On the road: CT and Boston

By a stroke of luck and friendship, we had a spontaneous change of plans the next day to drive down to Connecticut to spend the night with one of my old friends, Christy, from college. After spending the larger part of the day trip-planning, thrift-shopping, and errand-running around Rhode Island, we finally made it to small-town Connecticut by evening for dinner at an Irish pub. 

In some ways, I felt just like old times -- Christy and I had met as roommates when we both studied abroad in London, and had spent a week traveling through Ireland. And now here we were almost 4 years later, eating fish and chips and bangers and mash again, only stateside this time. After dinner, we drove back to her house and spent the evening catching up, geeking out over such topics as movie soundtracks, BBC shows, photography, and travel, and then settled in for a comfortable night in her guest bedroom.

The next day, we had brunch at a little diner in a neighboring town, and then Christy took us to Clyde's Cider Mill, the oldest cider mill in the area. There we checked out the historic buildings, bought a bottle of spiced apple wine from the shop for later, and continued on our way.

The real Mystic Pizza, from the movie

Before heading back, we also took a stop in Mystic, CT, where the movie Mystic Pizza was based. Mystic was adorable and touristy, but had a nice little bookstore that we wandered around in for a while.

After that, it was time to part ways, and we left Christy to press north again, this time to the big city of Boston, MA.

Less than 2 hours from CT, we made it to Boston by evening and found our accommodations, a room we rented from Airbnb for $28 for the night (way cheaper than any motel in the area). Finding it was quite the adventure -- little did we know that Boston has many of the same street names on completely different sides of town! Eventually we found the flat though, and followed our host up about 6 flights of outdoor stairs to the very tippy top apartment of a sort of row house.

Our host was high as a kite, but extremely happy and hospitable, and after he showed us around we never saw him again. It was just as well though, because after settling in, we were off once more into the city downtown area to meet a couple of my friends. Parking was the worst I've seen in my life -- every single parallel space was under some sort of residential permit, and everything else was metered or timed. It took us over 40 minutes to find a space, and put us both in a terrible mood.

As soon as I saw my longtime friend Jeremy, however, the world seemed a better place again and all was well. We had dinner at Tibetan restaurant and then, despite it being quite freezing outside, we walked a few blocks down to meet with my other friend from college, Fabio, for ice cream. It was a nice, low-key, and enjoyable night catching up with old pals.

Deep in the canyon of Downtown Boston

The next day, we packed up and departed our Airbnb home, and ventured into downtown Boston to check out some places my friends had recommended. Once again, parking was absolute hell, and after wasting the better part of an hour driving around, we caved in and spent $16 for a parking garage.

Once we were able to get out and walk around though, it was almost worth the big bucks. We wandered the indoor markets that served food from around the world, explored a massive comic shop that spanned two floors, drank coffee as we wove our way through a labyrinth, walked around the Boston Aquarium, and strolled the harbor at sunset. 

After a delicious dinner at a local burger joint, we found our way to our next couch surfing home, a couple who lived right near downtown in a tiny but beautiful little apartment. They were watching The Amazing Race when we arrived, which seemed rather apropos with all our traveling, and I immediately knew they'd be fun to hang out with.

We spent the evening watching TV, sharing our apple spice wine from Connecticut, and swapping travel stories, before we all turned in for bed. They provided us with a queen sized inflatable mattress that literally took up their entire living room.

Before we left the next day, we signed a little couch surfing guest book they had left for us. It was full of little notes from people they'd hosted, and I couldn't help but think what a wonderful world community we enjoy as travelers. Even though we have our rough days of paying through the nose for parking, or getting frustrated when we get lost, or feeling insecure when we have to trust strangers, all of this pales in comparison to the rewards we gain through new perspectives and experiences. I felt incredibly lucky.

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On the road: NYC to RI

NY traffic

Hoping to avoid the outrageous tolls in New York City, Peter and I ended up getting stuck in crazy zigzagging traffic for nearly 3 hours on our way north. He found it thrilling, I found it nauseating. Nonetheless, we eventually crawled out of the polluted haze of the city and meandered up the wintry-looking I-95 North to the smallest state in the union: Rhode Island. 

While at our hostel a couple days before, I had secured us a couchsurfing host in a town nearby Providence (that's the nice thing about RI -- it's so small, you can stay anywhere, and still be close to everywhere else!). We arrived after dark at the guy's apartment situated on the second floor above some shops. 

When we walked in, we found his apartment filled with exercise equipment and he was in the middle of working out. I wasn't sure about him at first, but after we got to talking he turned out to be alright. He was a young ex-military guy now in college. He offered us any of the food in his fridge, showed us the futon we would be sleeping on in the back room, and we spent some time chatting and sharing travel stories. 

After a fitful night of sleep, we got up the next day and drive to Providence to explore the city and later meet up with one of Peter's long time friends.

Our first stop was the Providence visitor's center, where we picked up some maps and brochures, and then received a rundown of the city's historical areas by an overly enthusiastic man at the front desk. From there, we explored the Brown University campus, which was quite posh, had delicious falafel for lunch, and then took a self-guided walking tour of Beneift Street, Providence's oldest colonial area. 

