Whilst I like travelling alone for the ability to pack a lot more in, with no compromises needed, but as I'm doing it more frequently I'm also appreciating the opportunity to choose when to slow down without disappointing anyone who really wanted to see something. Boston was a great exercise in slowing down a little, and enjoying it even if I didn't tick off all fifteen museums on my list.
After visiting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, I'd planned on taking myself out for dinner - but after the coach journey from Amherst, sorting out my stuff, and figuring out the T, I was knackered. Instead I went to Whole Foods. It was my first time in one, and it's effectively my dream supermarket. It's also really expensive, and it became instantly clear I have no idea how much 1lb weighs. I took my $17 salad back to my dormitory, and ate it watching a few episodes of a terrible show only available on American Netflix. The next day, I had a little lie in, went and got a lovely brunch at Harvest - my first American biscuits and gravy - and spent the rest of my time wandering around Harvard. I went to the Natural History Museum and looked at their collection of botanical glass specimens, and listened to a little boy see a rhino for the first time and declare it 'built for damage and destruction!' I looked at displays showing the five hundred year fight of indigenous peoples of Central and South America to keep their lives, lands and cultures. I went to J. P. Licks to get a 'medium' (giant) ice cream and chose a wildly out of character flavour combination (brownie batter & peanut butter cookie dough chip). I bought some second hand children's books for my friend's little one at Harvard Book Store, then sat in Harvard Yard and watched people go past for a while. I took myself for dinner at Alden & Harlow, where I got a bowl of extremely garlicky pasta and a soft drink, because it turns out in Boston, a UK driver's license doesn't count as ID. I got the T back over the Charles River during one of the most perfect blue hours I've ever seen, and walked to my hostel through the park. On my final day, I was planning to walk the Freedom Trail and take in the sixteen historical sites, but the moment I walked outside and felt the thirty-eight degree temperature paired with a seventy-five percent humidity, I jettisoned that idea. Instead, I got more brunch. I went to Boston's North End, visited the Paul Revere House, wandered around the neighbourhood, read a book in a park under the trees, and took a little tour of the Pierce-Hichborn House. Then I ran to the airport, got on a plane, and went home again. I didn't get a lot done, I didn't even take that many pictures (for me!) - but I had a really good time.
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