Sat 10 February - Boston

Last night Libe arrived in Boston via the Greyhound Bus with Simone and Sophie. The four of us spent the afternoon wandering along the north-eastern part of the Freedom Trail, a 4.5km walk, marked by a red brick line in the footpaths, which takes in locations which are significant to Boston’s part in the late 1700’s revolution. This revolution led to the American colonies becoming independent of Britain and the formation of the land of the Septics (aka USA).
Again the Quincy Market has proven its worth to us for a quick decent feed. Being only 200m away from my apartment, it is so easy to drift over here when cooking is not an option, or is an option but I/we can’t be buggered (which is most nights). The Quincy Market is a long building full of food stalls, with a myriad of options. The Thai Green Chicken Curry goes especially good when I can get it. I say ‘when I can get it’ because I’m having more trouble than a pregnant nun communicating with those behind the counter.

Of the north-eastern part of the Freedom Trail, the best parts were:

• The Paul Revere House
• The walk along the quaint, European-feel streets of the North End. Most of the North End is known as ‘Little Italy’.
• A church with superboxes. No joke, this church had no pews, just small little boxes that the congregation used to buy, with the biggest cash buying the box in the best position (ie. Under the celebrant’s nose hairs).
• The USS Constitution, and old Colonial warship which sat in frozen waters on the north side of the Charles River, only a couple of hundred metres from the Vitale office. Unfortunately we only had 10 minutes to look at the boat, because it was the last ship left in the US that hadn’t been sent to the war in Iraq, and was committed to leave for Baghdad in the morning.
• The walk across the Bridge of Death. This is the bridge which crosses the Charles River from the City over to Charlestown, where the VCC office is. I've christened it the 'Bridge of Death' as during a couple of morning walks to the office from my apartment, it has resulted on me coming closer to being on death's door than ever before. The Bridge is significantly more open to the elements than any other part of the morning commute, particularly the freezing north-westerly arctic winds. And the bridge just seems to go on forever. The girls had the pleasure of sharing my pain this arvo.

By just after 4 we were in the Black Rose having a drink, which finished up with a feed with Pete, Alice and Andrew at Bertucci’s (which – in typical fashion – resulted in us having an enormous amount of food), and a few beers at McFaddens. All these places are no more than 100m from my apartment – I think there would be a good 12 to 15 bars within 200m of the pad (I’ll have to count one of these days).

mum said...

Hi Ry,

It looks really cold over ther, we are in the middle of some hot weather - mid to high 30's for next few days. Boston looks lovely - very old almost like you would imagine to see in the UK. You might come home as fat at mud by the sound of the huge meals they have in the states. Hope you and Libe are both well. We are all really missing youmum xxx

Feb 15, 2007 2:12 AM