A home associated with HP Lovecraft

This street was home to many original colonial homes, inhabited by such famous characters as Edgar Allen Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. My favorite part of the street was the old church and graveyard in which Poe had spent many an hour writing his works and courting Sarah Helen Whitman, a fellow poet and transcendentalist. Walking through the graveyard on that cold, dark day, I could definitely see how Poe came up with some of his writings.

The church frequented by Poe

The graveyard

At the end of our walk, we came up to the Old State House, where the General Assembly met to announce its independence from the British Crown in 1776. We wandered inside and found some tourist information and the building open to walk through. A few people sat working in offices off to the side, but no one really looked up, so we walked on through.

We kept climbing staircases and peeking into rooms until we somehow found ourselves in the attic of the place. We definitely weren't supposed to be there. It was full of all the old contents of the building, including staircase end pieces, old railings, pieces from the meeting room, etc. We snuck out stealthily after peeping through the rubble, and eventually made our way back downtown to meet Peter's friend at a cute little coffee shop.

By then it was late afternoon, so we enjoyed a few hours of conversation before parting ways. In the evening, we treated ourselves to a movie (Hunger Games: Catching Fire, it was pretty good!), and finally made it back to our couchsurfing accommodations for the night.

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On the road: NYC day 3

On our final day in New York City, we managed to get an earlier start and found ourselves at Trinity Church on our way to Battery Park. It was quite the striking image, to come out of the subway and find yourself staring at the odd dichotomy of an ancient, gothic-looking cathedral against the backdrop of starkly modern skyscrapers. Captivated by this, we wandered inside where lofty ceilings echoed the sounds of an organ being played.

Trinity Church

We explored the inside and grounds of the church, wondering at the old graves surrounding it. It felt almost like being in some kind of ancient oasis in the midst of a bustling 21st century mega-city. 

The graveyard

Really old graves

We had lunch at a good little local deli, and then finally found Battery Park where we relaxed for a while to enjoy the view and write.

My artsy shot of Peter

View from the park

We walked around the area for a while, and then took the train further into the city to explore around and visit the Museum of Sex (because why not?) before going to our Broadway show. The museum was interesting for sure -- I certainly learned a lot! -- and the afternoon passed by quickly, and before we knew it, we were at the Booth Theater on Broadway, redeeming our tickets for The Glass Menagerie.

I had never heard of the play before, despite it being a Tennessee Williams classic, but it was the most affordable we could find and starred Zachary Quinto (most notably from Heroes and Star Trek), so it was definitely worth it. Needless to say, the acting was phenomenal and the play was excellent.

Our view of the stage

Feeling like our short New York experience was about as complete as it could be for the time we had, we reluctantly headed back to the hostel for our last night in the big city. The next day, we would be driving to the smallest state, Rhode Island, where big adventures were to be had.

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On the road: NYC days 1 and 2

Our first day in New York City, we found our way to the metro station a few blocks from the youth hostel, and rode the M train to Times Square. Although I had driven through NYC briefly once with my family, this was the first time I really saw it up close. 

Times Square

As we flowed into the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, the city blurred into an overwhelming cacophony of rumbling car engines, grinding construction equipment, people yelling and talking, horns honking, and airplanes flying overhead. The winter air was chilly and thick with smells of burning gasoline, steaming manholes, and cooking food, while the visual stimulus of billboards, signs, shops, and skyscrapers left me in a haze of wonder. 

We spent the morning wandering through Times Square, avoiding the hawking salesmen who shoved pamphlets in our faces and advertised comedy clubs on the street corners by drawing you in with their own comedic skills. There were street performers, people in costume selling Broadway tickets, and food vendors at every turn. The city was decked out for Christmas, with extravagant window displays and holiday music playing everywhere.

At lunchtime we met my childhood friend Chenoe for a bite to eat at a sushi place near Bryant Park. She told us about her experience working for an architecture firm in the city, and mentioned some architecturally interesting places we should check out during our visit. Afterward, we continued to explore the city until dark, found Rockefeller Center and the big Christmas tree and ice rink, and eventually found our way back to our hostel to crash for the night.

The next day we ran into a bit of a hiccup before we could head back up to Manhattan: It was street-cleaning day, and we had to re-park our car. As it turned out, so did everyone else, and we spent over an hour driving around south Brooklyn looking for somewhere -- anywhere -- to park. Eventually we drove back to the hostel and found parking near the metro station, but by then it was after 11am so we had lost almost half a day of exploring.

Nonetheless, we made the best of it and made it to the Museum of Natural History by lunchtime. Although it wasn't nearly enough time to see the whole museum, we had a great time wandering the exhibits. They had some special programs on outer space in the planetarium and one on the science and history of poison, which was particularly cool.

Prehistoric turtle wants to be your friend.

We stayed at the museum until closing time, and then found our way to Little Italy to treat ourselves to our one fancy dinner of the trip. Little Italy was quite nice, although very touristy and, being dinnertime, we were once again hawked by restaurant hosts trying to draw us in:

"Free wine with your meal!"

"Three course dinner for $25!"

"We have real Italian cooks!"

Eventually we settled on one that didn't seem too crowded or have an overly-annoying host, and enjoyed a delicious and elegant dinner, before rolling back to the M train and returning to our hostel for the night. The next day would be our last in New York before pressing North again.

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