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So where did I leave off. Ah yes, day two in Boston, Massachusetts. Its hot, the sky is blue, decent people, a personal feel, easy to get around, lots of culture and a heck of a lot of history.
On this particular morning, I stopped at a little coffee shop for some coffee and a mousse - the most awesome moose ever! Then we headed to Harvard Square once more. On the ground I found a brilliant piece of art work that really touched me. Unfortunately I didn’t see the artist about.
From here we headed to Au Bon Pain, unknown to me at the time, but this was the site of one of the scenes of Good Will Hunting - but more on that a little later. As we sat eating out sandwiches, or sipping on sumptuous (yes I just used that word) soup, we were entertained by a busker who enjoyed singing off spontaneous songs about articles from free newspapers picked fresh from the various newspaper vending machines behind him. Some songs were terrible - though he knew it, more often they were so stupid that they were funny.
Just outside the seating area for Au Bon Pain are permanent chess tables and sitting either playing, or reading a newspaper, is the ‘Chessmaster.’ Murray Turnbull in a in the top 1% of chess players, as he says in his own words. A master indeed, he has been sitting here making his living since 1982 playing chess and offering lessons between seven days a week between May and October. Hear him tell his tale on YouTube.
After lunch I was excited to look around Harvard University. Walking through the yard we saw a large crowd sitting on the steps to the Memorial Church. It one of the student-led tours. We joined on. The next stop on the tour was the The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library. This is the main library of the university and was founded with the $3.5m given by Harry Elkins Widener’s mother to commemorate the life of the Harvard graduate and book collector who died in the Titanic disaster.
The next and final, and probably most interesting, stop on the tour was the Statue of John Harvard, or the Statue of Three Lies, as it is commonly known.
The inscription on the side of the statue reads “John Harvard, Founder, 1638.”
When the statue was created, by Daniel Chester French there were no known images of John Harvard, so a student named Sherman Hoar was chosen randomly by French and dressed in the style of the seventeenth century so he could model for the statue.
The university was founded in 1636, and not by John Harvard was only contributed to it; donated half of his estate and of his library of around 400 volumes.
For some odd (or maybe its more odd that so many people do exactly what their tour guide tells them) reason visitors and tourists rub the shoe of the statue for good luck. Although it seems that, almost as a rite of passage, it is tradition to urinate on the foot before graduating, leading to speculation as to the yellowy discolouration. Often in a drunken state in the early hours of the morning. It seems, if blog comments and message forums are to be believed, that there are students out there who actually have done this, or claim to. Besides finding it totally nasty, I can’t help but be impressed that they can reach.
The statue is more subject to various hacks (The word ‘hack’ at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and “ethical” prank or practical joke), including the recent Halo transformation to celebrate the release of the latest game.
It was only after asking our excellent tour guide about my favourite film Good Will Hunting, did I find out that no parts of the movie were filmed on campus. In fact, much of it was filmed in Toronto, Canada! According to our tour guide, no films are allowed to be filmed on campus, after the last production decided that the actual Harvard students didn’t look enough like real Harvard students, and so they were replaced with extras. Naturally, the university was not happy and filming has been banned.
The McLaurin Building, where Will (Matt Damon) works as a janitor is at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Also used in the movie is the Bow and Arrow Pub off Massachusetts Avenue, now gone, and Woody’s L Street Tavern, 658 E 8th St, which is still thriving and bringing further customers thanks to a sign stating its part in the film.
On our return to the great underground (harvard subway) we yet another busker. This time it was a cello. Only it was different. Not your typical classical pieces. This guy was playing Black Sabbath, and it sounded good.
This time we made our re-entry in Copley Square, in Back Bay, one of Bostons most upscale and desirable neighbourhoods. Here, we inadvertently found many more ‘attractions’ that I had originally noted. First, was the quite spectacular John Hancock Tower, or Hancock Place as it is officially named. Completed in 1976 it is the tallest building in Boston, the tallest building in New England, the 45th tallest building in the United States, and the 135th tallest building in the world.
