Boston... home to the Red Sox Baseball team, Boston Tea Party, Trinity Church.... and the worst hostel in history! Well actually the kitchen was great but apart from that......
Having survived the 14 block walk through New York carrying our entire lives, catching the Bus to Boston which arrived 1.5 hrs late making it a 5.5 hr journey in total, taking the Metro into Boston Downtown where we had to lug our bags up and then down 2 flights of stairs, then attempting to walk the rest of the way to our hostel before realising we were headed to the wrong one and walking BACK to the start and another half hour to our hostel, we arrived a little tired, to say the least. All this in a bit of heat wave 32 degrees. Boston was meant to be cold all year round!
Serena’s next excerpt outlines our next few days in the hostel in stark detail. The upside to it all is that we managed to get 1 night of sleep out of 4! Not all a total loss.
The Trials and Tribulations of Hostels.
Staying in hostels is a cheaper way to travel and you meet more people that way but let’s face it, you don’t get much sleep and you meet some very....let’s go with ‘interesting’, people.
In New York City we met up with Rachel from our trek and the three of us were booked into the Big Apple Hostel. The location was great (right off Times Square), dorms were reasonably clean, bathrooms were pretty good and it had a small courtyard and kitchen. What is the one thing that you can’t control in these situations??? Who is sharing the dorm with you.
Our first two nights were spent sleepless due to the very loud, bed shaking, earth moving happenings coming from the bed above me! I know what you’re thinking....SNORING! It was sooo loud that even with my earphones in and music playing I could still hear the air getting trapped through their nose and chest as they tried to breath in. I don’t know if I felt sorrier for myself or the air particles trying to make their way through the clearly difficult passages to the lungs...it must be quite a journey.
I got up, turned the air conditioning down, again got up and went to the toilet, later still I sat on the floor and did some stretches. Heidi then got up and went to the toilet practically slamming the door on the way out and in which did allow for 4 seconds silence. Rachel tossed and turned eventually letting her frustration show by saying “Jesus” and we all realised that the three of us were wide awake. At some point we eventually fell asleep and when it was time to get up it was with bleary eyes and the feeling that somehow we had been awake all night. We were greeted by our fellow roommate with a cheery “Good morning” and when we replied with a sleepy “good morning” she couldn’t understand why we were all so tired when we should “be up and ready to go”. I really wanted to launch her mattress down the staircase the second night in order to get a good night’s sleep but I was reminded by Heidi that I was not in Japan travelling with Leisje and as such my actions could cause some trouble.
In Boston, Heidi and I were put into different rooms for our first two nights and then we changed into another room together for the last two nights. I was assigned the top bunk (in my first room) and so happily nodded off to sleep that night. At 1am I was awoken by a very tall man standing next to my bed peering at me and saying “hello” in an English accent. He introduced himself, I introduced myself, he asked where I was from, I replied Australia and then he continued to talk to me about how he had been out and came across this huge hammock that everyone was lying in and he was on his way out again if I would like to join him. I politely declined his offer and mentioned that I had been asleep and intended to go back to sleep. He left, leaving the door wide open, I closed it. Two minutes later he was back, peering over my railing and asking me if I could wake him up in the morning if he was not awake by 8.30. I said sure and he continued to talk although I have no idea what he said.
Heidi’s night was disastrous. At 2am she eventually went to the front desk (in her pyjamas, Yes, it was that bad!) to complain that the air conditioning in the room was broken and she was about to suffocate (she was horrified that they guy on the front desk was cute and she showed up in her pyjamas, WITHOUT any lipstick on!). The five people in her room were moved to another (which smelled). The following day, we were assured that the air con would be fixed however it wasn’t and Heidi had another sleepless night out on the couch in the hallway.
Our second room was much more comfortable and on our last night we met a gentleman who was about 60 yrs old and quite nice. He was checking out the same day as us but leaving at 6.30am and whilst he tried really hard not to disturb us he did. I’m not quite sure how many times he changed his outfit and opened and closed the locker or what exactly was in the many or one plastic bag he managed to rustle the whole morning but after an hour and a half he left. I looked over and saw Harley (very funny Brazilian guy!) with the pillow over his head! Heidi then leaned down from the top bunk and asked me for a gun. I offered the use of my well equipped swiss army knife but she didn’t take it.
Short of being extremely tired and meltingly hot, we did enjoy the city of Boston. It is such an old city with so much history yet it is filled with such young people being a major ‘School’ (University) town. August 31st is Students Returning day so there was a buzz to the place with removalist trucks filling the streets, mattresses being carried past cafes and parents doing load after load of box moving from car to apartment. Having decided to get a dose of history, we teamed up with a guy named Matt who was sharing the Dungeon of Hell Room 402 with me the night before, and headed out to walk the Freedom Trail. A short stroll later, we found ourselves at the beautiful Boston Common and Gardens, under a tree soaking in the breeze. Having decided it was far too hot to walk, we jumped on one of the open air, guided ‘Trolleys’ (Tram) and saw the city that way. Much better! And it even included a free harbour cruise. The city Library and Trinity Church are the biggest asset to Boston. Both have such beautiful architecture and have been preserved so well.
The central square inside Boston Library - a very peaceful place
Inside the library, this is typical of the architecture
Trinity Church - pity you had to pay to go in! Yes even Catholics!
Serena and Heidi infront of Quincy Markets - one of the stops on our Trolley Tour
The beautiful gardens of Boston Common
Salem was the final destination on our list of places to visit around Boston. Known for it’s Witch Hysteria in 1692 where 19 people were hanged, 1 crushed to death and 3 died in prison for crimes of Witchery (yes again I was listening!) it is forever cemented in America’s history. A short walk, a Metro ride and a 30 min train journey and $20 later, we arrived at Infamous Salem. Hmmmm.... not much needs to be said about the place. The town certainly has taken advantage of this one event in history and scraped every last bit of tourism out of it that they can. It’s Halloween on steroids. The witch museum, the witch dungeon, the witches house and so much more, is really no more than plastic attempts at making money out of unsuspecting tourists. My advice... watch the movie, The Crucible and you’ll get more information about the Salem Witch Hysteria than visiting the actual (tourist trap) town.
Just when we thought our final night at the hostel would bring us some much needed sleep, but we were joined by our mate Tony, the one Serena described above. We were still all awake at 1am whilest he ‘packed’ his bags ready for the morning so our Brazilian Room mate Harley, Serena and I all decided to take a walk down to the corner store for a midnight snack. 2am, back in our room he was still ‘fluffing’ about. We knew though that we had till about 8am for a little sleep in... until of course Tony decided to get up at 6am and ‘pack’ his bag. WHAT THE? A herd of wild elephants would have made less noise! Well, all in the fun of communal living I guess. So today ends our Boston sojourn and we head towards Syracuse in upstate New York to stay with some good friends Jay and Lisa. Looking forward to that bed, and NO SNORING!!!! Until then our followers.....
H and S
Thought you'd be used to Mikki's snoring by now Serena!
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