Before my trip out to the west coast, I decided to spend a week or so in Boston.  It’s a very clean, pristine city but overall didn’t do much for me.  I did a LOT of walking around from my base in the Chinatown area, and did plenty of work in the area coffee shops and library.  But a LOT of just walking around.

One thing I didn’t do was take a lot of pictures.  Or any pictures.  Sorry about that.  And I’m even writing this months after the fact, so there’s no way I’m going to remember what I did.

Boston Common – Not going to lie, I wasn’t really impressed with the central park of Boston.  It was alright, but nothing to really write home about. Still, nice to see that they devote so much area to a public park in the middle of the city.

Boston Public Garden – I really liked the public garden.  It seemed like the classier sister to Boston Common, and I found it much more pleasant to hang around in for some reason.

Boston Harbor – I walked up to the harbor a couple times in the evenings to watch the boats and watch the water.  I lead a pretty exciting life.

Mapparium – This display at the Mary Baker Eddy Library was pretty neat.  Showed the evolution of the world via maps in this little acoustic auditorium.

Freedom Trail – Felt like more of a death march, but it’s a good walk through Boston looking at all the famous landmarks.  So I went in some of the cemeteries, Paul Revere house, things like that.  It ended at the USS constitution and a couple memorials.  Nice to do I suppose.

Thinking Cup – Good espressos but really busy.  Not a great place to work just because it’s a small space with a lot going on.  But I still went here a couple times.

Boston Common Coffee – Better place to work.  WiFi, big tables, not as much traffic and easier to sit down.

Flour Bakery – Limited space, but a bright, cheery space with a few tables and great coffee and baked goods.  I went here most mornings on my way to the library (the one in Back Bay).

Public Library – Boston had a great public library with free WiFi throughout.  I worked here most days.

The Tam – Right around the corner from where I was staying was The Tam, a nice little dive bar where you could hang out and watch TV.  It got really busy later at night, but it was cheap and was great for my day drinking and even had WiFi (but I didn’t really do much work here).

I went out to a couple more places with my friend from home, but I honestly don’t really remember where we went.  Overall, nice places, but fairly expensive – but that’s not unexpected for Boston.

One of the nights I also went with the Hostel over to Cambridge to have drinks a few places there.  That was fun, especially the first bar we went to, which had an outdoor beer garden.  I don’t remember what they were though, of course.  I do remember walking a really long ways home.

Mike’s Pastry – I’m not exactly a baked good aficionado, but this was a famous pastry shop we walked by so I got an eclair or something from there.  It was good, I suppose.  Everything they were making inside there was very pretty, though.

Harpoon Brewery – Beautiful interior with lots of bars and new beer varieties to taste.

Fenway Park – It’s famous so I stopped by, but I didn’t want to have to watch any baseball.

Harvard Campus – Took a stroll among the smart people and looked at the campus, which is nice I guess.  Certainly old.  But they had a cool cigar shop near here too that I walked into but wasn’t feeling rich enough to buy anything.