Blogs from Boston, Massachusetts, United States, North America - page 12

Well any blog entry for today isn't going to be a exciting, thrills-packed insight into the wonders of New England history as we spent all of it traveling. That said, the flight wasn't until 6.00pm (plus a forty minute delay), so most of the day was at home. We allowed loads of time for the inevitable delays on the M25 and it didn't disappoint, with the usual snails-pace crawl round to Heathrow. Along with the usual moody drivers, there's now someone on all the Heathrow car-park buses to help with your bags. He actually refused a tip when we offered one, as they're not allowed to accept any. It'll be the last time that that happens for a while given that we're heading to the States and we'll have to get back in the habit of ... read more

Geo: 42.3585, -71.0596J 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 ... read more

After a day full of (stressful) packing, due to my somewhat excessive procrastination - maybe, in retrospect, starting the night before wasn't my best idea - I made it to the airport just before 5 to meet up with my fellow Dialoguers! While I only had met two of them ahead of time, this kind of experience pushes people together very well and I met a whole range of students going to Bosnia. Most are female, and there's a definite skew towards International Affairs or PolySci majors (unsurprising given the political nature of this trip), with a surprising plethora of first-years. After grabbing a snack, we headed over to the boarding area, where I met a few more who caught up with the group at the gate. I'm now posting this from onboard my Lufthansa flight, ... read more

New Year’s Eve traditionally involves going to parties, most with lots of alcohol. In 1975, a group of Boston artists decided the holiday deserved something better than repetitive pop music, bad drinks, and a televised ball drop. They founded First Night, a huge arts festival with performances and installations around the city and not a bar in sight. It became a huge success and spread to cities across the country. In 2008, the deep recession hit the non-profit that runs First Night hard. Last June, they finally ran out of funds for good and closed, leaving a huge hole in the city’s cultural fabric. Unwilling to let one of the region’s signature events disappear, the city of Boston took over organizing duties. Unlike the previous group, who tended to emphasize high-brow performance groups and family friendly ... read more

We finally met up with Anna in the evening and decided to go for Italian food. She said that even if you make a reservation in a Boston restaurant you should be prepared to wait as much as an hour past that time to be seated. She had selected a restaurant in the little Italy neighborhood in the North End, not far from Revere's house and the North Church. That meant walking another two miles or so to dinner, and then two more miles back to Boston Common. I'm going to say it was probably eight miles total for the day. -------------- On Sunday, Anna got a car from ZipCar, a subscription-based car-borrowing website. You just look on the internet for a car's location, reserve it, and then when you want it -- for an hour ... read more