2/3 Of our journey

Now that we have visited D.C. and New York on our trip, we have completed 2⁄3 of our journey. Today is when we welcome our third city -- Boston! So this time, we actually did not have to wake up as early as we did last time when we travelled to New York. Our bus to Boston was at 8:00 A.M. so that gave us a few extra hours to sleep in a bit more. I would say that throughout this whole bus ride I felt as if I was living in a refrigerator. I had a jacket with me, but as I cover my body, my legs felt cold, and vice versa. This was just because the air conditioner was too strong. Near the middle of the bus ride, I was somewhat looking forward to the moment where I can take a break from sitting and stand up to stretch my legs. As I waited from 10:00 A.M. to 10:15, from 10:15 to 10:30, and finally from 10:30 to until about 11:00 A.M., I have come to realize that there is no break for this bus ride. I had no other choice but to sleep with one of my body parts in pain as well as in the cold fifty degrees-like environment. We finally arrived at Boston at around noontime. We grabbed lunch in the station, and of course, as much of a McDonald’s fan we all (or most of us) are, we have to try the McDonald’s in Boston. Truth was that there wasn’t many other food choices in the station anyways. Then we had to head to our hotel to check in, but first, we needed to find the metro station. Right when we step foot outdoor, I immediately fell in love with the weather in Boston. It is much similar to the weather in SF. Also given the fact that I was roasted in the past six days of our trip in D.C. and New York, Boston just felt as a heaven to me, in terms of its weather. Following the directions on google maps, we were heading towards the direction to the nearest metro station. We stopped at a certain area trying to figure out where the station was and finally found it as we turned around the corner and saw the station entrance. Imagine yourself standing in front of a brick building, assuming that it is just an ordinary architecture, and then as you turn around the corner, you see a very small entrance door to a metro station. In my opinion, this is a pretty interesting metro station entrance. I guess we would never have figured it out if we never turned around the corner. We bought our 7-day passes at the metro station and entered through the entrance to the metro. This is the part where I dislike Boston metro. I would describe the “doors” of the metro station entrance as two pieces of chopping boards that open on each side, and then close after you pass through the entrance. As it gives quite some time for passengers to pass the entrance, I would be traumatized every time from now on when I pass the metro station entrance. Perhaps I made it sound scarier than it actually is, it is not that bad as other people seem fine with it. It is probably just that people like me who flinch at many minor things would be scared of this entrance. We finally settled at our hotel, which is at the airport station of the metro (makes sense since we live near the Boston Logan International Airport). After resting for a while, we headed back out to continue to explore about Boston and stick to our agenda (or at least tried to stick to it, as you read on you will know why). Throughout our journey of exploration of Boston on the first day, I have discovered a several things. One thing that somewhat shocked me was the level of the platform for the green metro line. It was almost as if there were no platform levels, or well, there was a slight of a raised platform, but very little. The second thing was my astonished reaction to the building of Boston City Hall. I just wanted to say that, to be honest, I would not have been able to tell that that building I saw was City Hall if nobody informed me. Now what I found most shocking was the traffic light features they have there in Boston. Right when we were about to cross the street from where we saw City Hall, we saw that the pedestrian signal light displayed a mix of a red hand signal and a white walking man. Alright, perhaps there was some errors with the traffic system at the moment, or if not, then I hope they would fix it in the future for the better. Then after we crossed a few streets, I have come to encounter this traffic light that was swinging from side to side at the middle of an intersection. I hope it doesn’t fall in the short run and that the city would fix it in the long run. Cars who pass through this intersection, I wish you good luck. Now we have made a stop in front of the State House and saw that free public tours are offered, and that they only last for about half an hour. We decided to go on one (and this was actually one of the best decisions we have made, and you will also see why later). The tour was quite interesting and informing, but meanwhile there were certain times where I was falling asleep. To prevent myself from doing so, I did not sit down whenever there were chairs or seating areas. After the tour, we were trying to head to the Massachusetts State Library, as it was close by to the State House, or even inside the State House, according to google maps. Unfortunately, the library closes at 5:00 P.M., and we could not make it (or find it rather) on time. Our next stop would be the Black Heritage Trail that was planned to be visited earlier at 2:00 P.M. today with a tour provided, but we couldn’t make it due to the traveling time to and from the hotel, as well as the check in. This time, we found the place for the trail, but it was also closed and no tours were offered at that time. Well, after a while of exploring and walking, it is almost dinner time. We went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and...don’t worry, at least this is open. This was actually my first time eating at Cheesecake Factory, and so new experience again. After dinner, we headed to the Prudential Center for the Skywalk Observatory to end our day. Now bad things always (or most of the time) come in a bundle. The Skywalk was also closed that day for a special event. So what we decided to do was to shop (or window shop I should say) around the mall since we were already there, before we head back to our hotel. Our first day in Boston, we basically did not do much although it felt like we did since we went to many different places. Well, at least we learned from today that many places in Boston close fairly early. I guess Bostonians have a pretty healthy lifestyle.
-Shirley Tsang