After an extremely lengthy trip from Quebec, back to Montreal, and on to Boston (in the one day) I was looking forward to checking into my hostel, getting in a soft comfortable bed, and going to sleep. It didn't work out exactly as planned, as I arrived at my hostel which seemed to be at the exact opposite end of the city to that in which I had arrived. It was 11pm, and I opened the door to my room (which resembled a cold, drab hospital), I was greeted by a wave of hot humidity, and glanced down to see someone else in the room right in front of the door had decided to sleep completely naked. Not the welcome anyone wants. After spending the next half hour trying to organise my belongings and get ready for a shower with only the light of my mobile phone as to not disturb everyone else, I managed to hop into the dingy showers and eventually get into bed.
My first 12 hours in Boston had not been great, and the stifling humid heat and lack of research on my behalf led to me sitting back and watching the hustle and bustle of Downtown Boston whisk past me as I enjoyed a cold Dr Pepper in Boston Common. After starting to walk along a historical trail of buildings known as the Freedom Trail.... I decided I was much more interesting in taking in some of Boston's other attractions.
I headed down to the home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park and, after picking up one of my iced-coffee replacement frappucinos (iced coffee here is literally just cold coffee... and ice cubes), my stay in Boston was looking on the up. I heard from Paul, my Boston couchsurfing house, which was an amazing relief, as I dreaded staying at the hell-pit I had checked out of earlier in the morning after a heat interrupted sleep.
Fenway Park
Fenway Park
Prior to heading to Pete's I ventured to a distinctly suburban and less glamorous area of Boston, Jamaica Plains in order to check out a small-time punk-hardcore show I'd read about online. The show itself was extremely small, in a tiny suburban bar, but given Boston's reputation for a strong, iconic music scene, I was only more encouraged. When I arrived, I found the show was running late, but that gave me a bit of time to look around the surrounding suburb, and walk the grounds of 'English High School', a lower socioeconomic public school that had obviously seen better days. It's claim to faim, if you will, is that it is America's oldest public high school.
English High School
English High School
Returning to the show, paying the $5 cover and enjoying some of Boston's best (Samuel Adam's Summer Ale), with the sweet sounds of what the uninformed may see as angry young men making a lot of loud noise resulted in my disappointing start to the day ending up considerably better. After getting to know Pete and his housemates, we headed out, and a few drinks and several hours later and we left the nearby pub with a sense of satisfaction after winning the karaoke vote for the night (and be we, I mean, they), and also extremely impressed at the efforts of a large black man called Jamal (complete with dollar sign bling) for pulling off a great rendition of the Backstreet Boys' Everybody (Backstreet's back tonight).
After checking out one of the states oldest public schools the previous day, it was only fitting I'd check out one of America's oldest private institutions, the iconic Harvard University. Whilst the campus itself was nice, but not mind blowing, the history of the place was slightly awe inspiring given the alumni of the place. And then, of course, there were the sporting fields. Whilst not traditionally a football college, Harvard Field seats a lazy 30,000 people.
The cultural and history packed north end provided me with a massive insight into history of Boston and its immigrants (and in turn, the USA as a whole), as I explored places including the Italian district, the pier and Bunker Hill (the 297 step monument was closed when I got there, thus giving me no choice but to pass on the hike up to the top). A night spent watching and learning the finer points of NFL (which would come in very handy later) with some dodgy Asian food finished off a long and fulfilling day in Boston.
North End, Boston
Boston Pier
Ironically, the words 'dodgy' and 'Asian' would follow me into the next day as I took a bus ride on an incredibly budget, yet popular, bus from Chinatown in Boston, to Chinatown New York. Despite reading reviews online of hair-raising drives, I had no such issues and safely arrived in the hustle and bustle of New York City, home for the next nine days.
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