Day 45: Boston

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This morning Raju dropped me off back at Alewife tube station and I got the train into Cambridge to have a sneaky peek around Harvard. My visit seemed to coincide with the arrival of all the undergraduates, complete with duvets and fussing parents. More than once I got asked if I was lost and needed help finding my dorm; this was actually quite useful as I was lost, although I hated admitting I wasn't actually a student there. I eventually found the Peabody Museum, Harvard's answer to the Pitt Rivers (although not as good, in my opinion). I also looked around the Natural History Museum which was great fun. There was an excellent exhibition on evolution, which I was glad to see since apparently 70% of Americans don't believe in it... I also saw the very famous collection of glass flowers - according to the New York Times they're the "chief focus of interest" on the Harvard campus. However, they are so detailed you can't tell they're not real, so I struggled to see the point since you could just look at real ones. Anyway, that's another famous sight ticked off.

After a snack on the grass I set out to find MIT, about a mile along the Charles River. By this point it was getting pretty warm, so I was already a bit grumpy when I arrived and probably didn't fully appreciate the splendour/significance etc etc. Apparently it's really nice indoors but I didn't even look. Pressing on, and determined not to waste money on public transport, I crossed the river and headed towards the centre of Boston.

After a quick break in an ice cream parlour I walked along Newbury Street towards Boston Common. This is one of the swankiest streets in town, with lots of expensive shops and classy cafes. It made me smile that, although this was where the War of Independence kicked off, the street looked exactly like anywhere in London, and even had a Jack Wills and a Barbour shop.

Once in the centre of the city I attempted to follow the Freedom Trail. This is a red birck line along the pavement which leads to 16 historical sites (which may or may not have anything to do with 'freedom'😉. There was a huge rainstorm just as I was looking at the State House, so I decided to duck in and tag along to a free tour. I can't honestly say it was much different from the state house in Denver, CO, but it saved me getting to wet and there were a few interesting bits. I also saw the old state house (where George Washington went to do something famous), Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall (where revolutionaries met), and the site of the Boston Massacre. After all the intellectual sightseeing I decided I needed a break so I went shopping in Abercrombie&Fitch, and then ended up spending a hideous amount of money. After that I decided it was really time I went home before I spent any more.

We all had dinner together and then drove back into Boston. Every Friday they have a free movie screening in the harbour, right next to where the Boston Tea Party happened. This time it was 'An Affair to Remember', a brilliant 1950s film which I enjoyed lots. Afterwards we went for a wander along the waterfront and they drove me around the larger Harvard campus that I hadn't got to see, like the Radcliffe quadrangle etc.

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Photos

John Harvard
A Cambridge don who wanted to re-create Cambridge in the US

Regatta on the Charles river
The State House is the gold dome on the far right

Jack Wills!
Outside was a sign saying 'fabulously British'

The famous cod
This symbolises the importance of the fishing industry to MA and is meant to be lucky - when some Harvard students stole it a few years back the House of Reprasentatives refused to sit until it was returned

Original seal of Massachusetts
The speech bubble from the savage reads "Come and help us!"

Calvin Coolidge
Governor of MA and then President; his ancestor (I think maybe nephew) set up the Pathfinders scheme

Mitt Romney
Former govenor of MA and now running to be the Republican candidate in next year's presidential elections. On the table sits his (rather socialist) healthcare bill, which at the time he said was his proudest achievement....now, unsuprisingly, he's trying very hard to distance himself from it