Goodbye Boston, Goodbye USA :'(

Today was our last full day in Boston, our last full day in Massachusetts and our last full day in the States. It’s really strange to think we’ll be flying back tomorrow.

We were a little slow to get going this morning – starting to think about packing and getting some bits and bobs sorted. Just as we were about to set off for the day, our hosts invited us for an early lunch of spaghetti – how could we turn that down?!! 🙂 We ended up chatting about our travels and the area for quite a while with them. We’ve been really lucky throughout this trip that the majority of people we’ve met have been absolutely lovely, and the hosts we have here are no different! 😀 After lunch we reminisced for a while about this trip. Very sad that it is coming to an end! 😥

After a tip from AJ (one of our hosts), we decided to walk over to the harbor nearest us, and a park called East Boston Piers Park, which is right next to the water. Getting over there took about 10-15 minutes, and once again we had views of boats, the water, people sunbathing and the Boston skyline. It seems to be a really historical and arty area here in East Boston (as you’ll see from some of the photos), so we got quite camera-happy!!

Jen and her spaghetti!

We’ve been for a meal out too to commemorate our trip. We headed to a place called Oliveiras Brazilian, about 30 seconds away from where we are staying… So it was a really long walk! 😉 It was a buffet style place, so of course we both put too much on our plate! XD They had a really cool meat chef, who had all the meats spinning in a fire-cooker. When we asked for them, he drew them out and chopped them up for us! Super fresh, and super delicious. We also opted for pudding – hey, it’s our last day of this holiday, so don’t judge us! Rob had a huuuge slice of chocolate and caramel cake, and Jen got a choccy mousse 🙂

Now we have returned home, all we have to do is pack away (again), and go to sleep! I guess it is unlikely that there will be a post tomorrow, as we take off at around 6:30pm, and airport days don’t tend to make for the most exciting reads!

These last 3 months have been so fun. There has been (quite literally) blood, sweat and tears at times, but we’ve had the time of our lives. We’ve both fallen in love with so many places, and we’re certain that we will look back at this trip with so many fond memories for the rest of our lives.

On a personal note (Rob typing here), I’ve had the absolute time of my life, and I couldn’t have had such an awesome time without Jen. It is dead cheesy to thank her here on the blog, but I’d like to. I think we’ve both done amazingly well to be in each other’s company constantly (24/7) with only a few minor disagreements here and there. So well done us 🙂

Who knows what will become of eighteenstates when we get back to normality. I’m sure there will be a few more posts in the next coming days, but beyond that, who knows! We hope you all have enjoyed reading our blog as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together! 🙂 Also, well done if you read every single post and kept up to date with us. We know it’s a lot of reading! 😀

If anyone ever has any questions or wants tips on any of the places we have visited, please do just let us know! We’re happy to help 🙂 Hopefully we can get a questions/contact us page set up soon!

Thanks again guys, and we’ll see you on the other side… well back in the UK! Goodnight!

Whale Spotters!

As you know, we’ve already had a whale of a time in Nashville during this holiday, but we had a whale of a time quite literally today. 🙂

We were up pretty early this morning and out back on the subway by 8.30am! Being just two stops away from the Middle of Boston is awesome. 🙂 We were a little early to board our boat (yes you read correctly, we were early!!) so we headed to Dunkin’ Donuts for a coffee and a doughnut!! 🙂 Yummmm.

We boarded our big ol’ whale watching boat at around 9.30am, and we were off away from Boston and out towards the big blue sea by 10! 🙂 The weather was glorious. The boat sped up once we’d gotten away from the harbor, and it took us about an hour out into the ocean before it actually started to slow down again. The first whale sighting was not very successful for us. “There’s one”, our captain explained – but we were over the other side of the boat. By the time we made it over there to take a peek, the whale had dived deep, not to be seen again. We both stared at one another as if to say, “It’s going to be that kind of day isn’t it”. Unsatisfied with the ‘Harold Houdini’ of whales, the captain accelerated for another 15 minutes or so to go and find another well-known whale spot.

