounds each. Also this evening, we got chatting to some American couple at the bar. It was a nice night, without too much drink!

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