I was very excited about the trip and hoped to utilize the most of it. I had to hear about the usual complaints from people about the weather, jet lag, food etc but I knew I would be good. Like the majority, all I remember doing in the flight was to eat and sleep for the most part of time. Finally I landed in Boston on Oct 30, 2011 (a day to remember) and there was a warm welcome (oops a cold one, what an irony?) by the snow and it was quite a surprise because it doesn't start to snow that early. Anyway, lets say it was awesome.
I woke up early in the morning the next day and was trying to figure out the meaning of jet lag. I was just fine and I felt nice that I could adjust myself in most circumstances. There was Starbucks everywhere and sipping chai latte in the freezing cold and walking on the streets with a map trying to locate places was fun. The extreme cold weather in fact eased the cold problem that I run into most of the time and I just got addicted to coffee there. Wherever I went I had a tall glass of flavored latte/s and that says how much I was into coffee.
Every day after work I would get back to the hotel, freshen up and immediately step out with another colleague at times wandering just clueless about the destination and dine at some random restaurant. It was fun to initially figure out how to use the T stations, the routes everything on your own with just a map. I never ever thought I would be able to travel with a map and a compass but I did it with the map, maybe the next time with a compass along. Sounds cool, doesn't it? Did I mention that I could not get down in the station I was supposed to but my colleague did and instead I got down in the next station. It wasn't tough to track back despite the fact that most of the streets, buildings looks similar and the fact that you see Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks in every nook and corner.
Boston, being the city with a lot of history and brilliant architecture was beautiful and appealing especially when it was still the last few weeks of the fall season. Along with a couple of colleagues, I went on a duck tour to catch a glimpse of the streets of Cambridge and its significance. I could see the beautiful view of the Charles river from my hotel room and the maple trees with colored leaves was definitely a treat to admire.
I managed to cover some of the beautiful places around like the New England Aquarium, the museum of science, the museum of fine arts and the sky-walk laboratory. A walk in the Harvard university and MIT definitely kindles the little bit of nerd within one selves and maybe that's one of the reasons I chose to visit the museums around.
Being a foodie I did give my taste buds a chance to explore different cuisines. I stick to the concept of "Being a Roman while in Rome" and like to indulge in the local authenticity and the options available. The hot hot dogs, ham burgers, pizzas, Mexican wraps, cheese melting jumbo Nachos, Sushi, thanksgiving meal, turkey, crab cakes, legal sea food, steak, burritos, ravioli, donuts, cheese cakes from the cheese cake factory were definitely a gastronomical treat. I in fact don't remember the names of some of the Italian food that I had.
As mentioned earlier, a wanderlust doesn't expect anything more than visiting places, walking till the feet hurts, trying some good food and capturing the memories.
This doesn't end here and there is more to say. To be continued....
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