Sunday, April 4, 2010

Boring travelogue, Part 1: Boston

I think I kinda love Boston. It's nice and compact like SF, but has what appears to be a well-functioning public transit system, unlike SF.

The first day here, we did a little walking tour past a lot of historical shit and Italian tourists jabbering loudly at each other. It was also about 80 degrees and sunny, which is like surface of the sun level shit for San Franciscans. People in Boston like to drink a lot, so we joined in.

I think we went to 3 or 4 bars last night and ended up at the hotel bar at around midnight, about which I remember nothing. We ate at some restaurant on Newbury Street called Cafeteria that has dressed-up comfort food, is too cute by half, and was so radically overpriced I couldn't believe it was packed. I mean, sure, I undertsand, but $23 for mac and cheese? Really?

(Incidentally, the picture above depicts a famer's market in the North End we stumbled across and was the only place in Boston you could buy anything resembling reasonably-priced food.)

Today we had reservations for brunch at this swank place called Post 390 and we go in there and they give us dinner menus and I'm all "I'm sorry, you gave us dinner menus!" and they were all, "That's right, since it's Easter brunch, we're only serving dinner" and I was like "What fucking dimension is this?" and we left and went to this place called Globe instead and after an early problem with being seated in NOBODY'S STATION it all turned out great and I got whatever Boston's idea of brunch is and you guys, brunch is not as important here as it is in SF.


But I'm just bitching. Boston is pretty great. Tonight is Opening Night of Baseball, which is even better than Jesus coming back from the dead or whatever he did, and everybody was on the sidewalks in their Red Sox gear and it's like 70 degrees out at 8 pm and how are you gonna argue with that? We watched some of the game out at a bar but after 4 Apple Spice Martinis The Wife had to go back to the room and that's fine with me.

Oh, wow, Steven Tyler is butchering "America the Beautiful" on live TV.

Boston Museum of Fine Arts - totally worth a visit. More later.

6 comments:

Greg said...

I spent part of summer 2003 working and living in Boston and it's definitely a nice place to visit. I also visited Sommerville and Maine also...

Boston and SF also share a lot in common vis a vis transit - Boston's LRVs in the 70s were the same as ours, and density is simlar (but the MBTA serves a much larger area and also has trains, etc).

What part of town did you stay in? I stayed way out by the Orient Heights T station, right on the water. It was great!

Beth Spotswood said...

I'd like to request some quotes from Good Will Hunting and/or the Departed be thrown in, if at all possible. Actually, some video of you two re-enacting scenes would be ideal.
Thanks!

Stephen said...

Glad you're enjoying it - I feel guilty for my complete failure to provide any fun-things-to-do suggestions. Go walk by my alma mater on Huntington Ave. (you probably saw it if you went to the MFA). Ugliest "quad" in the U.S. Apparently grey bricks were high-end back in the day. Too bad they're the same color as the clouds.

TK said...

@Beth -

Well, the bartender at the hotel bar has kind of a Damon-esque quality that The Wife finds enchanting. Now I know why we spend so much time at the hotel bar.

@Stephen -

Saw your alma yesterday going to and from the MFA. Not as bad as you describe it! Walked through Harvard today, though, and yes, that is a little nicer.

Rachel said...

The farmer's market you went to is actually called Haymarket. It used to be really nasty and smelly and gross but is much nicer now, especially now that the elevated freeway is gone.
Glad you enjoyed Boston, my old hometown.
I gotta say I think Muni is better than the MBTA (the 'T') because it's faster and goes more places, and is in service later. It used to suck to have to find an alternate way to get home at 2 am when all the trains and buses stopped.

periqueblend said...

it's official. nobody likes the public transpo in their hometown.

(although i kinda i think DC metro rocks)