Boston

My stay in Boston is over after around a day and a half. Even though I spent a lot of time walking around, I feel that I have missed something there. The fact that I did not take a guide did certainly not help as I can not check whether I have miss something important or not. The suggested itinerary offered by the hostel, which was supposed to be done in three days did not suggest more than I could do. I checked what I did with the people backpacking around and they seem to have done the same thing as me. Nevertheless, I still think that somehow I could have done more, maybe my expectations of Boston were too important. Not that I did not like the city because I found it charming and superior in someway to New York, so what happened?

On my first day there, I did not have the time to visit anything as I arrived in the middle of the afternoon. It remained that as the weather was sunny, it was a good occasion to visit the city and scout for my next day. Even though my hostel was in an industrial suburb, called Everett, (or what seemed to be so) of Boston and far from down town, it only took me half an hour to reach any important point of the city. In addition I found that the indications in the metro and bus were quite clear, things that puzzled me in New York from time to time. Moreover, the city was really really clean especially compared to New York and much greener somehow although I did not seem to see more trees in Boston, probably the fact that Boston down town count less skyscrapers. As a result of all this free time to roam around and walking along the harbor of Boston proved to be a good opportunity to be liberal with my camera. Unfortunately my battery died at the critical moment: sunset; gutted, I swore to not let pass this occasion the next day. And I thus went back home with my tail in between my legs, although this walk proved to me that Boston was a pretty city taking full advantage of the sea unlike New York. 


 On my second day, I raced to the Museum of Fines Arts and stayed in for 3 hours, almost as much as in the Metropolitan. I enjoyed an exhibition of Durer and went through the whole museum. What I found odd is that there were not that many people in the museum, it felt a bit empty even on a Sunday afternoon. The cards giving indications on each works sounded a bit stupid sometimes, giving sometimes useless details like " this works shows someone falling like a paratrooper, a type of soldier introduced during WWII". It just sounded a bit odd sometimes. There was also an exhibition on the excavation of an Egyptian tomb. Here again, a lot of superlatives were used in the various description as if it was a world first. I took the opportunity to have a lunch in their garden which proved something wise as the sunshine was warm, fact that surprised me being in Boston. Overall I liked the possibility to see different art from everywhere but I also felt that sometimes there was a lack of coherence between the works exhibited or that the collections shown were too little. Something was definitely missing. Besides, I noticed in Boston that every wing, escalator, wharf or bench were dedicated to someone that died, as if people in America were afraid to die without leaving their names written somewhere. I noticed this tradition in England, only on benches though, but not to that extent. Why would someone have an escalator named after him/her when dead? It might seems nice and respectful but I just could not bring myself to fully find it this way, I found it a tad superficial or probably the fact that it was done on every possible object.

  

 I then decided to go to Harvard. Going there, I discovered that what I thought was downtown was not and I thus understood I had more walking to do. Before going to Harvard, I went to the MIT campus first and then on the banks of the river Charles. The sight of the river filled with white sails, with the financial center in the background was quite breathtaking and I must say that it really made my day. I knew that it would be the spot where I would the sunset. So I set to reach Harvard campus located in a part of Boston ironically called Cambridge although, the campus reminded me more of Oxford...Nothing special to declare about the campus as it looks like as I said earlier like Oxford. Old red brick houses with lots of trees around: a nice place to study and idle when you find yourself with too much time on your hand. As the afternoon was closing to the evening, I decided to ambush the sunset and after monopolizing a bench (un dedicated this time but I spotted a dedicated pedestrian bridge!) for two hours and after much experimentation with my camera and its settings, I could at last take some nice pictures involving boats, a river, a sunset in an urban environment. It proved at least to me rewarding and I thus went home again in the lovely Everett to spend my last night, I planned the next day to go to the Institute of Contemporary Art but it was unsurprisingly closed on Monday.

Granted that I did not go to the Tea Party Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art , the Harvard Art Museum, the Aquarium nor did I went on a boat trip checking the islands around. Would it have changed my overall perception of the city? I don't think so. I enormously enjoyed the city but I felt it was to tiny compared to what I am used to lived there in a pleasant manner, even though if I was offered a good job there I would not decline it either. Maybe it is the provincial side of the "Athens of America" that  turned me off, probably a reflex from people coming from "big cities". Something is simply missing, maybe the buzz of something more speedy? I would not consider myself as a hardcore Parisian but on my first impression of Boston, I found this buzz missing a lot and now slightly frustrating.

-C