Another weekend has passed, and yes, we’ve been on a little trip again! Boston was our destination this time. For those of you who don’t know this town : it is said to be the most Europeanist city in the United States. It is the home of a lot of immigrants, especially Irish, Chinese and Italian people.
We could say that our departure day wasn’t our most fortunate day. It all started in a little McDonald’s in a little town somewhere in Connecticut. The very friendly lady at the counter spoke a sort of English I didn’t understand (remember Manuel from Fawlty Towers? I think this lady also learned it from a book). When I asked for a package of 4 Chicken MgNuggets to go along with my ‘delicious’ burger, she asked me ‘4?’, I confirmed, and next thing you know, I get 4 boxes with 4 chicken MgNuggets on my plate. Now, I said that I wanted to gain a little weight, but that was a bit too much at once. She told my that I had to be more specific next time. (I mean, do I look like a girl who eats 16 McNuggets?). Anyway, I could prevent Elke from making the same order (otherwise we would’ve had enough Chicken MgNuggets to feed a whole army). Good girl as I was, I ate them all (with a little help from Elke and Laurens)
After arriving in Boston and risking our lives driving through the tunnels and over the many bridges, we went to look for the hotel. We quickly found Broadway, the street our hotel was in. But then we found out that there was more than one street called Broadway.. where’s the sense in that? Lucky for us, we are very good at attracting men who spontaneously ask us if they can give us directions (the newest opening line?)
Now, In the motel room, I suddenly realized that I didn’t find my credit card. I looked everywhere (or at least I thought so) and I was on the verge of calling card stop (because I couldn’t reach the McDonalds where I used my card the last time.) After activating my phone at the front desk, I reached for my wallet again to take the key card of the room, and I suddenly discovered my credit card, hidden somewhere in a dark side-pocket. That was a relief!
We still had a part of our afternoon to discover the city, so we decided to take the freedom trail. A lot of buildings (who played an important role in the American history),a tree that was made out of bricks some bridges, a boat, a statue that looked a lot like the one we already saw in Washington, a nice view over the skyline by night.. and lots and lots of yummy Italian restaurants, and Irish Pubs. That night, a water main break flooded some streets around Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, where we walked just a couple of hours earlier. Now, floods are not really special for us these days, as we have experienced quite a few nearly floods here around the house (especially in the surroundings of the bathroom, strangely enough). Lucky for us we already did that freedom trail, because you weren’t able to follow the whole trail anymore due to water and electricity repair works the next days.
The second day, we had lots of things planned. First of all, we did some business related stuff, and visited a chocolate store in Beacon Hill (a part of Boston with little houses, gas lit street lanterns,…). Beacon Hill Chocolates sells the Mary Chocolate, and really is a store worth visiting! After that, we went to the park, where they had these cute little swan boats, blossoming trees.. a bit of a mini Central Park. We took a small lunch at the Prudential building, and left for Harvard. At Harvard, you can take a student guided tour, which is very interesting, especially if you have a student with acting talents telling you the history of the oldest university of this country. What does he talk about? Famous people, the Titanic, and blatant lies about the third most photographed statue in the states (it is supposed to be John Harvard, but he isn’t the founder (merely the first big benefactor), and the statue doesn’t look anything like the guy.
Visiting this marvelous place made something very clear for us. American students are very proud of their schools, and wear t-shirts and sweaters with the name of their schools, colleges or universities. We decided to adopt this custom, but seeing that our college (Artevelde) doesn’t have any nice shirts, we decided to go with the ones Harvard sells. J
After our visit to Harvard, we went up the towers of the Prudential Building (one of the highest in Boston), to enjoy the view over the city. It looks a bit like the view you get when climbing the Empire State building, especially because the park looks a bit like central park. We heard some interesting stories about a couple of buildings and bridges (for example: the salt and pepper bridge) and went on a virtual helicopter-flight across town. After visiting some more interesting places (the famous Shelf near the waterfront, Fenway Park (the one from the red sox), we dined at Cheers/Sam’s Café on Quincy market, which has an exact replica of the bar that was featured in Cheers, an American TV-show. We enjoyed a delicious meal, while watching the Boston Celtics (that should make at least one of you jealous :p)
Unfortunately, The last day was overshadowed by a lot of rain and clouds, so we soon decided that it was time to return to little Long Valley. After a few hours of traffic, delays,… we finally arrived home again!
Oh, we discovered another great fast food chain : Applebee’s. For those of you who are planning to go to the states: it’s definitely worth a visit!
After we raided their lobby, we also visited some stores. Everything here is extra large: the parking lot, the isles in the shops, the pushcarts (they even have motorized pushcarts, and wheelchair pushcarts), the SUV’s..
