Boston

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Boston is a very old town with a lot of old money. Its great claim to fame is where the war with England started over taxes on tea amongst other things, to Ben Franklin’s birthplace and being a cultured hub with universities like Harvard and the birthplace of JFK and the rest of the Kennedys’.
It’s also where the lady who was the original ‘Mother Goose’ fairytales came from. A lot of the roads are still narrow cobblestone lanes, with old buildings; it sort of looks like the Rocks in Sydney. Little laneways that wind and bend around old shopfronts exposing hidden bars and shops at every turn.
But it is a fairly dirty and untidy city, the main culprits being the thousands of arrogant uni students. They chuck rubbish and litter everywhere.
So a quick summary of Boston from what I’ve gathered.
The Puritans leave England and come to America ‘cos they don’t like the King and his government policies. The Poms come over and check the place out and decide that maybe they’ll come over too and take charge. The pilgrims, yokels, starved Irishman and everyone else decide that they don’t like being told what to do by the Brits. When the Poms start taxing the shit out of everything, including Tea, all hell breaks loose. Things go back and forth for a while, then the Poms attempt a big attack but a bloke called Paul Revere, who had been skulking around discovers they are about to attack, jumps on his horse with a few lanterns and start yelling, “the British are coming, the British are coming.” All out war starts and it’s on. Anyhow a couple of thousands dead later, George Washington wins the war, the Poms piss off home. They sign the Declaration Of Independence, John Hancock was the first signatory, slap each other on the back for a job well done and wonder who they can fight next. (It turns out to be themselves with the Civil War, but that’s another story)
Anyhow other than lots of old graveyards throughout the city and whinging about the Poms, Boston modern claim to fame seem to be all its sporting teams; The Redsox, Celtics, Patriots ,etc etc. Be it Baseball, Ice hockey, Gridiron, Hopscotch, they are absolutely sports obsessed perhaps even more than Melbourne in September. Their other ‘thing’ is that the TV show Cheers was filmed here. In fact they were so happy that a show was made here 25 years ago in a bar, that they built a second one and now they have two to show off. The original one isn’t too bad; the second one is very crappy. Anyhow the beer was icy cold and tasted all right so what’s to complain about. There is also Lobster for sale everywhere, but they only look like a big red yabby compared to the big crays from home, not that we tried them.
Anyhow not much else about Boston. Nice city, friendly people, rude students and lots of litter and lots of graveyards.
Its also good bye to the USA and hello Canada. We fly into Toronto tomorrow for three days and then head across the pond to Pomgolia and warm beer.

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