Boston: Last Chapter

We said our last good byes to New Orleans, our filthy Magnolia Street apartment where we could hear the mice taking over and sniffing through our garbage at night, to our new made friends from the French Quarter, weird and always a little too tipsy, to the Axeman, cursed hotels, street parties and that one banana tree, not without regret.

Our vacation was coming to an end.

We passed by the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for one last time, and then took the bus (the kind of bus where passengers would pull an electrified string instead of pressing the overrated “Stop” button in order to let the driver know that they want to get off at the next station) for one last ride through the city and to the airport.

Our first flight was on a domestic route, New Orleans to Boston. In Boston, we had around five hours to spare until our Transatlantic, eight hour flight would take us back to London. Tired as we both were, we decided to go crazy for one last time and explore one of the oldest cities in America.

 

From Terminal E, we took the Silver Line Shuttle bus, then changed to the Red Line train which left us at ”Downtown Crossing” station, where we got off and started wandering through the Old Town.

Boston was founded in the 1630 on the Shamwut Peninsula by English Puritans. It then became the set for important historical events such as The Boston Massacre on March 5th 1770 (also known as ”the incident on King Street”, where British soldiers killed several people as they were being harassed by an angry mob), The Boston Tea Party (remembered as the Sons of Liberty political protest on the 16th of December 1773, when American patriots destroyed an entire tea shipment sent by the British East India Company by throwing the chests of tea into the Boston Harbor waters) and The Battle of Bunker Hill (in 1775, during the Siege of Boston and the early stages of the American Revolutionary War ).  

 

The U.S. gained independence from Great Britain, becoming an important harbour and one of the most prestigious areas for culture (with it’s own collection of neologisms known as Boston slang, a local accent called Eastern New England English, the Boston Symphony Orchestra – considered to be one of the greatest in America – the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Children’s Museum, the New England Aquarium) and higher education (some of the most renowned and highly ranked educational institutions are in or near Boston – colleges and universities such as Berklee College of Music, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Suffolk University, Tufts University).

But perhaps one of the most important facts about Boston is that the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed to the ovating crowds on July 4 1776  from the east side balcony of the Old State House, the oldest surviving building in the city. Two hundred years later, Queen Elizabeth herself gave a speech standing in the very same place as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams.

Not to mention that John F Kennedy – a member of the Democratic Party who represented Massachusetts in the Senate and House of Representatives before becoming the 35th and youngest elected President of the United States – was born and grew up in Brookline, Greater Boston, before enrolling in Harvard College.

Although our time in Boston was diminishing rapidly, I’m happy he insisted that we see the USS Constitution – named by President George Washington after the United States Constitution, the world’s oldest vessel still afloat and the most grandious ship I had ever seen. Today it is a museum and the entire area surrounding it is safely guarded by a unit of volunteer marines who are happy to engage in conversations and answer even the most nonsensical questions visitors may have. What I found most delightful was the respect and warmness they bestowed upon the ship, as they would all portray the USS Constitution as a “she” – another simple, but heart-warming act of American patriotism.

From the National Historic Park Pier 6 we took the ferry to the Old Town, as there was no time to walk all the way back from where we’ve started. And we’ve been lucky enough to experience a bright, sunny day and, as we later found out, the first sunny day after three whole weeks of heavy rain, storms and absolute chaos.

Everything turned out great after all, as we made it to the airport richer, yet more confused that we’d ever been, just in time for yet another inauspicious, approaching storm.

Green Eyed Kisses,