Boston

4^th October - 7^th October

My adventure really began even before I left Heathrow airport - when I got to the check-in desk I discovered that I had been selected for a random security check. This didn't involve much more than x-raying my luggage and having an extra-close look at my passport at this stage, so I didn't really take any notice. When I went to board the 'plane, however, it got serious. They went through my hand luggage with a fine-tooth comb, and swabbed the insides of my shoes for explosives. It was only a few months previously that Richard Reid had smuggled a shoe bomb onto a London -> Boston flight, and they seem to think that terrorists aren't very imaginative.

When I got to Boston, the customs officials there were somewhat suspicious of me, too. They seemed to think there was something unusual about a young male travelling alone, meeting people he met on the Internet, without any fixed return date, so it took me an hour to get out past passport control. It didn't help that I hadn't memorised the name and address of the hotel I was staying in Boston. I wasn't expecting to need to know that until I got my luggage back.

Anyway, I finally got into the city. Now, before I got there I knew about two things about Boston, and I can't claim to have learnt much more since:

1) In 1774, they had a big tea party, and someone decided to try and set the record for the world's biggest cup of tea. Unfortunately, they forgot to boil the harbour before adding the tea. To cover up this very silly error, they declared war on Britain. I think that was a little excessive, but it seemed to work.

2) in 1919, the city managed to bury itself under 6 feet of partially refined sugar. You've got to appreciate a city like that.

As soon as I got into Boston, I liked the place, it reminded me a lot of London. Much of this was due to it being one of the few cities in America that has old buildings, and streets that don't meet at right angles, but the rain and road works helped as well, I think.

I booked into my hotel, dumped my stuff, and went to look around the city. When I got back, my key wouldn't work. At the reception desk, I got told that my credit card had been refused, but it turned out that they'd just entered the wrong expiry date, so all was well.

There was steam coming out of the road, which no-one's yet been able to give me a decent explanation for.

Because it's an old city (well, by American standards), I went to see the Pilgrim's Cemetery, which was interesting. I spent a day or two just generally exploring and getting to know the city, as you do. I don't remember anything particularly exciting. Oh, I did visit the Cheers bar, because I'm a sucker for things like that.

Then, on the 6^th, I met Sam and Leen and ahmoacah. ahmoacah was at a wedding during the day, so me and Sam and Leen went to Faneuil Hall marketplace Which is much like Covent Garden, really. There was a huge food hall in the middle of it, where all the stalls were pushing samples of satay or clam chowder or sushi onto everyone they could reach. You could probably have gotten a good meal, just by taking all the free samples. We looked around the various other shops there, and saw Austin Powers backgammon, which I found slightly disturbing. Leen found a stall selling only purple things, so she spent a good hour looking at that.

We went to Boston Common after that, and to the Prudential building, which is nearly the tallest building in Boston. We looked out over the city for a bit, and then went back down. There was a fountain nearby, so we played in that for a while.

By then, it was about time to meet ahmoacah, so we went back to the T-stop to wait. We entertained ourselves in the mean time by watching skateboarders throw themselves off a four-foot high wall, with painful looking results.

ahmoacah made pizza, which was delicious, and there was some really annoying electronic game that I can't remember the name of. We talked about stuff, and generally had fun until quite late and people had to go home.

And the next morning, I headed west across Massachusetts by bus, to Williamstown.