Boston Tea Party

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Well here I am in Boston. It's an unusual place after coming from New York. The sky line has the occassional sky scraper and it is desperately trying to cling on to what heritage it has. The city has a sort of yellow brick road running through it (well it's not actually yellow or a road). It's called the Freedom Trail and it's like a treasure hunt of American history (as you can expect this doesn't take that long). Now I don't know very much about American History (a contradiction in terms if you ask me!) but it appears that some gezzers revolted against the British a while back (yep....we are the bad guys), chucked a lot of tea in the water and jumped ashore in Plymouth....and signed the declaration of independance in there somewhere...not necessarily in that order! The main attraction in the centre of Boston is the gold domed State House.....which believe or not has a Hooker enterance! It's actually named after some general...well it made me laugh!
It appears that Bostonians love 3 things.....Harvard University, Boston Red Sox Baseball and Irish Pubs.
To be honest after walking the freedom trail I felt like I had exhausted Boston's best parts in an afternoon. It wasn't at all what I expected...where were the quaint wooden houses and leafy streets?
Day 2 and I decided to head for Salem.....for those who do not know their history.....Salem was home to the witch trials of 1692. Essentially some young girls thought it would be a hoot to accuse local women, who they disliked, of witchcraft and the rest as they say -is history! From this event the village has a booming tourist trade of ghostly tours, wax work museums, fortune tellers and general witchy souvenir tat. It's a rather surreal experience to walk around town, however if you look beyond this, the town is quaint and picturesque.
I have decided that Boston is a poor mans New York...I would even go to say that it is the chav sister of New York. If New York is designer clothes, then Boston would be a velour tracksuit! I am not being mean when I say this.....It does have some good points - lots of shops, lots of places to eat, students at Harvard probably have more brains in their little finger than I have in my whole brain. Its just a vibe you get when you walk around and talking to the people.
For my final day I decide to head out again to Concord. When I was a little girl, the first proper book I ever read was 'Little Women' by Louisa May Allcott. It was my mums and it was a red hardback illustrated copy. Orchard House is Louisa's home and Concord is where the book is set. This again is streets filled with wooden houses painted different colours and blossom trees lining the streets.
Now the weather in Boston hadn't been all that great since I arrived here, the first day was sunny but cold, the 2nd was cloudy and spots of rain and so on. When I arrived in Concord the heavens opened and it was torrential rain......I was soaked from head to toe! The sun did eventually come out and after my 2 mile walk to, and 2 mile walk back, from Orchard House I rewarded myself with an ice cream. In England 2 scoops of ice cream will get you a couple of drops in a cardboard tasting cone. Here I ended up eating my body weight in ice cream as each scoop was the size of a grapefruit.
My return to Boston see's the first of my overnight journeys by bus. Boston to New York goes without too many problems. I meet two American guys (Paul and KC) in the terminal....real dudes giving it all of 'I've done this' and 'I'm going to do this'....turns out KC's brother is a PC in London.
New York Port Authority bus terminal at 12.30 in the morning is another story......the place appears to be full of the dregs of society in one place, drunks & nutters all coming in one direction....... to me! I make a b-line for the first 'normal' person & stay close. The bus from NY to Washington isn't much better.....the bus is jammed packed and I spend all night with a skinny chinese bloke sleeping on my shoulder!

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