Next was the The Boston Public Library; the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to read and use. The library was officially established in Boston by a city ordinance in 1852. The building, however, was designed in 1888 and opened to the public in 1895.
Facing the Library is Trinity Church, making up part of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
From here we walked to The Public Garden, another location from Good Will Hunting. Although we didn’t see swans, as are spotted in the movie, we saw squirrels. Amazing, tame, squirrels. In fact, it was something I noticed all around Boston, that squirrels can be seen everywhere, even crossing the road. And so, here are the photographs. Wild, Wild SEX!
The horny critters were lovin’ it!
And so that will be all for today. I hope you have enjoyed this odd mix of history, geography, arts, culture and biology. There will of course be more at the weekend.
Before heading to Boston we spent the day doing a little more of the usual. Ronan went to church, while I had a pint of Harp (bad idea).
After the very nasty pint I sat on the church steps and watched people for a while. I could do this for hours, especially in this jungle of a city.
Shortly after a few more slices of pizza we headed to the New York City Library where I registered for Internet Access - I even got my photo taken. A queue system is run for access to the global datasphere, we didn’t have time to wait.
Back to the hostel, collect our belongings, then to Port Authority bus terminal. We arrived 10 minutes early for our 7pm bus to Boston, but there was no bus. It had left without us as it was full. In line we stood and sat for 2 hrs until the next bus which would bring us to South Station at 1:30am.
It often helps to know what there is to do and see in a city before arriving. Knowing how to get from the beautiful suburb of Allston to any central attractions is also a bonus. The Farrington Inn was only a short walk, or bus ride from Harvard Square.
Each morning we had breakfast in a small coffee shop/café on Harvard Ave and Brighton Ave. Breakfast = Pancakes! Yummy! Especially with banana, accompanied by some amazing banana milkshake. I looked forward to going there every morning.
After breakfast we headed to the Internet café. I made a list.
Trinity Church
Faneuil Hall Market Place
Boston Common
North End (Italian Area)
Fenway Park
Old State House
Newbury Street (shopping)
Cheers - 84 Beacon Hill
We saw everything, often accidentally, except the Cheers bar (the original bar used as inspiration for the T.V. show). But lets start at the beginning. On the first morning we walked to Harvard Square, passing many Harvard buildings, including the football field, where the team appeared to be practicing. That morning, it was exceptionally hot. Not a cloud in the sky, just the sun.
Harvard Square is a wonderful place bustling with activity, on their way to the train and bus station, to college, shopping, or just chilling out at the Au Bon Pain.
We took the subway to North Station where we met some friends.
From there we headed to Quincy Market for desert after dinner in the Purple Shamrock, complete with purple neon shamrock! It was outside this bar I met a ‘war veteran’ asking for money: “You don’t get any more Irish than me,” he said in his Boston accent.
Later we had a drink in Boston Beer Works. This bar/restaurant is full of huge containers and pipes, making it seem like they are producing the beer right there. I find it hard to believe that would be possible. With so much beer on the menu, they were out of the one I picked, ‘Boston Common’. Though how does anyone choose beer from a carefully worded description. I judge a beer by how much it tastes like those I know, Harp, Bud, Stella, Carlsberg, probably not the best beers in the world, but its all I got to go on and I sure don’t know the ingredients. So if i walk into a bar with specialty/home brewed beers I want to be presented with tasters of at least five different beers. Only then will I choose the one I want.
Tomorrow: Wild Sex!
I think I’ve just about gotten over the jet lag. It’s bee a tiring few days since i got home at about 6pm last Sunday after 18 or so ours of traveling; trains, planes and buses. I can definitely see how the novelty of traveling can wear of quickly.
I am back, but never the same. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to write an entry before I left as I had planned, but with packing for moving house and packing for going away I just didn’t get a chance. So for those of you who don’t know I was in the United States of America for three weeks from 25th Aug until 16th Sept. And the reason I haven’t written about it until now is quite similar, I have been moving into the new house and unpacking.
