Boston. Boston. Boston, what do I know about that place? Hmm.

Oh yes, it was in a Simpsons episode back in 2016 and there are the Celtics, the Bruins, the Red Sox and it’s one of the oldest cities in the US. Oh and erm, the Tea Party which I know in name only.

That was the extent of my Boston knowledge several months ago.

I woke up early to leave New York, arriving at Port St Bus Terminal at 6:10am. Lots of homeless people were asleep in the waiting area and I had a bit of time to wait for my Greyhound to Boston, 215 miles north east of New York City. For those in Taiwan, that’s about the same distance as Kaohsiung to Taipei. I’d booked it as early as possible and got the ticket for $8. On my ticket I got boarding number 1 which meant I was allowed to board first for the 4 hour trip.

The bus headed into New Jersey then back across into New York and proceeded to head out of state towards Connecticut. The views early on were nice, but soon turned to endless forest and the journey was fairly unremarkable.

I fell asleep for a little while but was awake as we crossed into Massachusetts. The bus rolled into Boston South terminal a full 5 minutes early and I had most of the day to explore.

I’d booked a hotel rather than hostel for about $35 a night because of its location south of Boston Common and the fact it was only 0.5 miles from the bus terminal. I quickly got there, dropped off my bags and set off to find the start of the Freedom Trail on Boston Common itself.

It was just as cold as New York and snow lingered from the weekend but there were plenty of locals about walking their dogs, exercising.

At the north east of the Common was some information and in the above picture you can one of it’s four sides. I was unable to get a map of the Freedom Trail but it would turn to be well signposted anyway. The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile trail through the city of Boston bypassing 14 old houses, graveyards and other historic sights. I quickly learnt that Boston had even more history than I imagined.

The first four places I stopped off at were: Massachusetts State House, the Granary burial ground which is in picture two, Kings Chapel and the Old South Meeting House. It was gone 12pm and I knew that I had to manage my time, I spent some time walking around the icy Granary burial ground which is where several of the founding fathers are buried and there was a feeling of ‘history’ in the air.

I mulled over going in the Old South Meeting House but decided against it in favour of a walk around the back streets instead. I soon got back on track and got to the Old State House, the oldest surviving public building in Boston dating back to 1713. I paid $10 admission and it was my ‘inside time’, the museum was small but very informative. I learnt about the background to the American Revolution and declaration of independence and how Boston was implicated in that.

I moved on towards the Faneuil Hall area and next to it, Quincy Market as I sought out lunch.

There were many, many stalls inside and I felt quite overwhelmed. I settled on some ‘Chowda’ for about $8 and it was absolutely delicious. Take it from me, don’t go to Boston without trying it!

The trail moved through the North End past Paul Revere’s house, past the Old North Church to Copp’s Hill burial ground.

Copp’s Hill burial ground resembled an ice-rink but was another sight that I spent some time wandering around, even with hiking boots I had to tread carefully to avoid injuring myself.

There were two sights left, the USS Constitution and Bunker Hill Monument, both on the other side of the Charles River. There was a USS Constitution museum but knowing I was stuck for time, decided to just see the ship.

There was a ‘Federal’ check, it was both an I.D check and security check as I think I was heading onto US Navy base. There was a little exhibit about the ship, and about how pulley’s etc worked. All of a sudden, a soldier appeared and said the tour was starting! What tour? It turned out you get a guided tour of the ship and this was the last one of the day.

There was quite a large group including some Japanese tourists and it was an interesting 30 minutes. I knew how old boats functioned but the interesting part was the USS Constitution is the world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel that is still afloat. It’s a nice claim to fame to having been on it!

As soon as the tour finished there were fairly clear instructions to disembark from the boat and leave the premises as soon as possible. Bunker Hill monument was all that remained to do on an my first day in Boston.

On this trip I would have an exceedingly good habit of getting to places just at the right time (such as the Staten Island ferry for the sunset) and I’d reach Bunker Hill at another one of those times. There was a pleasant walk up through the back streets to the monument standing at 67m tall.

There were 294 steps to the top. Was it worth the climb? Yes.

The views speak for themselves and the walk back across the city to the hotel was pretty, arduous. It took longer than expected and I had to check in, have a shower and make my way into the city for the evening’s entertainment…Boston Celtics v Memphis Grizzlies.

I took the subway or ‘T’ as it’s known in Boston from a nearby station to the market in search of a pre-game dinner.

