Sometimes you wanna go
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2006
1
103
188
Trip End
Ongoing
Boston,
Massachusetts,
United States
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
My advice, don't even think about it. It's hell. A ridiculous amount of people all aimlessly wandering about. I was starting to regret getting the tattoo on my forehead that said 'feel free to walk in front of me, ideally stop'. Not that I was in a hurry, but after the 100th side step or stutter it gets a bit annoying. I walked down as far as 42nd and had a peek in Saks, an NBA store and once I was at 42nd I thought I'd see what was so good in Macys as every person on the street seemed to have one of their bags. Once I'd got in and seen that it was busier than outside I cut through mainly to keep warm and got straight back out.
Next on the wandering plan was chinatown and soho and it was much the same down there, tons of people all milling about. I did make a purchase though, I went in to one of the dodgy perfume shops and got some aftershave. Well, in theory it's aftershave. It's either half price aftershave or expensive but fragrant urine. We'll see what reaction I get when I finally have a shave and slosh it on.
That was about it, I jumped on the subway and headed back to the hostel. There was still time for one last bit of big apple entertainment though. When I reached the nearest subway there was a crowd gathered and there was a bunch of lads doing some breakdancing. I took plenty photos and some videos so it was worth chucking a buck in their bucket.
I turned in early as I had an early start to catch the flight to Boston. I got up early when it wasn't so bright. The night before I'd disturbed a lad sleeping to repack my bags ready as I thought it's better to upset him than a room full of people at 6am. Anyway, after I'd had my shower another lad rolled in from a night out and went in the toilet. When he came out, the lad I'd bothered the night before was sat up and got ratty with the lad who'd come out of the toilet just for offering to leave the door open as he assumed he was sat up as he was getting up. By then I was ready to go so left them to it. In fact I left the girlfriend of ratty man lighting a joss stick and cleverly balancing it over a bin full of paper. They're probably all dead from the resulting fire.
I woke up to snow! Gutted. A wintery wonderland in New York and I was leaving. I tootled off to the airport and got on the plane a little late but no matter there was no rush. It takes a massive 40 minutes to get to Boston, so it was surprising it took over FOUR hours! You might expect a few delays because of a bit of snow but I wasn't expecting a delay to wait for the plane to be defrosted like you would defrost your car. That must be where the budget element comes in, they mustn't be able to afford hangers. I've never seen anything like it, we had to queue up then a load of trucks that looked like fire engines came out and blasted down the plane in pink de-icer. All a bit strange but at least we were provided with 36 channels of rubbish to watch, so I watched a omnibus of Beauty and the Geek, the twist this series is that they've got a lad beauty and a girl geek you may be interested to hear.
I arrived in Boston and headed to my room but the bed I was allocated to had someone's stuff on it so I headed back down and was moved. It worked out nicely though as the room I was originally in looked like a bomb had just gone off with clothes everywhere and not much room for any more. I was first in the room I was shifted to and there only ended up being one more person in, although someone else has turned up since (incidentally I returned to a stinky room as they'd left their running shoes airing, puke). It's a pretty good hostel, they give you flip flops for the showers and unlike in New York and Chicago they've acknowledged that it's cold outside and everyone gets two blankets. Another bonus was a washing basket as it had reached a state of emergency. That was all I did yesterday, just got my washing done, got some food and had a decent nights sleep on a surprisingly comfy hostel bed.
Today I think I saw all Boston has to offer. There was a bit of snow so I managed to get some xmas cheer but as it was drizzling that was soon dampened. I spent the day with my hood up mooching about. I walked through a shopping centre to dry out a while, walked along the freedom trail which winds it's way past historical sights and then with a few hours still remaining went to the aquarium. I decided to go crazy and paid the extra for a 3D Imax film about Sharks which turned out to be a bit crap, but it was only a few quid more. The aquarium was good though and bizarrely considering I've been travelling in NZ where they live, I managed to see some little blue penguins for the first time. The layout is a series of tanks on levels around the main tank which has a spiral walkway around it. What came first the aquarium or Guggenheim?
The Imax film was a bit after the aquarium closed and I'd seen all I wanted in the aquarium so I had a couple of hours to spare. I had a walk in to town, got some food and importantly also got some toiletries, told you the washing side of things was an emergency. It included me! Don't worry though, this perfect hostel had shampoo in the shower, they really do think of everything. After the Imax I realised I'd forgotten to pack something obvious. It should have been the first thing in my suitcase, my ice skates of course! Due to a load of watery slush on the streets the walk back to the hostel was a bit hairy but other than the odd slip and slide I've emerged unscathed. We'll see how I get on tomorrow. That's assuming I can find anything to do as I covered more or less everywhere today, Boston's not the biggest. I've more or less learnt my way around the streets already. I'm sure it's very nice in very nice weather when there's things going on, but at the moment things are shut down and it's a bit dull.
