Beantown..

Ciara makes a new friend!
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Boston has been really great. Neither of us knew what to expect coming here, so we didnt really expect too much. Thankfully, we have been more than surprised. Boston is a beautiful, slow paced, cosmopolitan city. Its very European and the locals are very friendly, (if a little hard to understand!). We arrived in Tuesday evening, and flew through immigration and customs - we told them nothing. Our hotel was great, it's perfectly located right next to Boston Common and public gardens which are stunning. The common is a bit like St. Stephens Green in Dublin, but a lot bigger. We took the trolley tour yesterday morning which was great, we got a great overview of the city, which I was surprised to find out is 75% landfill. Most of what were were driving over used to be Boston Harbour! We saw the USS Constitution, the oldest warship in the world still afloat apparantly. Every six months, they tow it out and turn it around, so it weathers evenly. Reminded me of a few people back home. We drove through a pretty big Chinatown and theatre District, and saw where the movie "the Departed" was filmed. They like their fish out here, and there's lots of apparantly great fish restaurants up by the harbourside. Going through the back bay area, we saw the huge prudential center, which is linked to three hotels via skywalks - for the lazy shoppers amongst you. The Beacon Hill area is beautiful, very village like, and seems to be the place to live in the city. great cafes, bakerys and a lovely vibe around the place. We made out way to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, which is one of the huge market and shopping areas in the city. The central isle in quincy hall is just unreal. Its a food court, but no ordinary food court - there must be at least 50 take away style restaurants with any food you could possibly imagine. Ciara was so stunned by it, she didnt say a word for 10 minutes! Well, we had our lunch and did some more chilling in Boston Common (or "Common Green" as Ciara calls it - she gets a bit jittery around cops). We saw two cheers - both of which were a bit of a let down. one is a supposed replica of the set on the TV show in quincy market, and the other is the picture you see below. I wouldnt be rushing back. We haven't experienced much of the nightlife yet, as we've both been a bit wrecked since we arrived. We were in bed so early it reminded me of been sent packing after the 9 O'Clock news. None the less, we intend to spent another night here over the next couple of days and im sure we'll hit the bars (about 2/3's of which seem to be Irish). im writing this early on the morning of the 31st, and our plan is to leave Boston today and head to Cape Cod - a place called provincetown where we'll spend the night. Probably another night in Boston and then on to New York, where we're both hoping to meet up with some friends. We've bought ourselves the US rail pass so we'll be hitting the rails for the next 2 weeks at least. We'll check in again in a few days, hope everyone is doing ok at home. Mark & Ciara

Every six months, they tow it out and turn it around, so it weathers evenly. Reminded me of a few people back home.