8 July 2008

I'm a sailor peg, and I've lost my leg...I'm shipping up to Boston whoa to find my wooden leg...


I'm back from my Boston trip and I have the worst cold ever. I think I got it cos the weather was quite hot and I was going in and out of air conditioned rooms all the time. If I was a nana I'd say I caught a chill...but I'm not so screw you, imaginary grandma!

Boston's a great city, mainly because everyone talks like Peter Griffin and the food is surprisingly good. As the locals would say, "It's a wicked pissah." There's some lovely old buildings throughout the city centre and when new buildings go up they generally preserve the old facade. There used to be huge stacks of freeway overpasses snaking through the middle of the city but they were all pulled down and green parks put in their place. It really helps to open up the city and make you feel like there's so much more space. Our hotel was right on the harbour and overlooked the spot where the Boston Tea Party took place in 1773 when American colonists protested against the feckin' Brits taxing the shit out of everyone by chucking all their tea into the harbour.

I was surprised to learn how many kick-arse bands are from Boston: Dropkick Murphys, the Pixies, Dinosaur Jnr, Morphine, Lemonheads, Dresden Dolls, Throwing Muses, Mission of Burma. But also a lot of suck-arse ones, too, like J Geils Band, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Aerosmith. Buffallo Tom are from Boston, whom we all remember from when Scruff Lovely supported them on the Canberra leg of their tour back in '92 or '93 or something.

On the first day we met up with Staci's friend Jill Kumbayar (my Lord) for drinks in an old jail which has been converted into a hotel. It's an amazing building and they've kept a lot of the original features like barred gates and shackles and in the restaurant instead of cutlery you use old shanks and shivs. Then we had mexican at Annie's Tacqueria...I had a Super Burrito and it was the best mexican food I've ever had! Because Boston is a fishing town, you can eat lobster for every meal, which of course I did on my birthday the next day 'cos I was being a princess. For lunch we went to this seafood place called Woodmans where I had a lobster roll (a local delicacy). It's a long bread roll (really sweet, made with too much sugar like most american food), full of lobster chunks and covered in melted butter. Afterwards we had ice cream from the Cherry Road Creamery and, in true American style, my single scoop chocolate peanut butter cone was about the size of the Statue of Liberty's torch. Yummo! Then for dinner we went to a legendary Boston seafood restaurant called Legal Sea Food and I had a whole lobster all to myself. It was SOOO good! I ate too much, though, and felt sick so you know that's a good birthday. Staci was an awesome birthday festival organiser and made me feel really special all day...even when I was unpacking all her stuff from the storage unit and missing out on breakfast.

The next day was my own so I wandered about, as is my want, to check things out. I saw a cool old burial ground with wicked flying skull headstones and the Old North Church where Paul Revere lit the lantern to alert the townsfolk to the approach of the feckin' Limey Redcoats. I got lost in South Boston for a bit but eventually found my way up to Havard Square. The campus is huge and well-tended, and dotted with tons of massive old buildings which are either impressive or oppressive depending on your perspective. The weather turned a bit foul and I got caught in a huge thunderstorm which, thankfully, was brief but things got quite humid when the sun came back out. There didn't seem to be too many students around so presumably they were all off in Fort Lauderdale on Srping Break or something.

The next day we met Staci's friends Carrie and Jim and their son and had breakfast at Big Mike's City Diner which is an old school American diner. I had a huge omlette with turkey and bacon, which was delish, but it also came with grits which is kind of like porridge, which wasn't so nice even when it's smothered in butter and maple syrup. Then we went to Fenway Park which is where the Redsocks play. Go Socks! Then we went to the moofies and saw the new Pixar moofie Wall-e, which was excellent, as all Pixar moofies are, and very tender and funny.

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