Boston

Boston Science Museum
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(Before reading this story please see the overview)

Boston in December is a snow dome regularly shaken. For an Australian, seeing such an old, historic and beautiful city layered with fresh white snow is a wonderful, unique experience. That said the extreme cold with which this sight is coupled is uniquely painful. One of the great things about snow domes, however, is that the climate experienced when viewing them is in no way affiliated with the climate they represent. Our stay, given the location of our lodging, could then best be described as viewing a Harvard University snow dome whilst relaxing in an expensive Caribbean apartment.

Enter the snow dome

Abstract Scientific Exhibit
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We arrived in Boston to be warmly greeted at the airport and escorted, via the metro and a rather nippy Harvard Square, by our friend Christine, a Harvard University PHD student and Physics Tutor, to a tropically heated apartment in Harvard Universities, Winthrop building - an apartment most probably once tenanted by a former president. Our view across the U-shaped buildings snow covered centre court, with its skeletal deciduous trees, to the Charles River and an arched bridge was spectacular.

Big pink glasses require a certain something
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We stayed one night before leaving for Bidderford, Maine and returned 4 days later. Upon our return we stayed again with Christine at Harvard and went out for a relaxing evening of quality pizza, wine and good conversation.

It is unfortunate, but our stay in Boston was short, a total of 48 hours. This combined with the extreme cold and the fact that we had been travelling solidly for 4 weeks had us more inclined to enjoy the company of friends, home cooking, warm book stores and cafes than traipsing around Boston in search of the site of the Boston Massacre, origins of the Boston Tea Party, or the pasture on which Benjamin Franklin grazed his boyhood cow.

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We did visit the Boston Museum of science, situated on the Charles River Dam, with our friends however. Here, not wanting my inner child to promote to a Quantum Physicist the possible scientific enlightenment to be provided by the Star Wars exhibit, we opted for a 3D documentary on insects, specifically the life cycle of the caterpillar/butterfly, which was good, not quite the interior of the Milenium Falcon understand, but educational and… vivid.

That night we met Benny, another friend, in the funky Davis Square area. Here we lodged in his arty apartment, were entertained by his comical antics as he cooked us dinner then visited a local cafe, some bars and, after some card board sledding down a steep incline on the grounds of Tufts University, were taken to a private party.

The following day we had lunch in China Town and walked through the downtown area.