We left a wet and rainy New York and arrived in an equally soggy Boston to be met by Ian, one of our friends from Folksoc. He took us back to Johanna's (his girlfriend and another Folksoc friend) flat which we were to be staying in. It was in the district of Cambrige, in the shadow of the famous Harvard University - it felt a bit like Marchmont in Edinburgh with the amount of students kicking around. In a dramatic move of hospitality and self-sacrifice, Johanna had us stay in her room while she and Ian indoor-camped on the living room floor. Ian went out to work so we chilled out at the flat for a bit before Johanna came home and we headed out for Mexican food at a new place that had just opened up round the corner. There were some discussions of plans to go out but these were abandoned due to our laziness and the soggy weather so we went to the supermarket instead in preparation for the next day.
The weather hadn't really let up the next morning but we headed out to explore Boston anyhow. It's a very different city to New York, much smaller in terms of geographical size but also in terms of height as the number of ridiculously high skyscrapers really plummeted. It also felt very English (this was New England after all) as many of the buildings date from colonial times. Boston is kind of where the USA started and a number of important events happened here (including the famous "Boston Tea Party" which was a big statement against UK imperialism in the yet-to-be-formed USA). Conveniently, the local tourist board have laid out a "Freedom Trail" along the pavement - it's a line of red stones you can follow which takes you past various sites. It turned out to be quite a good way to see some bits of the city so we followed it, admiring the (albeit damp) buildings as we went. We passed the graveyard where Samuel Adams (important revolutionary and now face of lager) was buried which struck me as everyone's picture of a graveyard with low, tombstone haped... tombstones buried in the ground. It reminded me of the "Thriller" video. Along the way we veered off when we saw interesting streets and stumbled across the original "Cheers" bar (where everyone knows your name), the very atmospheric (and steamy) holocaust memorial and a legendary local pastry place "Mike's Pastries" where we stopped for a cuppa and a slice of Boston Cream Pie. It's a calorific chocolate/vanilla cream/sponge treat which we gulped down. On the way back to Johanna's we visited the Goodwill Store (a USA charity shop) where we stocked up on books and winter clothes - the temperature had dropped a lot since we left North Carolina.
That evening Johanna had arranged a session so after a classic UK meal of baked tatties and prawn cocktail (made by us - a meal we've been fantasising about since Cuba) the place was invaded by the local Scottish folk scene. They were lovely folk and great musicians so we all had a smashing evening of tunes, songs, scones, brownies, purple corn chips and a couple of pumkin ales. Good times.
We didn't quite start as early as we'd planned the next day but we were early enough to take a 2h drive out to the Sugar Loaf mountain which we duly climbed. Is was a bit of a hardcore climb to start with but the autumn colours were stunning and the view from the top was outstanding. There's a far higher concentration of deciduous trees in this part of the USA which is why it's quite so famous for autumn colours and rightly so. We came back to Boston to go to "Mr. Bartley's Burgers" - a bit of a local legend (in the same way as Kebab Mahal in Edinburgh) for gourmet burgers. They had a massive hotplate which they slapped on lumps of minced beef which were then cooked to your burger specifications (medium, rare etc.). It was a crazy place and very popular - we had to queue outside but we got in when they had free seats at the counter which was the best place to observe the kitchen action. All the burgers have names which you can see on their website. Johanna and I had a the Joe Biden (this guy is scary), Charlotte had the BP (oh look Britain messed up another former colony) and Ian had the Mitt Romney (2012 or bust). They really were fabulous burgers and reminded me that I really need to work on making that kind of BBQ sauce that you get in the USA. We then went for ice cream at "JP Licks" another local legendary place. I had the very seasonal flavours of pumpkin spice and carrot cake and both were amazing. On the way back to Johanna's we dropped in by a local deli/grocery which sold loads of British items (presumably catering for UK students studying at Harvard). You wouldn't wan to buy anything mind as the Scott's Porridge Oats were $10.99 a box and the Walker's mince pies were $26.99 for six (you do the maths, it's about $1.50/£1). Cha ching! We headed back to the flat devoid of UK produce and collapsed in front of a DVD of "V for Vendetta", feeling very 5th November-ish.
Coincidently, we went from one Harvard to another the next day as we bid our farewells to Ian and Johanna (to whom more thanks - I really can't believe the hospitality of the people we've been staying with here). Harvard is also a little village west of Boston where Steve and Harriet Freidrich live along with their two youngest kids, Katherine and Charlie. Sophia, their oldest, was at primary school in Bath with Charlotte and is one of her longest-standing friends. Steve and Harriet took us to their lovely house where we installed ourselves in Sophia's room before heading for Brunch at Mike's diner. I've been wanting to visit a real old-time USA diner for ages and this was definitely my kind of place. There were stuffed bears, moose heads and various other dead animals mounted around the walls and the waitresses were loving mine and Charlotte's accents.
The pancakes we had were to die for (and we fully expected to after eating them) along with the sides of corned beef hash, bacon and "home fries" - a local speciality similar to what my primary school used to serve as "sautéed potatoes". Steve was particularly keen to make sure we had real maple syrup (as opposed to maple flavour syrup) which came in wee bottles like whisky miniatures. If I wasn't worried about carrying them around I'd have kept the bottles. We accompanied Steve, Harriet and Charlie to church later that evening (Katharine was at hockey practise) before sitting down to Harriet's home-cooked ham with potatoes dauphinois and brussels sprouts. Oddly enough, the Friedrichs and I share a common love to this much maligned green vegetable. We spent ages that evening quizzing Steve about his job. He flies Boeing 737s (and other aircraft) for private individuals and has flown Tony Blair, Elton John and Michael Caine amongst others. It's odd to think of Charlotte and I travelling on a low and tight budget when there's folk out there who have a plane to lend to the likes of Elton John.
Harriet works at local Fruitlands museum where we were treated to an outstanding lunch served by a very enthusiastic waitress who quizzed us on our travels. The museum is a mixture of art and local history and was started by the parents of Louisa May Alcott who wrote "Little Women". I was particularly interested in the exhibitions about Shakers. They were (and are although there's only three left!) a religious sect kind of connected to Quakers who were into communal living. When you joined the Shakers you had to dissolve your marriage as the members were celibate and lived as brothers and sisters. Any children were raised by the community rather than their parents. Their name comes from the shaky dancing they do during worship and their best known as the origin of the tune for "Lord of the Dance". They've kind of diminished now - you can imagine that any religion that encourages celibacy of its members is unlikely to last. That evening we were supposed to be going to Katherine's hockey match but it was cancelled due to the weather. Instead we spent a very pleasant evening playing our hosts a few tunes and teaching them the card game we learnt from the South Africans on the Inca Trail. They seemed to enjoy the skulduggery that could be applied to fellow players.
We bid Harriet and Steve a fond farewell the next day just as their upstairs was turning into a work-site with a bunch of guys laying a new floor. It looked like life was about to become pretty noisy (it already was when we left) but we were very grateful that they hosted us despite the upheavals!
Our bus for Montreal left the next afternoon - it was a fairly uneventful journey but when we arrived at the border I was very excited to be finally using my Canadian passport. As we entered into Canada I considered the legion of Canadian celebrities; Mike Myers, Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette, Keanu Reeves, Shania Twain, Hayden Christensen, Jim Carrey, Pamela Anderson and.....me.
We headed north.
Excellent blog, Paul. But you have made me very hungry.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot Neil Young. Grr!
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