Boston - where even the ducks wear ice hockey jerseys

I think Boston may be in the ice hockey finals - judging by the statue in Boston Common with a hockey stick and jersey, the 'B' flags everywhere, man holes painted up with the B logo, and the 'make way for ducklings' statues in the Public Garden also dressed up for ice hockey. Hopefully they win/have won.

I got the ‘Silver Line' from the airport, which is a bus that is FREE (if you take it to the city from the airport) and switches to trolley-bus mode halfway through, and then goes UNDERGROUND in its own tunnel like it thinks it's a subway train. I got out at South Station, found my hostel and went out to find dinner for the evening (salad, after my poutine experience earlier in the day). On Saturday my plan was to find a transit card (they're called 'Charliecards' here after the song where Charlie has to go around the subway forever because he doesn't have the extra five cents needed to get off), do some writing in a nice cafe, then go on the free Harvard tour setting off from the hostel. I did find a nice cafe (with macarons and olde timey decor), but could not find anywhere to get a Charliecard, and then went the wrong way in Boston Common and had to run back to the hostel, only to find the tour had been cancelled... I decided to do my own tour, managing to get a Charliecard at South Station and get the subway to Harvard.

There I found the reason for the tour cancellation - Harvard was having a reunion, so only guests were allowed inside Harvard Yard, the most historic part of Harvard. I hugged the fence and listened to the audio guide on my phone, and did manage to get into the Science Centre where they have IBM Mark 1, one of the first programmable computers, as well as walked through the only Le Corbusier building in America. I had lunch in a former lunch room (now a cafe, but the original tiles are still visible with flags of dozens of different colleges around the walls) and then got the subway back to the city.

It had been a beautiful day, and I only had a t-shirt and a scarf. When I emerged from the station, fog had rolled in, chilling everything in a cold wet mist. I rearranged my scarf as best I could and went for the Boston Tea Party Museum, which is on a pier off a bridge over the river. There I signed up for the museum experience, which started in a meeting house where guides in costume gave us our roles then held a town meeting to discuss the tea ships that had been prevented from offloading (I had a speaking part, about the Stamp Tax). We boarded one of the ships, with feathers to 'disguise' us, and took turns throwing tea overboard before exploring the (quite small) ship that would have sailed across the Atlantic two centuries ago. Back inside, we heard more about the afterrmath of the Boston Tea Party, including the first battles of the revolutionary war, with pretty cool hologram special effects. Finally, I went upstairs to the tea rooms to sample the five different teas they'd thrown overboard that night, and got a hot tea to warm my hands on the walk back to the hostel.

On Sunday I set off to the North End to wander through the old streets and find the Boston Molasses Flood plaque near the waterfront. On the way, I saw a film crew in the Financial District, the Old South Meeting House where the actual town meeting to discuss the tea ships was held, and got somewhat lost. It was a little early in the day for much to be open, and I ended up at Boston Public Market where I got some of the best coffee I've had in North America and a 'Nana's Apple Pie' crepe, which was excellent.

I got the Green Line subway to the Boston Public Library for their free art and architecture tour, and found that the Green Line is actually an underground tram, which is quite hilarious when you're expecting a subway train like the one I'd got to Harvard. It turned out to be the oldest subway line, which makes some sense. The art and architecture tour was very good - the Boston Public Library has some pretty amazing mosaics and murals, as well as the barrel vaulted reading room. After that, I found the Boston Legal building and wandered around Back Bay, which is filled with rows of Very Nice Mansions. All the while, I'd been rereading Magnus Chase (which is partly set in Boston) and I figured out sort of where his uncle's house is supposed to be. Finally, I walked through the Public Garden, which is full of flowers and little meadows and park benches around a pond. I was watching a squirrel on a tree when a passersby pointed to one of the benches and told me it's the bench from Good Will Hunting - so of course I went back to the hostel and watched Good Will Hunting to round out my Boston experience.

Next: taking the train across the States!