"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time"

Hello again!!!

Here I am, back to send you guys some more news. As promised in my last post, have to tell you a little bit about my two other destinations before flying to Hawai'i: Providence and Boston. Ok, ok, it was a very short trip, went to both in only 24hs time, but that was what I had, and it was definitely worth the effort.

Better saying, it was no effort at all! Had plenty of fun and an amazing experience.

So, here I am in New York city 36hs before departing to the Aloha state, freezing cold and wondering what I would do on the next day.... my options: wake up and walk around one of NY's neighborhoods (which by now I had already gone to almost all of them), or go for a morning walk on another city and breathe a different air - actually, a much colder air!

Guess what! Woke up at 5am, packed up my things at the hostel, left my cousin to do the shopping in Times Square and went directly to Penn Station, to get a train to New England. Ahhhh, you wouldn't believe the view I had from the wonderful (and so confortable!) Amtrak train: for the same price as an airline ticket I got to see beautiful sights of the sunrise, and that "heat" was starting to melt the snow that had just fallen over the streets, cars and typical new england houses.

Here are a few pictures I took from the train:






Beautiful sunrise, isn't it?!












Believe it or not, this is not a paiting, it was taken from inside the train!!!!

So, after 3.5hs , I arrived in Providence, capital of the sate of Rhode Island, also known as the Ocean State, or "little Rhodie", as it is the smallest state in the union (37miles wide, 48miles long!). I had more or less 3 hs in the city before catching the train to Boston, which in the end was enough for me to walk (yes, walk!) and get to know 80% of the city!!!! I met a very nice cab driver who did sort of a city tour for U$ 5 - he was so excited to show me around that didn't want to charge me for the ride! So he took me to the Federal Hill neighborhood, their version of Little Italy, but in this case there were other types of fine cuisine too.

I walked all around this area, which was a huge contrast to what I had just experienced in NY. Very few buildings, several cars parked in the streets, snow on the sidewalks and trees (and on me! yes, snow! was soo disappointed to freeze in NY with almost no snow!) , everything happening at such a slow pace that you could feel the calmness in the air and through people's faces. As I was walking alone on the streets all over town, people would greet me saying "Happy New Year" with such a sincere smile, that answering was almost an impulse, thought that was a little bit strange for someone that has lived her entire life in an 11 million inhabitant metropolis.

Afterward, went for a hot chocolate at Roma's, a neat italian deli/bakery. When I got there I realized all the customers were either Italian or descendants, and were all chatting in italian as old friends that would meet regularly. People there were very warm and receptive, to the point of approaching me, giving me tips and telling me stories about the city.
One of the tips was to get a picture of the Rhode Island State Capitol.... Doesn't it look like you were in Washington D.C.?!

One funny thing was that although it comes originally from Massachussets, Dunkin Donuts is much more popular in Providence: there was at least one store per block, ads all over the town and people from all ages eating donuts!

Well, by then it was time to go back (again, walking! Providence is known for its accessibility as a walking city) to the train station for more 1 hour in the train to get to Boston, in the state of Massachussets.

Yes! I found the city that showed to have the perfect balance: everything I had liked about NY, but without its crazyness, yet still with a small town characteristic, that I had seen in Providence :-) What I really liked too was the architecture of the buildings - it's something dramatic that really calls anyone's atention.
Close to the South Station things were a little hectic because of the Big Dig construction. I was talking to some Bostonians, and they told me the Big Dig - a tunnel to improve mobility and try to solve the traffic problem - has been under construction for more than 14 years, and had consumed more than U$ 15 bn, being sponsored by all 50 states, as MA would have gone bankrupt if it were to pay the whole project alone. Seems it was supposed to be ready by mid-2005, though it wasn't ready yet when I was there.

The city is very "walkable" too, but Boston has a pretty extensive system of public transportation consisting of buses, a subway, commuter trains, and even ferry service. I soon found out that the really neat thing to do is take the subway, known as the "T", to anywhere. Just ellect any destination, coz the most interesting thing about this program is the subway itself. This was America's first subway, opened in 1897, so it's like you become part of its history when you are there. Ok.... that's probably a romantic way of seeing things, but who cares, I really enjoyed it.

Now, of course, if I was to catch the subway to go somewhere, I chose one place I've always wanted to go to: Harvard Yard, in Cambridge. As it was really close by and I had already played with the squirrels on the snow at the Boston Common park, decided to take some pictures of the University "dressed" for winter.

How exciting..... just to be there and stand still is nice. I took some pictures for a couple in front of one of the largest libraries, and they were telling me they had met for the first time right there, 30 years ago, when they studied at the law school. Harvard University was established in 1636 and enjoys a worldwide reputation for academic excellence, and I'm sure every single person that once studied there has a different story to tell. Too bad it was late already and classes hadn't started so most everything was closed.

And as I was in Massachussets, I couldn't leave without eating some lobster.... Unbelievable! It was so cheap, that I felt like eating a whole one, chosen right from the aquarium in front of me, though as I still had a long way back to NY, ended up choosing one of the many dishes at Charlie's Kitchen.

Well, my day had already been very productive, but I still had some time left to catch the midnight bus to arrive in New York and go directly to JFK airport, so went to do one of my favourite things: movies!!!! It gives you kind of a feeling that you're so familiar to the city that you can even afford to go to watch a film, doesn't it?!

Great! I finally wrote the post about Providence and Boston, so now we can move on to Hawai'i! I've been desperate to tell everything about it, I'm sure you will all enjoy!

Cya soon and keep checking the updates in this blog!

;-)

Kris












(Crazy funny waiter from a pub in Cambridge.... Happy New Year!)