I was worrying about this post a bit. I was worrying that frankly I don’t remember much about my time in these two places, especially Boston. But then I remembered that Boston was the place where I stayed in the Bean Town Hostel, which in itself was an experience and a half of full cream dairy milk (that’s a reference really only Aussies over a certain age with get there lol).

Ahhh yes the Bean Town Hostel – an unforgettable experience indeed. I arrived in the wee hours of the morning at the Boston Bus Terminal from New York. Yes, another night bus journey. A real pity because I would have loved to have seen what was between New York and Boston. Presuming that it was you know, interesting!

I found my way to the hostel, and I remember that I took in a few historic buildings and a market. I made my way to the harbour at some point and also took in a few parks. I think I may have just had the two nights there, or perhaps only one – everything had become compacted you see because when I was in Norway I had had to take a reality check and realised that the amount of money I had wasn’t going to last the intended few weeks in North America.

So, whilst in New York (see it’s only when you move on from writing about a place you forget something important about what happened!) I had visited the offices of United Airlines and changed my tickets. I had cut out a number of days, and two stops on my way home sadly – Chicago and Vancouver. I was lucky enough not to have to pay for these changes, today I suspect I would have had to pay so much as to be no point to it.

The kind lady stapled the tickets together from Toronto to Chicago, and Chicago to Los Angeles. That might have even been via Vancouver because I think that Los Angeles was the final stop. So Toronto – Chicago – Vancouver – Los Angeles became one ticket. Toronto – Los Angeles. And around three weeks was cut out and suddenly I had far less time in Eastern USA where I was supposed to go up the coast a bit and see some of the north-eastern states. Like New Hampshire. Why I had planned that, I have no idea!

So a few days or a week in Boston quickly became a couple of days. And, I don’t remember the city much at all from this visit (I would return in 2004 and get to see a lot more of it). However, I do remember one night quite vividly. Firstly, at the Bean Town Hostel, run completely by Irish peoples, I met three Irish girls (I know) and we went out drinking one night. Actually, if I stayed two nights it was probably two!

I went out with a group and we drank Millers beer and had a great night. I remember I met an American girl, whose name I can’t possibly remember, who was researching her family history and was heading up through New Hampshire to Maine. She said my accent was ‘charming’. Now. That’s something that does NOT happen to me every day.

We drank a lot of beer, and returned to the hostel between one and two AM. I was lying in bed trying to sleep when an Irish guy entered the room that had about 12 beds in it, and he started, I kid ye not, to piss on the wall. Like it was a urinal! I jumped up and he must have stopped because I guided him to the bathroom. The next day I was talking to hostel staff, and they said that that sort of incident was ‘quite common’.

I remember I had a bit of a search around for books and shopping without actually buying anything, and I enjoyed relaxing in this park, I believe it was ‘Boston Common’. Boston is possibly the ultimate university town with some of America’s finest colleges there. I would take a tour when I returned in 2004 and indeed saw many more things on that trip, which was great because in 1999 I left Boston feeling as though I had not seen ANYTHING. Which is pretty accurate.

Next episode I will be trotting off to Toronto and checking out Niagara Falls. May the Journey Never End!