Boston, Where Everything's an Institution

The difficulty of being an American abroad is that trips to the USA need careful planning. You run the risk of disappointing/angering your entire family should you be within a reasonable distance to your home zip code and not dropping by. A reasonable distance for any proper American happens to be roughly 5000 miles (I mean, you COULD reasonably drive that within a few days) which means that even dipping a toe into the continent necessitates a stop home. 

Fortunately, I work in an international school. And Christmas holidays are that extra week longer giving me ample time to fit in a pause on the east coast before dropping into the midwest. Because I've worked in the international school circuit for some time now, it also means that I have friends far and wide. Karen, from my Shanghai days, lives in Boston as does my friend, Laura, from my early Warwick days. 

And although the uncertainty of blizzards and the odd nor'easter make Christmas in Boston not ideal, I worked with what I had and boarded a plane to Bean Town a few days later than scheduled (drama involving Paul's postponed kidney transplant saw to this). 

I was greeted with blue skies and two very excited friends. Karen lives in Brighton, on the outer edge of Boston, and one reasonably priced overground T ride into the city centre. While she worked, I pottered around enjoying the best that Brighton and Boston had to offer. 

First stop, a real bagel at Fuel America, an institution of coffee, bagels and the work from home but from a coffee shop set. No judgement. These are my people. 

Sustained, I tried my hand at navigating public transport, still a challenging feat even if you do speak the language. I found my way to the end of the C line, watched bougie Brookline out the window (a great place to stop for yoga, book shopping, a margarita--as Karen and I did later) and eventually made my way to Boston Common, the institution that it is. It transpires that Boston Common is, in fact, the oldest city park in the USA so it's trading on more than its name and beauty in the blue skies. 

Next door (as such) the Public Gardens extend the Common space and are home to lots of wildlife, including the famous Make Way for Ducklings statue made famous by the children's book of the same name.

And just on the other side of the Gardens, past all the expensive shops I cannot afford, another city institution lies. The Boston Public Library is a place of beauty, inside and out, and since I operate with a tiny bladder and a dying mobile phone that needs a regular blast of energy, I hung out with the students, city employees and homeless people of the area. Taking off the layers was very welcome and I sat with a book for the better part of an hour and watched the world go by. 

Hunger eventually snapped me out of my reverie and I made to find another Boston institution, a bowl of clam chowder. I can't remember what I was looking for but I didn't find it. Getting lost, I found the famous Boston Harbour, you know, the one where the big tea party was held and stumbled my way into Legal Seafood, where a small meal is impossible to find. 

The clam chowder at Legal's is, you guessed it, an institution. It's been around longer than me, since 1981, is the Official Soup (capitals necessary) of Fenway Park and has been served at the last six presidential inaugurations. Seems like my bad sense of directions led me into a bit of culinary history.

And from one type of heat to another, a stumbled around the Quincy Market area of the city, built between 1824-1826. What was once a produce and fresh food market has now given way to a bevy of commercialism including a mega-three story Uniqlo (where I stocked up on thermals), a Cheers Bar store (another classic Boston bit of folklore) and a little LL Bean popup boot (fashion meets function). 

Fortunately I'd chosen good footwear for my jaunt and so I made my way to Boston City Hall, a brutalist architecture nightmare in the middle of this historically old, in American terms at least, city. According to Wikipedia, the building was greeted with universal condemnation and calls were made to demolish it before it had even been fully erected. It's regularly voted one of the world's ugliest buildings but is conversely also considered one of the ten proudest achievements of American architecture. The structure is an excellent example of the old adage that you can't please them all. 

From the vantage point just next to the building, you can see Faneuil Hall and muse on a city where modern America all began. 

Perhaps it's just that I've spent too much time in London but Boston still feels very young to me. The streets feel clean, crisp and quiet. I suppose I didn't engage with too much of the history in my time here and I missed out a lot. I tried to get to the Boston Ships and Tea Party Museum but ran out of time. As my Boston-based friends would later remind me, I will need to go back. Summers in Boston are apparently a game changer.