13 July 2004

07 Jul Cont'd - We went uptown to 2nd Ave to meet my cousins Kathleen and Callum from Uist who were in New York for a wedding. We all had a lovely time and didn't drink too much - I think!

08 July - Got up a bit hungover but had to get out of bed cos we are checking out of New York and heading, by bus to Boston. The buses are fairly comfortable and it's only four hours and even though there was a child crying in front of me, I was able to endure through the headache.

We arrived at the hotel and got our keys - the foyer looked OK and the people seemed very friendly. When we got to the room I opened the door and stared in, in disbelief - infront of me was a small room with a desk, TV cabinet and a sofa - I thought where are we going to sleep - Pauline and Mairi were behind me peering in thinking the same - as I ventured further into the room I noticed a set of double doors through into a bedroom. Pauline had noticed the size of the first room and made a comment but I was able to guide her through to our suite! What luck, we had a suite with the largest King size bed ever, a fridge, microwave and coffee machine - nice! The hotel also offered free continental breakfast, free internet access and a free shuttle bus to and from town.

Still suffering from our night out in the Big Apple we went to a little restaurant, local to the hotel, in South Boston recommended by the guide book - 647 Tramont was the name of it and the food was very nice - our first taste of Boston was looking good.

09 July - Tourist duties first and foremost - so we took a walking (yes I walked) around Bostons Freedom Trail - past all the hisrtoric buildings where the revolution, civil war and boston tea part all took place - very interesting.

Dinner was in a charming little Italian near the Prudential Centre and surprisingly they served normal size portions not American giant size. Only to be social, we frequeted a couple of bars - TGI Fridays was a dump only slightly redeemed by the Long Island Iced Teas but generally to be avoided. The Irish bar (there seems to be one on every street corner in America) was pleasent enough but uneventful

10 July - Did nothing all day which was a very welcome change from all the frenetic sight seeing. At night we went up to Boston Common where a free presentation of Shakespears 'Much a Do About Nothing' was happening. Even though we didn't get a very good position (no seats just on the grass) and I saw the whole play through a couple of leaves it was actually very good. And did I say it was free.

11 July - refreshed after our days rest we were ready for another days site seeing and headed back into town. We started with the Prudential Tower where theres a walkway at the 50th floor which gives excelent views of Boston and the surrounding New England countryside. We then went to the site of the original Boston Tea Party - not a lot to see there as they've closed it down and there's a building site in it's place (building sites are following us - maybe it's to remind Mairi how rubbish work is - like she needs that).

Went for dinner in a nice wee Spanish Tapas bar in town and then headed home. We flagged down a taxi in front of the Tapas bar and as we were getting in other cars were beeping - we didn't take that long. The taxi driver sped off at some speed only to be followed by another taxi who chased us through the streets - I told the driver to pull over and let the crazy man past cos I wasn't up for dying. When the other car pulled up he was shouting at the taxi driver that he shouldn't have picked up and he was going to phone the police and eventually drove away. I then noticed that the licence was a Brookline one not a Boston - turf war going on I guess - well at least two stupid taxi drivers willing to forsake the lives of 3 lovely Scottish lass's for $8.10 cos that's all he got no tip. We arrived shaken and not stirred.

12 July - Whale Watching. Got up early really early 07:00am to be exact which is earlier than I've got up in ages and the reason well you guessed it we were going whale watching - and I don't mean going to the beach to see fat americans. I was like a little girl again all excited. We got into another taxi who although didn't try to kill us, didn't have a clue where Boston Harbour, The Aquarium, The IMAX cinema and all the boats to Whale Watching were (only the biggest tourist attractions in Boston) these taxi driver really are rubbish, if the public transport system was even a big better we would take it. So 10 minutes late we got to the boat and embarked on our epic voyage. I almost understood how captain Ahab felt - well not really he was going to kill them I was going to see if they really were aliens and try to talk to them.

The Captain took the boat out for about 30 minutes then told us we were at the area where they start to see whales but it could take from anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour to see anything. After well over an hour I was starting to panic so thought I could do some whale song and entice them to the boat. Mairi and Pauline thought it was more like a cat being strangled and pleaded with me to stop. So I thought a wee spell was in order and quickly came up with:
'Whales may come and
Whales may go
Today they will surface'

I said this over and over until - guess what- the captain told us whales had been spotted and off we went. There were plenty of signs that we were in the right area as there were already a couple of other boats circling. We approached and true enough a couple of minke whales were rolling around in the water, they were pretty shy as they didn't leap and jump like in the brochure but even so we got fairly close and were able to get a good view.

The Captain then announced that a couple of Fin Whales (second largest creature on the planet - can grow up to 78 feet) had been spotted a couple of miles away and off he whirred. Again there were a couple of other Whale Watching boats marking the spot, we slowly approached and then we saw it again coming in and out of the water and by-jingo it was large. I did try to sing to it and converse with it but it ignored me - a sure sign that it was alien life!

We also spotted a basking shark but could really only see the fin sticking out of the water. The Captain, happy that we had sighted something sailed back to port.

In the afternoon we headed North to Salem - spooky. The scene of the 1692 Witch Trails had always intrigued me. We got the train up and approached what looked like a very nice wee town. Pauline and Mairi found the place eerie funnily I felt totally at home - witches and broomsticks everywhere. We watched a re-enactment of one of the trials from 1692 but they pretended there were no trials or hangings today - like we believed that. We went round a recreation of the dungeons they had held the accused in - a phone company had uncovered them in the 1960's while building the foundations of a new building - well that was their story.

It was a strange town, half of the shops were selling tat for stupid tourists - all witches and black cats - I loved it.

We were nackered by the time we got back so decided to get some food from the convenience store accross the road and chips from McDonalds. More like the no convenience store - it sold nothing - and what ever happened to American Hospitality - McDonalds was the worst place I've ever been in, it took 20 minutes to get 2 portions of fries and there were only 4 customers in the shop (Pauline and I being 2 of them) - about 15 staff and the only one doing any work was the manager.

13 July - It's cold it's raining - are we back in Glasgow - but no this is still Boston - eh!
We got the hotel free shuttle bus into town to one of the big malls and wandered around for most of the day. At around 4ish we were bored - it was still raining and couldn't think of anything to do then Mairi had a great idea - she exclaimed - a pint - well Pauline and I hadn't moved so quick for ages - we had a couple of drinks and decided to go see a movie. Troy was playing at the cinema next door - what luck Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana in short skirts and armour.

We entered the theatre which was small (unusual cos everything here is big) and went to sit down - again the american hospitality or lack thereof reared it's ugly head - half the cinema had placed jackets, bags and drinks on seats and told us somebody was going to sit there. We ended up in the front row with what can only be described as steptoes fatter brother. We took one look at him and thought better of sitting down but there was no where else to sit. The cinema was in silence as the flick had not yet started and the guy had his feet up with his hairy fat legs on show and then proceeded to grunt and squeek. We started laughing (we had had a few beers) and he asked were we laughing at him Doh! He kept saying that he would like to do his basement up like this - I kept thinking like he could aford a cardboard box never mind a basement.

Luckily when the film started he quietened down and said nothing. In a ying yang moment a commotion erupted at the back of the theatre (where all the people hadn't let us sit) and they had to get an attendent to throw somebody out - this didn't annoy us much but must have really bothered those at the back.
We phoned the hotel shuttle - another taxi ride was just asking for trouble.

Boston is a really nice city to look at but full of total wierdos.