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Published: June 26th 2017
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Geo: 42.3585, -71.0596
J was in charge of ordering breakfast this morning at Penn Station while we waited for our train..... I had had the 'honour' of trying to decipher the NYC breakfast speak the day before and today was his turn...... simple....? the plan was two portions of fried eggs with sausage..... but the result was a lot of pointing at the menu, glazed looks at the server and snatches of 'on a plate please....., hang on, wait a minute.... on a plate...the platter on a plate......'
The result was one portion of eggs with a sausage round in a bit of plastic tub and another plastic tub containing French toast....... then I had to try and pay for it and explain what we had to the cashier....... don't even go there.......
OK.......hang on - the actual transcript from my "in travel" black box recorder was.......
"Good morning my man....please may I have two portions of egg (scrambled) and sausage on plates please..
ANSWER FROM CHEF..........EEEr gee what you what da want?? ...jack cheese over da waffle and french toast in da waffle/jack halpeno over easy???
NO MY MAN....2 portions of scramled egg etc etc..
REPLY FROM CHEF........Eh bud just with da french together on a waffle
with da sunny side over easy sausage combo??? TO GO ...BUD??
NO ON A PLATE. - ........silence ....end of dialogue.......retreat.
TRAIN 172 to Boston is running late by 30mins. We hover around the main destination board. Suddenly Track 6 is shown but already there is a queue forming! We shuffle off and down an escalator. How come the train is nearly full already? Maybe it is was coming from another destination...Washington?...single travellers have taken double seats....Cathy at once spots a window seat next to a smart college type male (mind you he had forgotten to put on any socks). He looks daggers but yields at once to the Kiwi "patter". "Excuse me is that window seat taken??"...eeeer........as she plonks down. I am relegated to an isle seat next to a shrew like man like who cannot speak English but keeps reading what I type as I tap away on my iPad keyboard.
The train starts off almost immediately and we rumble under Manhattan bursting forth a few minutes later into bright sunshine. The bare metal silver train whizzes past fantastic views of New York......we settle in for the 4 1/2 hour run north east to Boston.
We whizz through beautiful scenery. Weatherboarded houses
in little creeks with expensive speed boats tied up outside can be seen through lush woods. The Stars and Stripes fly proudly from many of the houses and each hamlet has a little white church with small spire. This is a rich and opulent area. Occasionally ,we glimpse the sea and a quick map check using the in train wifi shows that we are passing through the eastern seaboard of Connecticut near Providence.
TIME CHECK: 15:52. We are about 15 minutes outside Boston Central (South Street). The quaint scenery has given way to turnpikes and tunnels. The train slows and I can make out the what must be the centre. We arrive and are greeted by our good friend Candace who we met in 2008 on a trip to Benin, Togo and Bukino Faso. She takes us on a fantastic tour of one of the academic hubs of the World......Harvard University.......where she works in the Medical School. Beautiful 200 year old campus buildings and little hidden parks are interspersed with charming weatherboarded French style colonial houses....manicured gardens...vibrant restaurants....chic boutiques. I am already feeling more intelligent and better educated by just being here. Surely my A Level in table football (C)
and Greenacre School for Girls (AAA) will qualify me for a late postgraduate diploma.
We dine at the hippy inspired Beat Hotel located at lower ground floor level in Harvard Square. Wonderful retro decor, live music and great cuisine.....all washed down by a "sour sop" and Artisanal wine..... early night!
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