After all the travelling yesterday I thought that I would sleep like a log, but I was wrong!! From around 1am I kept waking up every half hour. It didn't help that at the start of the night that Tammy, my roommate, had a respiratory machine on. Around 6am I thought "beggar this" and got up anyway. It meant I could get a few directions on my ipod for when I arrived in "Bean Town" and didn't have any trouble getting into the bathrooms either ;-) Headed downstairs to the kitchen for the free breakfast that comes with your booking. It was great. Everything was laid out on the kitchen counter including hot coffee, fresh orange juice, cereal, bread for toasting, fruit etc. I was impressed. It was such a nice morning that I ate out in the small garden/lounge area. I have to say that I was impressed by the New York Loft Hostel and would certainly stay there again.
So it was time to head on out and get the subway to Penn Station where I would meet my train to Boston. I made sure that I got there in plenty of time in case I had trouble finding the right train.....to only find that the train was an hour late! Luckily no fights on the subway today like last night. Phew! Once on the train I sat with a French family from near Paris. Can't believe I got to practise my French all the way over here. Bless her for putting up with me, but at least I tried! Had time to catch up with the blog for yesterday and saw some nice views along the way, especially of a quaint little place called New London (not to mention the great view of the NY cityscape as I left).
Arrived in Boston and used my photo of the google maps screen to walk to the hostel. As expected, so many tall buildings around. That's what you get downtown in an American city!
I tried asking a guy at a junction whether I was heading in the right direction and he gave me this schpeal about going through a place that looked like a tunnel and making a couple of turns. After he crossed the road I looked around the corner to find the hostel right there! What a load of useless info he had given me. I would have been walking around random alleys in Bean Town if I had listened. The hostel is right next to Chinatown so it smells wonderful and certainly makes you feel hungry.
Checked in at the HI-Boston where I had to renew my HI membership. Luckily by doing that I get a 2nd night free voucher. Just happens I'm coming back to stay here for 2 nights when I get from Canada....so I'll cash it in then and get a free night. Yippee! The hostel is nice and clean. Lots of bathrooms on every floor and mine just happens to be opposite 3, which is handy. There is a TV room, laundry etc. too and you get a free breakfast with your booking. Only thing is I have to meet the bus for the tour when breakfast starts. Guess that means that I will have to pop into Dunkin Donuts on my way to the meet point and experience an American Brekkie. I'm in a 4 bed female dorm and it turns out that all of the beds but one are taken...so at 32 years of age I have to go back to my youth and sleep on the top bunk again! That should be interesting getting up and down in the middle of the night lol.
After checking in I called mum to let her know I'm alive. I know how you mums worry about your 'babies'! ;-) I then went and bought a US sim card to make keeping in touch with my couchsurfing hosts much easier. That then gave me a little chance to wander around the city. I ended up going to Boston Common - the lovely park downtown. A black lady with a pram was going to walk past me as I sat on a park bench but then sat next to me. She introduced herself as Muriel (from Barbados). She was a nanny for a family living next to the park and was bringing the baby boy out for a walk. She then asked if both my parents were living as there was a man sat on the bench behind me - apparently she thinks of herself as a very spiritual woman and so knows these things. She says it was my dad looking out for me and that I'm not travelling alone. I always say that I attract the weirdos when I travel and it seems that I managed again. Nice to know he's keeping me company though.
Boston common is a really lovely 50 acre green space in the middle of the city around since 1634. Great places of shade when it's a warm day. I saw a fair few squirrels whilst sat there - I called one Gerald and took his photo. It was the first public park in the US but used to be a grazing area for cattle and a staging ground for American Revolution soldiers.There is an area called the Frog Pond where there is a big fountain that I saw a few kids running through after being in the hot sun. If I hadn't have had a white t-shirt on I would have been in there with them! There's also a public garden there but I'll check that out when I come back in a few days.
I hadn't eaten since 6:30 so thought it was about time I got something to eat. When heading back to the hostel I saw a pizza and salad place on the corner that was filled with plenty of people. My way of thinking is that if a place is busy then it must be serving good food. I went in and turns out that they pretty much serve anything you can think of. I ordered a chicken and bacon ranch sandwich - which was a yummy hot marinated chicken burger. Of course, the staff loved my accent and I ended up getting 2 drinks for the price of 1. See, it pays to put on the posh accent here and there! ;-) I also saw a McDonalds in Chinatown....they of course added a few Chinese details to the exterior to make it look more authentic!
Headed back to the hostel and met the girl who was allocated the bed under mine. Her name was Sarah and she's from Israel. She's over here for a conference on Biomechanics and so we got talking for quite a while. There was an Asian girl in the bed opposite but she spent the whole time sleeping so didn't actually get to talk to her. Who knows who is in bed #4!
Shower and bed time before catching the bus to Canada at 7am. So I shall sign off my the heights of my top bunk and wish you a nice evening (unless you're reading this in France/UK, in which case, Good morning!).
Toodles!
No comments:
Post a Comment