Suddenly, whales were popping up all over the place! 🙂 We had two fin whales who were hanging out together, and kept blowing their water up in the air for us! 😀  Just being able to see their backs rise out of the water gave us an indication of how big they are. Absolutely huge!!

We have also turned a nice reddish colour from our boat trip! Jen thought that she couldn’t possibly get sunburned now, and Rob just didn’t put enough sun cream on. Rookie mistakes!

Once we’d finished on the boat, we grabbed some lunch at an Irish bar, and decided to go and have a wander around the stalls at the Wharf Festival! Today and today only, there were tonnes of white tents with people selling jewellery, art, bits and bobs and other curiosities! 🙂 We spent quite a while just browsing through all the cool stuff!!

We’re back now, and we are planning what to do with our last day. Not just our last day in Boston, it’ll be our last day in America.. Which is super weird to think about! 😦

Massachusetts: Our 18th State and Our Final Destination

So we have made it to Boston! Our 18th state!! Can’t quite believe we are in our last city now 😦 Sorry there was no post last night. We were out late gallivanting (more on that in a sec) so it’ll be a double post today! 🙂

So yesterday we had to catch a 7am bus from the centre of New York, to Boston. The plan was to get up at about quarter past five, get ready and jump in a taxi for six and then board the bus at seven. Unfortunately, a half-asleep Rob woke up at quarter past five, switched the alarm off, and then went back to sleep. So it was quite stressful waking up at ten to six, and having to rush around like crazy to get over to the bus station! Fortunately, we made it with about ten minutes to spare!! Phew!

Our bus was pretty good actually. We went with a company called Bolt bus, and it only cost  $30 for the both of us – the same as our taxi ride in New York just to get over to the bus station from Brooklyn!! The journey to Boston took around four and a half hours, and we both managed to have a little doze before we arrived too.

Meeting us at the other end was Rob’s brother and sister-in-law (Alastair & Rach) – who gave us a lift over to where we were staying so that we could drop our bags off before going out into Boston for the day! We’re staying just outside of the Logan airport – in a lovely little B&B, which reminds us of home a little bit!

So we’d dropped our stuff off, and the four of us went for lunch in a bar and brewery near Harvard university. Nowhere else in the other 17 States of America has turned our British driving licences down as a form of ID. Nowhere. Apparently the Massachusetts law is different – meaning that we needed our passports for an alcoholic beverage, which were back at our B&B. Of course they were. No lunchtime drinks for us. Boo.

After eating up, Rach kindly gave us a lift back to get our passports, and we then headed back into Boston (again). This time, destination: Jackson Square. There are a lot of cool bars in the area – so we sampled quite a few of them during our afternoon/evening together. It was so great seeing them both 🙂 It had been forever since we were last all together, so it was great fun catching up! We ended up at a bar which had a live band on, who were pretty good, so that was fun too. Getting lost on the way home delayed our journey back a bit, but we made it back eventually! Well done and thank you for driving Rach! 🙂

The Team! Not really sure what is going on with our eyes in this photo!

Today we ventured into the middle of Boston/to the waterfront. We are staying right by the airport subway stop, so we hopped on a train and were by the aquarium and harbor front in about ten minutes! Perfect! 🙂 We wanted to get a coffee and check out the waterfront first, so.. that is what we did; Dunkin’ Donuts for an iced coffee, and then a stroll to the waterfront! It’s so pretty and peaceful there, and it was nice to just wander about with our iced coffees in hand and soak in the views. We got some tickets for the whale watching for tomorrow morning too, so stay tuned for pictures of that tomorrow! 🙂 Really hope that the whales are feeling sociable tomorrow! Fingers crossed.

From the waterfront, we headed over to Quincy Market; an area filled with quirky stalls, shops, bars and restaurants. We shopped around, got a few bits and grabbed some noodles from the food court. All in all, we had a lovely afternoon 🙂 Boston is a very pretty and clean city – so it’s awesome just to walk around there.

