After the hustle and bustle of a city that never sleeps (aka New York), we carried on with our travels to a much more relaxed part of the world, however just as expensive - Boston, Massachussets. We arrived in Boston with the shocking fact that our hostel was going to cost the same price as we had paid in NYC!
Boston
Boston is the home to Berklee, Harvard, MIT, etc, some of the most expenisve universities in America, and it is also home to some of the richest people in America. We could barely afford to eat out. Up until this point America had been relatively well-priced.
Even McDonalds was more expensive than the rest of the USA.
Boston is one of the most European looking cities in America. It reminded us of Melbourne, with lots of outdoor dining, old town houses and huge trees, like Collins St.
The streets of Boston
View of the city from the fountain
Quincy Market - not really a market but had great teriyaki chicken
Boston has the oldest underground train network in America. However what was bizzare is that half of the subway consists of trams that are underground and then the other, newer half is a train network. Seeing trams travelling underground was slightly strange.
The subway train and the subway tram. This disabled guy had to drag himself up the tram himself whithout help from a subway worker who just shouted at him.
By the river
This is an ice-skating rink in winter. In summer it is a wading pool.
Jetstar jump on the pier at Boston
Candice couldn't be bothered jumping
A view of the docks
View of the city from the pier
In case you wanted to explore
Springfield
Springfield is home to Peter Pan Bus Lines
After Boston we caught a bus to Springfield, Massechusetts. It was a Sunday and was the end of the 4th of July long weekend. This meant that there was 500 or more people trying desperately to catch a bus from Boston back to NYC. The problem again with Greyhound is similar to that of the American airlines - there is no cap on how many people can book a seat! As they had well and truly overbooked, the "first-come-first-serve" rule of Greyhound was in full force and many people were desperately trying to fight their way onto a bus. We were super thankful that we weren't trying to get back to NYC that day and instead travelling onto Springfield.
A view of the Springfield skyline
It was almost as if we were catching a bus to see the Simpsons
Waiting at the crowded bus station in Boston
We stayed a couple of nights with Nat's friend Laura who lives in Agawam, a town just outside of Sprinfield. Springfield is known for two things -it is where basketball was invented and where Dr Suess is from. Other than that, there is not much to it. The surrounding suburbs and towns are beautiful though - it was our first experience of the US countryside. Springfield is only minutes from the border of the state of Connecticut so we ventured over there for a peek as well.
Nat and Laura enjoy some awesome Springfield icecream
We went to Wal Mart in Enfield, Connecticut
We visited the Basketball Hall of Fame
A farm in Connecticut
Hartford, the Capital of Connecticut
Return to New York
After a few days in Massechusetts, we returned to the Big Apple to catch a flight to Montreal in Canada. That night we met up with Nat's friend Laurice who he had known years ago back in Sabah, Malaysia.
Laurice took us out for an amazing meal at Quality Meats, one of NYC's top steakhouses. Suffice it to say that it was incredible. Nat had a massive steak while Candice had steak with blueberry sauce. We also met one of Laurice's friends, Jene, who is a broadway singer and actress.
Jene, Candice, Laurice and Nat at Quality Meats
This is how good it was
Candice and Jene
Nat hungting for his main course
After dinner, we celebrated our last night in NYC by going to Japas 27, a Japanese karaoke bar. We had a chance to belt out some oldies and even Candice had a go. A great night out to end a great leg of our trip.
The girls at karaoke
The next day we flew our of La Guardia Airport to Montreal, the first stop on the Canadian leg of our trip.
For more photos of this leg of our trip, go to:-
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