It’s time to say our goodbyes to Boston and as much as I know we’re moving onto New York, I’ve become so fond of Boston…and it means our trip is quickly sailing by!
I hadn’t really researched Boston as much as New York and I didn’t know anything much about it apart from Harvard University being close by. However, I’ve found (along with most of my friends I think!) that we became pretty attached to the city, even if we were only there for around four days. We were pretty good in squeezing as much as possible into to the time we had there. From seeing Boston University, exploring Lexington and Concord, eating at the famous “Cheesecake Factory,” to getting to see Harvard University, Boston is well worth your time!
Our first activity was visiting Boston University which was our first proper experience of Boston. We had a small tour of parts of the University campus where we got to see some of the main sites of the University, including a buffet lunch in their student canteen, what more could you want?! My favourite thing about this day was the alumni event in the evening which we had in the Boston University “Castle” – not quite a Castle, but still a pretty fancy building if I do say so myself!
We got chatting to some of the alumni and the first people we met were a couple from Boston who actually met each other at Lancaster. She told us how he’d been captain of the Lancaster Rugby team and she’d taken quite a fancy to him. It was so fun meeting people who went to Lancaster as we had lots to talk about and they clearly enjoyed telling us about their time at Lancaster, as well as asking us how things may have changed and what has stayed the same. All in all, a great evening meeting Lancaster alumni, it definitely gives you comfort being a third year who is about to graduate that people have managed to sort their lives out!
My next favourite thing had to be the Boston Tea Party Museum. In extremely simple terms it’s a museum about the Bostonians who protested against the taxes imposed upon them by the British. They protested by throwing the imported tea overboard, hence the Boston Tea Party! It began with actors pretending to be the historical figures from the American Revolution (which is the kind of thing I love!) and we each got given a character, too, which was pretty fun! I was a revolutionary called Ebenezer MacIntosh– what a name!
After a rallying speech from our very own Samuel Adams we were off to start the ripples of a revolution by throwing the imported tea off the merchant ship. As far as museums go this has to be one of the best for presenting things (at least that I’ve been to!). Everything was brought to life, for instance, two portraits that spoke to each other depicted both sides of the Revolution; it was like being in Harry Potter! We also got to see one of the original containers that the tea had been in, too, which had been preserved after all this time.
It was this evening that a few of us decided to get a good view of Boston so I did a very simple Google of “night view of Boston” and ended up finding something called the Skywalk observatory which gave us a beautiful view of Boston at night. It was only $13 as they accepted our student cards from Lancaster. We were able to see so much of Boston including Fenway Park and various other places we’d already explored or were going to explore. Once we’d taken in the view and done all the other activities up there (they had quizzes/history displays etc) we decided to take a long walk home to see more parts of Boston. We explored the gardens of Boston for a bit and ended up walking down this street which had all the trees lit up with fairy lights, it seemed a lot like Christmas, especially with the piles of snow!
On our last full day in Boston we decided to explore the “Freedom Trail” which leads you around Boston taking in all the historic sites. We had a leaflet that explained each spot and Faye got us to take it in turns reading out the information about each site, including their opening hours! It was pretty cold today but we kept ploughing on nonetheless and it proved very entertaining. It took a lot longer than expected but we got to do some pretty cool things along the way, our second to last stop involved us climbing 294 steps in the Bunker Hill Monument we gave us a view of Boston, and also some much needed exercise!
As much as I know we’re heading off to The Big Apple, I am definitely sad to leave Boston and it’s a place I know I’ll definitely want to return to at some point. It had such a mix of old and new (or at least “old” for America….) and I loved that contrast. You’d walk down a street of skyscrapers and then quickly happen upon a building of some historical significance. In terms of NY, we’re definitely travelling there in style, leather seats on the coach, and plug sockets! (It’s the little things…..). I’m gradually getting more excited as we get closer, it’s kind of hard to believe I’m actually going to be in New York in a couple of hours, how crazy is that?!
Talk soon!