This evening we went to catch a movie at the Loews Boston cinema. We saw a film called ‘Boyhood’ – which was marvelous! And that was pretty much our day! It’s really starting to kick in now that we fly home in just a few days 😥 We really don’t want our adventures to end!!

Our last day in NY

Today was our last day in New York, meaning that tomorrow, we move to our final stop!! Ahhh!!

This morning, we had a bit of laundry to do (I know, so rock and roll), and we went to a local coffee shop right round the corner for a bite to eat and some.. you guessed it.. coffee. We felt like proper New Yorkers; staying in an apartment, using the laundromat and drinking at a locals coffee shop! 🙂

Our host here has two rooms which she rents out to people like us – who are using AirBnB too. Staying in the other room were an awesome couple from South Africa. After a chat last night and this morning, we decided to all grab a burrito near Central Park – where they were staying the following evening, and where we had planned to visit!

We went to a DELICIOUS burrito chain-type restaurant called Chipotle. Big portions, reasonable prices = winning in our book! (Even if we aren’t used to eating that much for lunch!!) From there, we said goodbye to our new friends, and made the short journey over to Central Park. It’s hard to believe it’s in New York, and at times, the only thing reminding you that you are in New York, is the huge towers emerging every now and again behind the trees! It was lovely and sunny, and we just wandered around, watching musicians, looking at people in rowing boats on the lake, and people getting their caricature done – it’s so lovely there!

Next up, we made our way over to the Empire State Building. After a lengthy discussion on whether or not we wanted to go up it, or we wanted to go up the Rockerfeller Center instead (the latter, recommended as a “top choice” in our USA guide). In the end, we plumped for the Rockerfeller Center, the deal-breaker being that from the Rockerfeller, we’d have the Empire State in the view from the top! So we went inside the lobby of the Empire State, just to see what it was like, and then walked the 15 or so blocks over to the Rockerfeller!

Going to the “Top of the Rock” was a really nice way to wave farewell to New York. The view is seriously incredible. To have the new World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State, the Chrysler Building AND the Brooklyn Bridge all in the same view at the same time was just awesome. They even make the lift up to the top fun – it’s quite trippy – almost like going into the twilight zone (again)!

So that was our day! Since returning, we’ve had a few drinks and packed our bags for our day of travel without a car! We’ll be up at a ridiculous hour, so that we can make our way over to catch a bus, which will take us to Boston, Massachusetts!! (our 18th, and final State) 😥 The bus should take around 4 and a half hours- Wait – Why am I writing all this – this is information for tomorrow’s post!

When we arrive, the plan is to be picked up by a couple of familiar faces.. and then.. well.. we’ll have to wait and see! 🙂

Gangs of New York

Today was another bright hot day in the city – and we were up early to head towards East Village on the Subway. This was in order to investigate the very well hidden Museum of the American Gangster!

East Village seems quite different to the rest of New York. Caught somewhere between the Financial District and the chaos of uptown. We were later told that East Village is one of the more affluent areas in New York. Which made perfect sense.

Anyway, we stopped off for an iced coffee (waaay too hot for hot coffee) and a banana at one of the local coffee houses, and then headed over to the museum. So far so good. But when we arrived at the front door of the museum however… it was shut. A little confused and bemused, we opted to ask in a local shoe shop (which was on the corner of the same street) what the deal was. The man in the shop went on to tell us that they were a ‘late’ neighborhood, meaning that the businesses in the area don’t typically open until midday. Oh.

So we had to kill some time before the museum opened at 1pm! We had a wander around the area, looked in a few shops, and had a pastry and a juice at a cool corner bar before heading back over.

Finally – it was actually open! 😀 Our young tour guide greeted us on entry, and it soon became very clear just how knowledgeable about gangsters and the prohibition era he was! Insanely knowledgeable!! Jen fired a lot of questions at him, and he seemed to know the answers to all of them XD The museum is in an old building, which was actually used as a bootleg whiskey bar during the prohibition. So the tour was 1/3 about the history of the building and the stories on the previous owners, a 1/3 about the history of gangsters and 1/3 specifically about the prohibition itself. Having such an enthusiastic chap who knew so much was really great – you could tell that he chops and changes his tour depending on what people are interested in. For a relatively small museum, we were in there for ages – mostly just listening and chatting with our guide! All in all, it was a really good (and thorough) insight into the prohibition era and the illegal alcohol trade. Recommended if you want to learn more about it!

