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We have a 5 and a half hour bus journey up to Boston from Philly which was actually really good and went quick considering the journey only cost us $5 each!
When we arrive we head to one of the food courts as we forgot to take pretty much any food on the coach and were absolutely starving! Were having a nice, well looked forward to meal when all of a sudden some homeless man which looked to me like some kind of retard as he could hardly speak (either that or he was drugged up to his eyeballs) came up to Jodie, stuck his smelly hand in her face and asked for money. We both said that we didn't have any but he totally ignored that and got closer and closer to Jodie wanting money. I stepped in and got my arm between him and Jodie and told him that we didn't have any and to go away. He didn't seem to like this and turned quite violent, started shouting at me and spitting all over me! He walked off but returned two minutes later grabbing his d*** and told me to eat it! Proper smelly drugged up a******.
An old guy sitting behind us had seen it all and called me over telling me to be careful because the bums live in the food court and work in groups hassling people for their money, we quickly got up and left into a big crowd hoping that the smelly b******s wouldn't see us two midgets with huge bags in the crowd and follow us!
We get down to the subway and manage to find our train without anymore hassle. On the train we notice that our stop is quite far out and getting into a rougher and rougher area (advertised as the Uni campus, yeah right!). We have to get on the bus to reach our hostel and it just seems to be full of wierd and dodgy looking characters. Were sat at the front when some Russian woman introduces herself to us. She goes on about Europe and talks about herself saying she was married 3 times and that men are awful when we notice that she has plasters, burns and slashes all down her arms. She then starts saying that were brother and sister, we kept saying no were boyfriend and girlfriend but everytime we did she shouted brother and sister louder. Everyone on the bus started staring at us thinking that we were probably incest! Not the best journey, we just really wanted to get out of there!
When we reached the hostel we find that there is no one at the desk to check us in, we have to get their number and ring them to get to come over! Any chance of anything just being easy!
When we do check in we go to our room which is just basically an empty room with 3 bunk beds that looks as if it hasn't been done up in about 30 years! Worst thing is though is that there is no air conditioning what so ever in the rooms!
The hostel ain't all bad though, it has free computers and a free pool table so for the rest of the night we look on the Internet for the next place to go and settle for 3 days in Eastham and then 3 days in Hyannis in Cape Cod. We were debating whether to just cut our losses and go to Cape Cod early but as were only here for 2 full days we may as well stick it out.
Next day we get up early to get the free shuttle to the train station so we don't have to go through another bus journey. We don't really know what there is in Boston so we just plan to walk around the city and check it out. We are both thinking that Boston really wasn't that nice or friendly so we weren't really looking forward to the day. Have to say though that we were wrong (well at least I thought so, don't think Jodie will agree with me!) Obviously it has bad areas (mainly around us!) but in the city center it is really clean and a good city. They have loads of old buildings like old theatres next to all the modern skyscrapers. We go to the big park called the Boston Common to have a look around and it is really well done. They have baseball fields, big grass areas for bbq's etc, a big pond for kids to splash about and a big lake full of 'swan' boats. We walk around here for a while, taking pics of Bostons skyline before heading off for dinner. Afterwards we walk up to the thing that attracted me to Boston in the first place, Cheers! The bar is the same as it was when they were still filming, they still have all the filming lights up and everything. I order a pint at the same bar they used and got given a proper old 'dimple' pint glass that you only see in the Manor now a days (or Mum and Dad's cupboard after they drunkenly rob them!). The place is ace but we have found out that they moved to another set across town so were planning to have a pint in there tomorrow.
After all the walking we have done we head back to the hostel for a few games of pool before it gets too dark out. We feel a lot better in the City now but still wouldn't really want to travel back to our hostel at night. About an hour after we arrived one of the girls comes in asking what's happened outside, we hadn't noticed anything so look out to see about 5 Police cars and vans right outside our door arresting and searching 3 or 4 men. They take them away and then tow the car away afterwards. Don't think we will be venturing outside here at night!
We head back into downtown Boston and head to the train and bus station where we met our homeless 'friends' to book a return ticket into Cape Cod. We looked into getting a hostel near JFK for our flight to San Fran but because our flight is at stupid o'clock in the morning we have to pay for a hotel room so we make it to the airport in time so we decided to book a return bus to Boston just to make sure we arrive in NY on time!
After that chore (and probably the only one for the last 2 months, it's a hard life!) we head over to the harbour and to see the Boston Tea Party ship. The harbour is ok in places but not really that impressive because of construction and the fact that you can't actually walk by it in some places due to hotels owning the land. We spend ages walking round the harbour and going over the bridges onto the little island to find the ship but can't. We started to get annoyed at the s***ty map we have thinking that whoever put it together can't even get the position of the Tea Party ship right but we then find out after about an hour walking that the ship was damaged in a fire and has been taken away for repairs until 2011! Typical!
After that little set back we followed the harbour up to find the second location of the Cheers set for lunch, I'm aldo determined to have a pint in each of them! Again we spent an age walking round looking for it but have absolutely no luck. We finally give up and decide to head somewhere else for dinner and head to the Quincy Market we've been told about. The place is absolutely heaving, they have stalls set up selling absolutely everything you can think of and food stalls selling all kinds of food from all over. After we had finally fought our way through the crowds we take our food and head outside, only then do I notice that just behind our food stalls was the Cheers set! Gutted!
We quickly finish our food and head to the bar before all the other tourists and crowds get to it but when we get there we realise that it actually never was a set that they used for filming, it's just a replica set with more expensive prices so they can fleece all the tourists around the Quincy Market. Thankful now that we didn't find it before we got our food!
After that little disappointment we head over the Fenuil Hall, we've heard a lot about this but have no idea what it is. When we get in there we find that it is pretty much an extension for the Quincy Market and that it is full of more little stalls. After walking round all morning, searching for something that was moved ages ago we don't really bother walking round the hall and go for a drink instead. We somehow managed to stumble across Hard Rock (which we were going to look for but couldn't be bothered, a bit of good luck at last!). The Hard Rock is probably one of the best I have seen, they have an entire wall kitted out in signed symbols from various peoples drums and have tons of memorabilia. In the back room they have a stage that a few of the big names have played at (well I think so anyway, couldn't really recognize anyone from the photos) but the best thing by a mile was the smashed up guitar from Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, must be worth an absolute fortune now.
We felt pretty pooped from all the walking and lack of sleep due to the sweat dripping off us and the main motorway right behind our bedroom window so we head back up to the hostel. As we are nearly at the end of our first leg (how sad) and have our 'main' flight to San Fran next week we look into places we want to go to. We have now got a rough idea of what we may be doing. Were spending 4 nights in San Fran when we get there and then maybe heading to Sacramento, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, LA (and maybe Laguna and Malibu beach), Long Beach, San Diego before heading back to San Fran and then on to Vegas! Cannot wait for it but in the mean time we have a little matter of Cape Cod to look forward to tomorrow!
Have enjoyed Boston, it's a nice city but not a whole lot to do here so glad we haven't spent more time here. On to the Cod where we have absolutely no idea what to expect!
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