Inside there was a few stalls, but nowhere near as many as Quincy Market. I found one I liked though selling Japanese curry as a special, and check this, Taiwanese Beef Noodles! I was almost laughing in disbelief but the Japanese curry went down very, very nicely indeed.

Even if you have absolutely no knowledge of NBA basketball the name ‘Boston Celtics’ should ring a bell. They have won more Championships than any other team and because of that are one of those super popular teams. I’d purchased my ticket for about $80 incl fees back in August which may have been a slight over-payment but the view from my seat was excellent, just left of centre, 6 rows up in the 3rd deck. Unfortunately, the reports about narrow seats turned out to be true, nonetheless, it was a superb place to watch basketball.

The two players I’d been excited to see: Ja Morant for the Grizzlies and Kemba Walker for the Celtics had quiet evenings. I’d expected a Celtics win but a narrow one with the Grizzlies who I’d predicted to finish 12th in the western conference having got a near 0.500 record. The opening quarter went to expectations with the Grizzlies up by 2.

Midway through the second, Memphis still lead but by half-time were 16 points down. The 3rd was a complete disaster, shooting went awry and Boston went nuts, leading 99-63 with 12 minutes to play. This was not what I wanted nor what anyone who watches basketball would want, the game was effectively over and all the fringe players came off the bench.

It finished Celtics 119 Grizzlies 95, it had started as an entertaining game but the more experienced Celtics got hold of it, and never looked likely to let go.

I was desperate for a burger after and found there was a Whataburger branch nearby. I had no idea what it was like but I quickly found out, it was superb. An awesome burger and two very tasty IPAs to wash it down with… Oh how beer would come to dominate the rest of this three day trip to Boston…

Day 2

The first six days of the trip had been fairly well thought out months in advance and this was the first day where I planned very much on the fly.

I got up and decided to head to Fenway Park with tours leaving every hour on the hour from 10am onwards. Looking at Google Maps it was a 1.8 mile walk so gave myself 40 minutes but found myself walking slower than usual as to appreciate the beautiful buildings in the Back Bay area.

I got to the ticket office exactly 2 minutes before 10 and had been slightly worried that I’d be one of just a handful on the tour. These fears were quickly put to rest as I walked inside to join about a group of about 15 people.

To those unaware of Fenway Park’s significance, it’s the oldest MLB stadium and is an icon in itself in one of the United States biggest sports cities. I’ve always considered myself something of a stadium connoisseur and going to the US, going to Boston and NOT paying $21 to take a tour of Fenway would have been ludicrous. It was a given from the moment I settled on my five city itinerary.

The tour got started and I wasn’t the only non US visitor, and there were even a few New York Yankee fans taking the tour. That says something about Fenway Park, when fans of the Red Sox biggest rivals, come to see and appreciate the stadium.

We were taken up into the right field side and got to see something most fans don’t…snow on the field! We walked around past home plate and I got to get a snap of the Green Monster too.

From the frigid outside, it was quickly back inside to the away dressing room which was a lot smaller than expected. Things moved quickly, past some old turnstile blocks with memorabilia from World Series years and a wall with various records on it.

 

The tour took us to the back of the left field bleachers and arguably one of the best moments of the hour with a chance to experience views from the famous wooden seats. I don’t have any photos from the seats to the playing surface but let me put this way, the rake is shallow and with the amount of pillars, there aren’t many unobstructed views from the back half of the infield.

From the lower deck we took an elevator to the upper deck which sits high above the field and with parts of the Boston skyline clearly visible including Hancock Tower, Boston’s tallest building. We were given a look at the press box before exiting back out into the cold again.

Now here’s something I didn’t expect… We got shown the Red Sox farm… No not the farm team but literally a rooftop farm where the Red Sox grow crops that they use to feed fans during the season!

Conditions underfoot were a little icy as we got to the final stop, the famous Green Monster. If you have no idea what that is, the Green Monster is the 37ft high left field wall that sits just 310ft from home-plate.

Sadly things had to come to an end and I was disappointed they wanted $31 for a photo and booklet of ‘Your Fenway Park trip’. Had they been charging half that, I’d have paid it and I wanted it, but not at $31.

I walked away, got a few outside pics and walk towards the bridge over the Charles River.

Surprisingly, but maybe not so surprisingly the river was frozen over as I crossed from Boston, Massachusetts into Cambridge, Massachusetts. You maybe wondering, why leave Boston? Well, I was leaving to have a look at two institutions you may have heard of: MIT and Harvard.

