hold fast

Day 10: Boston

Before we left New York we realised that you can’t really travel in America like you can in Europe, going from city to city and picking up hostels as you go.  When we tried to book Boston we couldn’t find a hostel with decent reviews, so ended up booking a guest house that had some pretty questionable comments, and was a bit out of town as it was our only option.  Basically we had no idea what to expect.

The megabus from New York to Boston was fine, took about 4 hours, then we got the subway out to “The Farrington”, eventually got there about midnight.  It was basically a big house out near Boston College that had been converted into a guest house.  I can only describe the inside of the place as looking like it was decorated minimum 60 years ago by a lonely old lady with lots of cats.  It smelt fairly interesting as well.  We couldn’t complain too much though, it was clean, we had a private room with everything needed, it was close to the subway, and it most definiely had character!  One night when we came in we filmed this video to show everyone back home the place, I’m not sure if it acurately portrays the hotel, but it’s definitely a funny watch.  A particular highlight is me struggling to say “mi casa es su casa” and using it completely out of context.  I apologise for the swearies in there as well, we’d had a shandy or two before hand.

Next day we had a lazy morning after travelling up the night before and took in all the sites the Farrington had to offer (not much).  Had lunch at a place nearby, both of us had roast beef sandwiches with the most meat I’ve ever seen in one roll in my life, it was great!  In the afternoon we headed into down town Boston and had a wander around then walked back along the Charles River.  We picked up a netbook as well, so I should in theory be able to update this a bit more often now! Had a quiet night in the luxury of the hotel and grabbed some dinner nearby, a southern style BBQ place, it went down a storm- a day into Boston and we’ve already some amazing food!

Up bright and early the next day and went down town again, more wandering and people watching, took in Boston Common and Quincy Market, grabbed our first few Sam Adams which went down well!  Went on a Duck Tour in the evening, great way to see Boston and the river!  Went out for a few drinks at night near the Hotel, ended the night with the biggest whisky I’ve ever had in my life…  I’ve sinced realised that Americans fill the glass with ice, then fill the whole thing with whisky, great!

Spent the next two days doing plenty walking and people watching round Boston.  Did some shopping on Newbury Street, more wandering and a night partaking of a selection of bars at Quincy Market, went on a guided tour of Fenway Park, wasted away an afternoon at the New England Aquarium and made a pretty pointless stop at John Mayer’s old dorm room to pay homeage.  We had dinner one night at a place called the Barking Crab, Grant had been told about it by a friend, a little place down by the shore front that looks like a circus tent from the outside, but inside was this really busy sea food restaurant with live music playing, more great food in Boston!

Sadly life in Boston and at the Farrington had to come to an end after 4 nights, but not without a bit of a rush to catch the overnight Greyhound up to Toronto, the street car took ages to get us to the hotel to pick up our bags, so we had to get a bit of a dash on and grab a taxi to make it back down town.  But we made it, and have a 14 hour or so journey to Toronto.  Hope I can get some bus sleep!

 

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