Whatayou, retahdid?

No we're not, but they speak funny over here.

We arrived in Boston, at about five in the afternoon, by train. It was a pleasant enough jouney, preceeded by two beers, and including two beers.

Boston was as hot and sticky as New York had been and we made out way into a beautifully airconditioned room very quickly. We checked out some places to eat in the guide the hotel had given us, and then took the subway to the station we thought was close to our restaurant. After walking around for about half an hour we took a cab there, and we were quite happy we did because it seemed far. After a lovely steak dinner outside in the Boston heat, and a few drinks back inside leaning over the stone bar, we headed back to the hotel. We asked where the subway station was and were told it was quite close, so we walked only a few minutes to the station we had arrived at earlier that night. Lesson learned.

Back at the hotel, there was a message waiting for us from Junior, Andy, our friend we had come to visit in Boston. He had told us he was working that night, so we had written him off until the next day. The message said he was working in a bar not too far from the hotel. We decided what the hell, and went to meet him there.

Now let me just say that we were expecting to meet a lot of hot, single, paramedics in uniforms, because that's what Junior used to be - a paramedic, not hot and single. We were, rightly enough, very surprised to meet him at the door of the bar in a different kind of uniform, one of a bouncer. Turns out he is going back to school to get his Masters in Marine Bilology or some such nonsense. There are no hot single Reefolologists...

But it was great to catch up with him. We had met him in Fiji, our first trip to Octopus, and he hadn't changed much at all, except that his legs were even more chicken looking.

We spent several hours catching up over several drinks - and getting lost in Boston on the way to a house party - I don't really remember getting home that night.

I was rather hungover the next day and only got out of bed at 12:30. We were also very hungry and were driven outside by our stomachs. At least it wasn't as humid as it had been the previous day. It was a little overcast, so we were glad that Junior hadn't called to finalise plans for a trip to the beach that we had spoken about the previous night. We walked around the park - which turned out to be Boston Common - and found ourselves in front of "Cheers".

The entrance looked exactly the same as in the TV program - and so it should because that is the entrance that was filmed for it - but the inside was different. Turns out it was just the inspiration for the show and not the real bar. No matter, the food was real enough and the place was airconditioned.

After eating, we made our way to the Washington Street shopping area so that I could get more clothes and Tara could get other jandals. We spent a few hours there, then went to the Union Oyster House, the oldest continuously running restaurant in the US, for dinner - lobster and clam chowder, they sure know how to do seafood here. I was drinking my beer with lemonade and we made it an early night.

Junior had left another message at the hotel, he was in a bar somewhere. We called him back and declined, I was too hungover still and Tara was tired.

The next day was the best weather we had seen. We made our way to the Government Centre and bought tickets for the tourist trolley bus. After having breakfast at the Quincy Market, we made our way the the trolley. It was as informative as any other tourist bus we had been on and just as funny. Every city has it's heroes and anti-heroes, and they seem to be equally proud of both. Our first hop off was near the Esplanade on the Charles River where we decided to soak in some of the day and read our books.

After that we got off in Chinatown and had lunch. We ordered only appetisers, but ended up with a meal that would feed an Ethiopian family of seven for a week.

We made plans to meet Junior back at Fanuil Hall after our tour, and the drinking started again. We started at the oldest continuosly running bar in the US - I forget the name - and made it all the way through town back to the bar where Junior works. On the way, we taught Junior the People Claim Game and he tried to teach us the rules of American Football, I still don't get it. I left the bar at one and didn't hear Tara come in at about three.

The following day I was seriously bummed out about my luggage and rather stressed about what was going to happen when we left the next day. We had breakfast down the road and then came back to the hotel to call the BA baggage people at 12:30 when they supposedly opened. I had not luck, but we decided to hell with them and went off to Long Warf where we visited the Aquarium - it has a wicked deep water tank in the middle that you walk around and up in a spiral - and the IMAX theatre for the Sharks movie.

Back at the hotel we made plans to meet Junior and his girlfriend, Megan, at Long Warf for dinner. We made a little detour to the airport to fetch my bag - YAY!!!!!! - but you can read more about that in the BA still sucks post.

Dinner was great, and it was nice to get to talk to Megan a bit more - she's hilarious, she says "butt sex" instead of "anal sex", but that's a whole other story...

We made it an early night, and went back to the hotel sober for a good rest before out flight to Vegas the next morning.

Boston is great, kind of like San Franciso, laid back and relaxed, but without the gay stigma and slightly better dressed, though harder to understand.

I do have to say that the Bostonians have taken the jandal to a whole new level. Pretty much everyone was wearing them, including the ladies in full work dress. It's fantastic!