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I'm writing this blog entry from memory and without my trusty travel journal (which I use to help me remember what we've done) as our bags are all packed for our train trip today. So excuse me if this is a little brief or patchy in areas...
So today we had our free breakfast- hurrah! A little saving which will, I'm sure go a long way. The hostel provides a basic spread- cereal, bagels and free coffee (not so much fun for Dan who, not drinking coffee, had to buy his own grape soda.) But we filled up and set off.
Our first port of call was the Havard campus, a far cry from our UEA days. The campus is absolutely idillic, it's almost too pretty. We walked around for a while taking photos and comparing it to our own university- Havard has a distict lack of concrete although, when I put up the photos I'll show you the buildings that were the equivalent to places like the drama studio and you will understand why we laughed so much as we walked around. A highlight was getting asked for directions (curiously by a girl wearing a Havard t-shirt) who must have thought we were students. Although, I'm not sure if that's a compliment- we look smart enough to go to Havard, or not- we're graduates who still dress like students. Either way, it was kind of cool.
We stopped off at the campus shop so I could pick up a Havard t-shirt for my brother. They have Havard themed everything there, I swear, you could even get Havard socks... Why you would want Havard socks is annother thing, but if you want them, they have them.
We bought a healthy-healthy fruit juice/smoothy at the subway station (apple, banana and pineapple) as we've been frightfully unhealthy with our food so far (it seems, to eat cheap here you have to eat unhealthily) and stepped onto a train (after waiting for a good while.) We headed for town, guessing that Park St. would be our best bet as that's where we have to transfer trains for the hostel and it seemed really busy last time we were there...
And we were right! (Thankfully!) we got out of the station at Boston Common, which is HUGE and really pretty. Again, Dan pointed out how new the buildings look, and it's true- I think it's more abour their upkeep than anything else though. I doubt it's a conspiracy and nothing in Boston is actually old... Although...
The geeks that we are, we headed through the common to the Cheers bar. Yes, that's right, the actual bar that the series is based on. It's right there and it's just like the show, even the entrance looks like the set. When you actually get into the bar though it's a lot smaller and laid out differently, so we were actually seating upstairs in the "Oak Room" which is still lovely. It's a theme restaurant, but not overtly so, and it's very reasonably priced for the quality of food you get and the quantity! I had something off the Fraiser menu- a chicken salad sandwich- that was delicious and Dan had his clam chowder and a pink lemonade. Both were a hit with him and, although I couldn't taste the chowder (being allergic to shellfish) I thought it smelled a bit like fish pie but without the pie part, and Dan said it tasted like that too. So well done me.
Bought some souvenier T-shirts from the shop in the restaurant and got Paloogin to pose with Norm. We then headed on a walk through part of the Freedom Trail (the Cheers bar gives you a map) seeing lots of historic parts of town (although, without a guide we couldn't really understand what they meant!) But I read the guide book this morning and it's all very historical and important.
We chilled out the rest of the day- wandering and chatting and taking photos. We had a slice at Crazy Dough's for dinner (best pizza in the world apparently) so that was nice. Then we picked up some food for the train ride tomorrow and got packed, washed and ready for our train trip (which we're leaving for in a matter of minutes.)
Overall, Boston is very pretty and really important to the history of America so it's well worth a visit. If you don't like students though, you may not love it as they're everywhere. I felt strangely old and really stupid a lot of the time. But, like a say, gorgeous area, great food and lots to do on a budget.
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