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.