Ok, I’m determined to get the rest of my travel blogged. I’ve been rather slack, being back home for three weeks and all. Mind you – I haven’t had to sit at an airport in a while so I haven’t had the opportunity to ramble.
My last post was about NYC and I was headed on a bus up to Boston. It’s a four hour Greyhound bus-trip north, much of it without much to see (unless you are a freeway enthusiast). If you see those Hollywood movies where some troubled teenager feels the urge to run away to make a point (or create a storyline), the bus stations are just like that and the bus trips likewise. It is usually a sombre trip – with most passengers fast asleep. One good thing about the trip though, is that Greyhound offers free Wi-Fi. Tickets are pretty cheap – it was $11 from NYC to Boston, I think because there are a few other bus companies that do the trip driving the prices down.
Leaving New York it was overcast and beginning to rain. Arriving in Boston, it was just raining. On reflection, only one of 4 days of my trip that it rained. I could only get one day’s accommodation in Boston so it was a quick stay. I wish I could’ve stayed longer but so be it. On arriving, I quickly checked in and then headed to Fenway Park – home of the Red Sox – to do a tour of the stadium. I’m no baseball fan, but the place was very interesting and plenty of good stories told by our tour guide. He was also convinced that there would be a plaque with 2012 world champions next to their 2007 banner. There’s a lot of history at Fenway park and the tour is definitely worth doing if you are a sports fan or if you have nothing to do for 2 hours. Really.
One thing that I did learn, and was quite quickly put in my place was that “World-Series Champions” and the whole American baseball’s claim to being best in the “world”, comes from the World magazine’s sponsorship of the original series, and not just a flippent claim to the world revolving around the United States.
That night, being my only in Boston, I ventured out with a mate from home, who I had met up with and two folk from Britain that were in my dorm room, who got persistantly bagged out for their accents (no that’s not true, but it would have made for a good night). We had discovered that we were staying in the same hostel in New York at the same time as they had gotten a bus up from NYC in the afternoon. We had very similar travelling mannerisms, i.e. looking at a map, walking a block to find out which direction we were headed, then having to turn around and walk in the opposite direction… then getting lost! And true to form, we managed to walk about 15 minutes worth of big American blocks to realise we needed to head in the opposite direction. It was a good night, and after a feed we ended at a jazz bar, which was pretty cool. My confusion at the whole tipping system was further thrown chaos when the waitress refused to take my shrapnel – which had enough quarters to make up about $3. Oh well – there went half her tip!
The rain continued the next day and after much hesitation was convinced I needed to see a bit more of Boston before I left. So myself and my two newly-made-friends trudged out in rain coats to do the “Freedom Walk”. One reminded me that the rain was no different to home back in Britain. I couldn’t argue. I completed half the walk. It takes roughly two hours, but I had to head off to get my flight to Chicago.
