Hey there...
For our second day in Boston, we decided to take tacky tourism in full stride and book seats on the Duck Tour. We were up early for the 9.30 departure, sitting aboard 'Haymarket Hannah' in hopeful excitement. I'd briefly glanced at the pilots of these well-reviewed tours online and so was prepared for a character, and our tour guide did not disappoint: Danny Disco (pictured below) was charismatic, good humoured, and a constant source of enlightening and often peculiar information, his flamboyant dress (including fish tank high heels) not distracting him from his unwavering duty to impart knowledge.
Disco Dan's narration included some real bizarre gems such as the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919, in which a tank at a local molasses factory exploded, creating a monolithic wall of sugary destruction up to five metres high that wreaked havoc through the district's streets and left 21 people dead. He also mentions that at one point the inmates at Charestown Federal Prison ate lobster 6 days a week and that there are 86 Dunkin' Donut stores in the Downtown area alone!
After showing us the sights of land and sea, some history of the 'ducks' or 'DUKWs' themselves was provided. These amphibious vehicles were used in the Second World War for water to land attacks where there wasn't proper space to dock or moor boats, and for getting supplies and provisions to soldiers in combat. Over 20,000 were built and were sent for military service all over the world.
The tour finished and we went to find lunch, deciding eventually on Chipotle, a burrito shop with a typical assembly-line format, in which seven impatient people take it in turns to help you build a meal that would feed a small family. After each eating a burrito the size of our own head (followed by shortness of breath and a necessary 20-minute rest), we set our sights on Harvard University.
The campus is located outside of the city to the north west, on other side of the river that renders Boston a kind of mini peninsula. It was very impressive and pristine, with tasteful redbrick buildings and nice quad-like lawns. A statue of university founder John Harvard (B.A. Emmanuel, Cambridge, 1632) greets you upon entrance and you're free to wander around at your own leisure. Without adequate map support, we were a bit lost for bearings but we managed to track down the Harvard Law School buildings...
...he wasn't successful.
Exploring places one knows very little about can be tiring work; suitably tuckered, and in need of some relaxation, we slunk into the common room ('Student Center') and played a few rounds of pool. It was enjoyable, and satisfying to know that Barack would have slotted his balls in this very room.
Leaving the plush common room, we rode the clickety-clackety underground to Chinatown, colony of the motherland. We passed sushi houses, Chinese supermarkets, and hoards of men playing chess and mahjong, prompting Jannick to inquire after the employment status of some of these 'layabout vagrants' - a profane characterisation of the diaspora.
We ate dinner in a lovely bar/restaurant in the Italian sector in North End, which served up a delicious salmon, angel hair pasta, and roasted vegetables platter (not to mention a manly champagne rasperry cocktail). Our feigned naivety of tipping culture punished our consciences slightly as we 'undertipped' our charming waitress by $4, prompting her to return our change with a wounded pride. Oops.
Meanwhile, on a more flippant note - photos of us posing with menus:
PS: Here is Jannick's blogspot - http://http://jannicksroadtrip.blogspot.co.uk/
And a link to our State Plate Game: https://www.facebook.com/JannickOMeara/media_set?set=a.10151526625551646.1073741828.507921645&type=1
...he wasn't successful.
Exploring places one knows very little about can be tiring work; suitably tuckered, and in need of some relaxation, we slunk into the common room ('Student Center') and played a few rounds of pool. It was enjoyable, and satisfying to know that Barack would have slotted his balls in this very room.
Leaving the plush common room, we rode the clickety-clackety underground to Chinatown, colony of the motherland. We passed sushi houses, Chinese supermarkets, and hoards of men playing chess and mahjong, prompting Jannick to inquire after the employment status of some of these 'layabout vagrants' - a profane characterisation of the diaspora.
We ate dinner in a lovely bar/restaurant in the Italian sector in North End, which served up a delicious salmon, angel hair pasta, and roasted vegetables platter (not to mention a manly champagne rasperry cocktail). Our feigned naivety of tipping culture punished our consciences slightly as we 'undertipped' our charming waitress by $4, prompting her to return our change with a wounded pride. Oops.
Meanwhile, on a more flippant note - photos of us posing with menus:
PS: Here is Jannick's blogspot - http://http://jannicksroadtrip.blogspot.co.uk/
And a link to our State Plate Game: https://www.facebook.com/JannickOMeara/media_set?set=a.10151526625551646.1073741828.507921645&type=1
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