Immediately upon crossing the river I was on the edge of the MIT campus and whilst I was not interested in a campus tour, did want to see the MIT museum and get some food. I was in luck with regards to the latter as there was a food truck by the side of the road selling both Greek and Chinese food. This brought about two separate issues, A) Which cuisine do I choose to have and B) What then do I choose to eat?

Greek and a falafel wrap it was. I’m not usually one for falafel but for a measly $5 was given an absolutely huge, over 30cm long wrap absolutely loaded with salad, sauce and of course, falafel. It was so good that by the time I reached the MIT museum a short walk up the road, the wrap had gone.

It was $10 admission into the museum and as you would expect the MIT museum was centered around work done by the institute. There was an exhibit on Polaroid cameras and something very ‘different’, it featured work by artist Arthur Ganson who created kinetic sculptures which you need to press buttons to see in action. Unfortunately I only took videos so can’t feature them here, but if you click this here… Ganson’s work. You will see what I mean.

I grabbed a coffee in McDonalds and reached Harvard around 1:50pm after walking over a mile up from the MIT Museum.

The Harvard campus was covered in snow and there were a lot of tourists hanging around. It is the United States oldest university and apparently the statue of John Harvard is the second most photographed statue in the United States which I found somewhat difficult to believe…

There was another museum to see, the Harvard Museum of Natural History which cost $15 to enter. It was quiet, very quiet which made it rather enjoyable and was a bit more of an ‘mature feel’ about it.

The first room was simply mind blowing as it contained dozens of cases filled with thousands of examples of extraordinary looking gems and minerals. There was also a lot of information about space, the whole room was simply almost too much to comprehend. For such a small room, there was nearly too much to see.

The rest of the museum was fairly standard natural history museum material, dinosaurs, animals but there were more quirky facts. 300,000 species of beetle? 1,200 species of bats? The last room contained something I was considering skipping, glass flowers. Yes, two artists had constructed glass replicas of hundreds of different flowers. It was one of those, ‘Ok, that’s something I’ve not seen before’ moments and I left the museum feeling rather pleased with myself.

I got the subway back into downtown Boston and returned to the market where I’d had an excellent Japanese curry the night before. I got another superb dish from a different stall, something I’d not had for many years, a Beef Kofta for $10.

I wanted a beer and found myself in the Bird in Hand pub with a 24oz IPA with a phone that’s battery was losing charge quickly. One IPA became two, two became three and my passion for good quality returned, resulting in a slightly tipsy me booking myself on the 10:30am Morning Mash in tour at Samuel Adams brewery. Day three would thus be about beer.

I had a fourth and with the final one up around 7% I left knowing my phone was nearly dead and I now needed to be up the next day.

Day Three

If there is any day I would be slightly conflicted about, it would be this one. Three days in Boston and this would involve one thing, a brewery tour.

I was little hungover, ok, 4/10. I took the subway down 8 stops and only just got the train I wanted with the ticket machines having been smashed to pieces at one entrance, and I had to walk/run 3 minutes to the other one.

I got to the brewery and was pleased to find 7 other people had signed up for what was an effective morning drinking session. For $16 we learnt how beer was brewed and that this particular brewery was where they try out new ideas and then it was into the tasting room.

The beers sampled included the Mole Milk Stout, Cold Snap and Grisette which were all different styles of beer but they went down well, a little too well…

The tour was completed just after 11:30am and the glass was included in the tour price which now meant I had a responsibility to keep it safe and get it back to Taiwan in one piece!

I wasn’t leaving the brewery without sampling at least another one of the other 11 on tap in the tap room was I? No, absolutely not. I tried all of them over the course of around 3 hours. Free Wi-Fi, plentiful beer and I was there until nearly 3pm… Oh dear!

The selection of beers and quality was not something I could complain about, Triples, Dunkels, Pale Ales with many of them north of 6%. I returned to the hotel and whilst I wasn’t ‘drunk’, I definitely needed some rest. I’d pretty been on the go for 9 days in a row and with a 4:15am alarm the next morning, the rest of the day was taken steadily.

I got some Chinese food and a gyros later in the day as I wound down my three days in Boston. I packed my suitcase and got that much needed rest with a weekend in Philadelphia to come…

Stay tuned for part three, Philadelphia.