Boston

The next morning I caught the subway under the Charles river to the other side of town to Cambridge, the home of Harvard. A couple of people told me that I should visit Harvard Square, when I got there I felt a little cheated, it's not a square. At least the kind of square I was expecting, the quads that you see at Oxford University. The square is a large area of Cambridge that is not only occupied by the university but by shops and office buildings. I walked around the university, you can actually feel the history here. It is America's oldest university. I took my photo next to the statue of John Harvard, after whom the university is named. On the base of the statue are three pieces of information, some locals call these the three lies. The information is the name "John Harvard", that John Harvard founded the college and the year, 1638 . The locals say that the figure is not Harvard but it's not as there were no likenesses of him for the sculptor to work from. He didn't found the college, he gave the college a lot of money in when he died in 1638 which is the third lie, the college was founded in 1636. Despite this people do still rub the statues left foot for luck.
I walked back to Boston proper and went past M.I.T., which I hadn't realised was in Cambridge too. I am learning all the time! I walked back across the river, some of which was frozen. Whenever I see a frozen river,lake etc. I just want to walk on it. Foolish I know. I spent the afternoon in the Isabella Stewart Gardener museum. Isabella was married to a rich man and had no children, together the couple amassed an amazing, eclectic art collection. When her husband died Isabella started to build an Italian style house to hold her art collection She and her husband had travelled extensively in Europe and she loved Italy. The house is beautiful from the outside but even more stunning inside, it's built around a central covered courtyard, where Isabella liked to sit. She arranged all of the art in the house and would spend her days there. In the courtyard there is a small stone stool,opposite a statue of Aphrodite and she would sit there. In her will she demanded that the house be opened as a museum with all of the items in the position she had put them in. None of the items were to be labelled. The house is as she left it at her death. It's a stunning museum and not just because of the contents of the collection. The arrangement and presentation of the art is so different from all of the other museums that I've visited. There are no huge galleries, but a series of differently decorated sitting rooms. And the lack of labels makes it feel even less like a museum. You can also sit in the outside corridor of the courtyard and just absorb the atmosphere of the house.
When I finally left I headed to the Prudential Tower to get my "high rise view" fix. And like any sensible tall building architect the one that designed the Prudential Tower had included an observation deck and two floors above it a bar. I decided to spend my money wisely and went to the bar! I bought a glass of wine and sat down to enjoy the view and watch a grey day slide into a cold night. Again I don't know what my fascination with tall buildings is, it may just be that I like the different perspectives I get from them. Especially in cities when your views are blocked or dominated by one building. In New York I didn't really appreciate the Empire State Building until I saw it at a distance and then from a comparable height. When I left the tower I couldn't face going back to the apartment and I needed to eat anyway so I went to "Legal Seafoods" a Boston institution. Before I went to Japan I was not a fan of seafood, while I was there I ate seafood on a weekly basis. Now I'm back to not liking it very much, I suspect that from now on in I will only order sushi in a Japanese owned and run restaurant or when I am back in Japan, which amounts to the same thing. AT "Legal" I did start with the Boston Clam Chowder and for my main I had "Fish and Chips". The soup and fish were really good and exactly what I wanted on a cold wet night. I suppose I should be grateful that it had warmed up enough to be raining and not snowing, but I wasn't. I went back to the apartment as I couldn't avoid it and it was empty. When Peter returned we had another conversation that confirmed my initial impression of him and made me feel that I had made the right decision by leaving his place the next morning. I wasn't leaving Boston, just his place.
The next morning I packed up and went to the local hostel, where I knew I would get a clean shower without mould dripping off the shower curtain. I dumped my bag as it was too early to get into my room and went to the Samuel Adams Brewery. The brewery tour was good and the free beer even better. Not having any other plans for the day I went back to the hostel and got into my room. I immediately started talking to Gabriella and invited me to a Celtics game that night. It was only $10 and a few people were going so I went. They were playing the Dallas Mavericks and since the Celtics had the home advantage I figured I would cheer for the away team. Some of the people around me weren't too impressed but as long as the Celtics were winning this wasn't an issue. It wasn't even an issue when the Mavericks started winning,most people were good natured about it, even if they did leave before the game was finished. I had a good time and knew that the move to the hostel was the best thing I could have done. I had had my best night in Boston. I was up the next morning and on a flight to Charleston where I hoped it would be warmer.