Two years since my first life-changing adventure State-side, my return was well overdue. Thankfully the time I was away didn’t go too quickly as holidays often go. Of course I do wish I was still there. I have been asked many times what it was like and to give best and worst things that happened, I’ve had a lot of trouble giving an answer. It was all good, with so many highlights. Just standing in any one spot and looking up had quite an effect on me. Worst things? None. Besides some minor stressful moments of trying to find accommodation for a night, on that day or the next day which happened once or twice. Once solved, it was back to good.
Just so everything’s clear from the offset:
NYC - 4 nights
Boston - 2 nights
Rhode Island - 4 nights
NYC - 3 nights
Florida - 6 nights
NYC - 2 nights
It didn’t hit me until I began hearing American accents in Heathrow in that very very long queue through security. Then the thrusting engines of the 747-400 shot up the runway and into the clouds. Unfortunately after watching one movie the screen infront of me stopped working so I read a newspaper, magazine and NYC guides for hours that followed. This is one instance where my choice not to possess a watch didn’t help me much, with my phone off I had no way of telling how much longer the journey was. Eventually I landed in JFK.
Unaware of the Airtrain which runs between the terminals and links to the subway, I ended up in a Super Shuttle, which was anything but super. These cabs go around all the terminals multiple times (I counted at least 5 in the first, before I was shifted to another where I counted at least 10) in order to attempt to get the maximum number of passengers, generally eight, at a cost of $20 per passenger. The only reason this service works is through the conversation and persuasion skills of the drivers. A lesson learnt.
The next morning I awoke early with no plan. Except that is to find somewhere to stay that night. This took longer than first expected but thanks to Skype and an Internet Café on 5th (and roughly 30th) I was able to call lots of places cheaply and eventually find somewhere. Once that was out of the way I could begin snapping.
On Tuesday I met Ronan, who turned out to be most unenthusiastic about spending another 2 days in the City. Having spent all Summer in the neighbouring state of New Jersey working at a Summer Camp and visiting the Big Apple often enough to be glad to eventually see the back of it. I wasn’t going to let that stop me though.
The thing about NYC, and the other cities and states that I have and haven’t been to, is that I just have to stand still and look around to be impressed by it all. Constantly filled with a feeling of “wow, this is real”. Having grown up, like most others, watching American movies and T.V. shows to later see that everything is exactly like its shown on the big (and small) screen. I actually find it very strange. Often even the fact that these places exist can be hard to comprehend, and exist in exactly the way they are depicted in all pictures, moving or otherwise.
Of course it isn’t the same for Americans - they’ve always grown up with it. In a very abstract way I feel it’s similar to the way we (or maybe its just me) feel about sexuality. Something I am often curious about is how women feel about the way much of western society portrays them as objects of desire. How does it feel to know that so many men lust over the female body. Something I don’t have which leads me to wonder how it must feel. Though that is definitely something for another day.
This awesome vacation will be split into a number of condensed parts over the next week or so, with accompanying photographs. More photographs can be found on my Flickr - www.flickr.com/photos/philokane
Where to begin…
Well right now im in sunny, extremely humid, Florida. I’ve seen the sand, the sea, the sun, got sunburnt (on my feet!), seen an awesome thunderstorm, been to the Wal-Mart Superstore, watched the sweat drip down my face like rainwater and tomorrow I’m going to see some alligators!
It’s hard to know where to start retelling the story of being on such a great holiday for the last two weeks. I love it out here and I keep coming back. I love the madness of New York City, I love how chilled out Boston is in comparison, I love that my friends in Rhode Island have deers that visit their garden, how pleasant the people are with their “have a nice day” and “how are you” whenever you make a purchase.
Second time around and everything is so new. I can’t ever put my camera away for fear of missing something I haven’t seen before. I can feel, and see, drips of sweat roll down my arm as I sit here typing this.
On the other hand I look forward to getting home, only to check out all the photographs I have taken and to properly put into words this awesome vacation. On Thursday I head back to NYC for two nights before flying home on Saturday evening.
I will have lots to keep me busy when I return home, bringing with me plenty of inspiration.
The grass is always greener…