Once we’d finished in there, we hopped back on the subway and made our way to the waterfront so that we could visit Ellis Island. Now, this part of our day had its ups and its downs. For starters, the boat that takes you over there is potentially one of the worst run boats we’ve ever witnessed. Standing in the sweltering sun, we queued for 20 minutes to pass through security, then we stood for well over half an hour – watching people get off the previous boat. We’ve never seen a boat unload so slowly before!! A bit rubbish 😦

Besides our painfully slow progress, eventually we were water bound and headed towards Ellis Island. The boat stopped off at the Statue of Liberty to drop off a ton of people and to pick up a load more people, so again, that took a long time. We did get a great view of the big green lady though (not sure why you’d need to actually set foot on liberty island to be honest). We also got some really great views of the New York skyline.

Arriving at Ellis Island much later than we’d hoped, we had to rush around the museum before it closed! The museum is about the history of the island, and most notably, the years when it was used as the immigration centre for the whole of the US. We made it around a fair bit of it, but we couldn’t finish the whole museum. 😦 Due to Hurricane Sandy in 2013, most of the artifacts in the museum were not on show – which was a little disappointing too.

On the boat back we managed to soak in more views of the NY skyline (sun was on it’s way down for the day), before hitting mainland again, and making our way back to base. Since returning, we’ve made travel arrangements and bookings for Boston, we’ve eaten dinner and we’ve planned tomorrow too. “Business” stuff! 😉 Tomorrow we’ll be visiting a huge park, and another huge building. Any guesses on what those might be?

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum

Day two in New York, and it’s safe to say that we did not accomplish all that we wanted to! Silly us for thinking we could do two museums in one day eh? NY Rookies.

Our first (and only) stop was the 9/11 Memorial and Museum (after a nice little breakfast at a small coffee house in the Financial District). Both the memorial and museum have been constructed where the twin towers would have stood, and are also now in the shadow of the absolutely huge new Trade Center. A lot of the area around the new site is still under construction, so we had to snake our way around the area to get to the museum – but that did mean we got to see the new building from a lot of angles. From the foot of the very new (not yet completed) One World Trade Center, it looks like a never ending tower, shooting right up into the sky! An amazing yet understandably, controversial building. Now the tallest in the Unites States we believe.

We purchased our museum tickets and took a little while to look at the memorial garden before we went in. Every victims name from each of the towers are cut into the wall, bordering the huge (built into the floor) square waterfalls. Visually, it’s very effective. They put a white rose on the names of the victims who’s birth date is that day, which is a lovely touching thing to do, but also a very sad sight to see.

So we headed into the museum, not really too sure what to expect, but very interested nonetheless. It was so much bigger (and better) than we thought it would be! We like to be very thorough when visiting museums i.e. reading everything and analysing it all also (see our day at the WWII museum), especially when we have a real interest for it – so we ended up spending pretty much a whole day looking at all of the exhibitions. We were in there for 6 hours. The museum needs a whole day really, and deserves that time also.

The main exhibition starts by showing you how the events of the day rolled out, information on the build up of the attack, and then the aftermath. Wreckage, photographs, videos and audio clips from the day are all over the museum – it’s all very sobering and thought provoking.

By the time we got out of the museum, it was gone 7pm – so we went for a quick bite to eat at an Irish Pub nearby and then headed home on the Subway 🙂

So we’ve now come home and re-planned our schedule – so tomorrow we are going to do the Museum of the American Gangster and Ellis Island.. In one day! (Gulp) – Hell, we might even be able to squeeze in the Brooklyn Bridge! (Trying to be optimistic!) 😉