Freedom Road

Freedom Road, lead me home, I have travelled so long

The fairy ferry arrived into Boston early evening. I said goodbye to T and thanked him for a fun time and good company in P’Town and made my way a couple of stops on the subway to Cambridge, and my next host, Stephen.

After a quick shower and change, a glass of wine and an introduction to Stephen’s other half Robin, we headed to Club Passim, a folk music club up near Harvard. The place has seen a number of famous performers grace its stage including Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Suzanne Vega and Joni Mitchell. Tonight’s act was a Quebecois folk band called Genticorum. They sang pretty much entirely in French but they would give the audience an introduction to what the lyrics of each song meant. The lead singer also played the fiddle and a tapped out the beat using a footboard. They were all very talented musicians, if not so blessed in the looks department. Stephen and I agreed that the cutest of the trio was the bassist, who also played the fiddle and the wooden flute. Up close however he looked a little bit Klingon.

The next day I was woken at 6am by the sound of rain on the skylight above me. I decided the best plan of action would be to go back to sleep for a while and hope that when I woke again the weather had improved. The plan worked! I checked my messages and saw I had one from Drew & Gray, my Ottawa gays. They had sent my travel details and website to a Canadian gossip columnist who had given me a shout out on her website. As a result I had a mini spike in hits to the blog site, a couple of new followers on Twitter and my first piece of “fanmail” from a complete stranger!

Boats & Boston

Freedom Road 

Trying not to let my new found celebrity status go to my head, I got myself ready and took myself off into Boston. I walked from Cambridge over the bridge to Charles Street, getting some great photos of downtown Boston from the bridge. At the end of Charles Street I reached Beacon Hill, the oldest part of Boston. The street, lined with stunning red brick buildings, facing Boston Common has the original Cheers bar on it. One of my Twitter followers had set me the challenge of getting a photo of Dean in front of the bar. I went the wrong direction, got distracted and failed the challenge.

I made my way uphill to the Massachusetts State House, the massive dome atop the building covered in 23 karat gold leaf glinting in the sun. I went in to have a look around, having to go in via the General Hooker entrance. Obviously it was named after an army general called Hooker but it still made me chuckle to think that there might be a specific entrance for general hookers. I grabbed a self tour guide, and wandered around. I loved the fact that you can just go into so many of the historic buildings in the States for free. The inside of the building was stunning and the self tour guide gave a good outline of the things to go see.

General Hooker and the Massachusetts State House

Checking the guidebook that Robin had left out for me to borrow I saw that I was on the Freedom Trail so I look in some more of the sights on the route including the Old South Meeting House (where thousands of Bostonians had crowded to take part in a heated discussion which led to the Boston Tea Party), the Old State House (from whose balcony the Declaration of Independence was first read to the public in Massachusetts), Faneuil Hall, the Granary Burying Ground (the final resting place for three of the signers of the Declaration of Independence) and the Park Street Church. There is certainly a lot of history in one small place and the locals are very proud of it. I spent the day taking in the history and taking photos.

Lead me home 

I walked back to Stephen and Robin’s, via a liquor store to buy Stephen a birthday present. We headed to Legal Seafood for a birthday dinner, the three of us splitting an appetizer of spicy calamari that would have served me as a whole meal. For my main course I had the tuna which made me think about one of my best friends from back home, Sarah. We would regularly go for dinner in Balans back in London and despite me always spending ten minutes studying the menu I would always have the tuna. Sarah would tease me as I would often say I was going to try something else only for me to say "I'll have the tuna please" when the waiter asked for my order. Anyway, I digress. The tuna at Legal was cooked medium rare, served with steamed rice and broccoli so I felt like I had been quite healthy. We shared a plate of ice cream bon bons for dessert to counteract the healthy main course.

   

Old State House

After dinner we had cocktails at The Friendly Toast, a garishly decorated but fun and funky bar/restaurant in Kendall Square. The cocktails were huge, being served in a pint glass. I had two and was feeling quite tipsy. As we chatted the topic somehow got on to American versus British toilets (restrooms). There was a consensus that the US style cubicles where the stall walls don’t go down to the floor and seem to stop at around 5 feet were a little strange. As Brits we value our privacy, especially when using the smallest room. We also discussed automatic toilet flushes. I knew that during my year long trip I would learn many new things, but the most bizarre thing I learned that night was that some people stand up to wipe. Apparently the world is split roughly in half between those who stand and those who sit and both groups don’t realise other exists. So now you all know too!

"Freedom Road, lead me home, I have travelled so long"
Lyrics from Freedom Road from the musical Bad Girls: The Musical