A Penultimate Post

As we were in Boston we decided to head over to Cambridge and check out possibly the most famous (and certainly the oldest) Ivy League college in America – Harvard.  We enjoyed a very pleasant walk to Cambridge and had a little explore before Jords decided it was simply time for him to have a haircut.  He found a cheap hairdressers and I wandered the streets some more!  When he came out he wasn’t altogether sure on the cut but thought he’d bear with it – see if it grew on him.  We were also just in time to get to the visitors centre where the free tour of Harvard started. 

Our tour guide was a student of Harvard called Matt and his tour was very informative.  It was amazing how well he spoke in public at the age of 19 to a large crowd of people.  No nerves at all!  As a student he was able to give us a much greater insight into what studying and living at Harvard is really like.  For example, he said that before moving into halls in the first year you have to complete a huge form about your music taste, time keeping, tidyness etc – all so the accommodation department can match you up with a perfect roommate!  Also, as there have been many great minds (and even some celebrities like Matt Damon) to graduate from Harvard the new students are interested to know who stayed in their rooms before them.  Apparently, when the new students move in, they have a list of their rooms’ previous occupants and although our guide’s room didn’t have anyone particularly famous staying in it before him, he said his friends moved into a room which had once housed Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones as roommates!

The tour mostly took place outside the main buildings but we were able to go into one of the buildings which has the lecture halls and more importantly the food hall for the first years (which apprently looks like the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies – sadly it is strictly ONLY the first years that are allowed in there).  The inside of the building was beautiful with many stained glass windows.  Interestingly, instead of religious figures adorning the stained glass, Harvard has great literary and historical figures decorating their stained glass – William Shakespeare was one such example.  I’m not sure if he’s on this particular pane but this is a good example of the types of stained glass on view here…

The Harvard Library is also impressive, and I’m not just referring to the exterior building, although it is pretty grand.

The library is one of the largest in America as it has many branches throughout Boston and Cambridge, and even one in Washington DC.  When the library was built, there were certain stipulations put in place by the lady who donated the money to fund the building.  It was built in honor of her son, a Harvard graduate who died on the Titanic trying to bring old and rare documents back to America.  Apparently her stipulations included that the face of the building could not be changed from it’s original form, so that her son’s name would always remain on the library, and her second stipulation was that every student had to complete a swim test before being allowed to graduate.  This was because she believed that if her son had been able to swim he would not have drowned aboard the Titanic.  For many years the university stuck to it’s word and all graduates had to complete a swim test before they could graduate – thankfully this practice no longer exists today.  However, the first condition is still adhered to, and in order to house more and more books the university has had to build down and outwards making the majority of the library underground.

After our fascinating tour of Harvard we were both pretty tired so we headed back to Boston and had an early night.  We’ve enjoyed our time in Boston at a more relaxed paced, and we were pleased to have a bit of a break after all the museum-hopping in Washington DC!  We found many a moment for a cool relaxing dip of the feet in the local ‘frog pond’ with our books.

Only 2 days after visiting Harvard Jords decided that he could not stand his haircut any longer so one afternoon he left me and went for yet another haircut!  This time the results were much better and he was a happy chappy again!  So much so that he treated us to some delicious sweet treats from the aptly named Sugar Heaven after a not-so-bad burger (oven cooked chips, fruit smoothies, brown burger rolls – it was great)!

On our final day we decided to visit the famous Fenway Park that we had seen so many times from our room lit up at night and full of life.  We visited it first thing in the morning, so it was much less lively, but still a sight we wanted to see.  It’s actually not the prettiest park out there but it’s steeped in history blah blah blah!

After walking to and from Fenway we grabbed a lazy breakfast and then walked into town again.  We were going to visit the Samuel Adams brewery for lunch but we knew we could get the beer in all the local pubs so come lunchtime we made our way to the nearest and nicest pub we could find!  We were faithful and had a pint of Samuel Adams (incidentally the brand of the first legal beer I had in the states) accompanied by some traditional Boston Clam Chowda.  It was a delicious combination and a good way to spend our final afternoon.

After enjoying our final meal in Boston we walked home along the pretty little streets and packed our bags for the penultimate time on this trip.  Next time we do that we’ll be packing to come home….

The next morning we were up at 6am to catch our final Greyhound (hooray!) to New York City.  We were able to catch an earlier bus than expected so less sitting around than usual which was nice!  Along the way our driver succeeded in getting lost, backing into a fence and not stopping once contact was made, and hurtling through the streets at the speed of light – thank GOD our final bus journey was over (it was only after that we heard what had happened in Canada…).

We found our hostel with ease and after checking in we headed out to enjoy the good weather.  We went straight to Central Park (a couple of blocks away) and made a plan for our time here.  We did a little walking too, past the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, before heading back towards our room, picking up some chinese en route.

On our first full day in NYC we walked into the downtown area and stumbled across Times Square.  It was absolutely heaving with people, screens, flashing lights – a truly crazy experience!  You can see the Lion King theatre in the foreground of this picture – so exciting!

Whilst in the theatre, to see if we could get our tickets, (and avoid the pouring rain!), the Naked Cowboy walked past the window.  Hopefully some of you know who I’m talking about?!  The guy who has a guitar and sings in a pair of underpants, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat!  It was like seeing a celebrity – people were giving him money to have their photo taken with him!  It’s a crazy city and somehow I feel like that is our first of many ’Only in New York’ moments!  Along the way we saw the Empire State Building and I have to say we were both a little disappointed by it.  It must have been a very impressive building back in the day but it looks a little old nowadays.  We still took a photo of it though!

I think it will look better at night and certainly the views from the top will probably make up for its appearance!  We also took to NY shopping like ducks to water, both making a couple of purchases late in the evening!  We have the Lion King to look forward to tonight – cannot wait!