The Freedom Trail

I had a hard time deciding which was more enjoyable, (I guess, in the end, it doesn’t matter) the events of this day or the previous evening. It started with this realization, something best articulated by my professor:

“Yup. This is enjoyable part, when you can afford to be the front row troublemaker with no fear of retribution.”

That was the theme for the day during the presentations, I listened more intently, tried my hand at the most intelligent questions I could come up with and so on. It was a different feeling. Everything was obviously feeling better now. I also experienced one of the most dynamic talks during that morning session. This person was all over the place, very animated and stressed very clearly all the points he wanted to make. He jumped off the stage, used the black (dark green) board even, to make his points. I really enjoyed the way he handled things. Ah well, next time or the time after or the time after, us amateurs will get as good.

When that session closed, at 12:30 P.M, I decided to leave M.I.T to grab some lunch before going on my sight-seeing trip. Back to Cinderella’s and this time, a fancy pasta, with a fancier sauce. I was really enjoying living this way, not having to look at price tags and so on.

Then back to a subway station, for which I had bought tickets and so on the previous day (prepared prepared) and reached downtown Boston. This was what I had not seen in SO LONG. Exceptionally crowded streets with so many people doing so many things. Walked around just taking it all in before I found where the official path started. There was supposed to be a group formed there, and a guide will take you around for free, but I guess I had just missed it. I walked off on my own, not following any “path”. There were museums, churches, meeting halls, important government buildings, famous people’s statues, important homes and locations and so on along this path. The details I don’t remember of course, and I don’t plan to look it up in the map and type it out. I do have pictures though, which I will put up later, which should fill the gaps.

Being a man, I didn’t need to ask directions as I “knew” where I was going. And before you know it, I was lost, and out of the path. Retraced my steps and got back to the main stream, where I now found a group with a guide. I joined them. This person took us around each place, and told us what is so relevant about these places. He was very enthusiastic, and had TONS of detail, complete with pictures, maps, question/answer sessions and so on. Everybody, including me were getting a bit bugged and slowly started breaking away deciding to do it on their own. This was just after 1:00 P.M sometime if I remember correctly.

Saw some nice fruit/vegitable markets, which were actually crowded and unclean. Saw narrow streets and things. Along this time somewhere, I had met up with another person (Krishpa, as in Krishna with a ‘p’, yes, a long story in itself) doing the tour alone. She’s a teacher from Canada. So we decided to do this thing together. (After ditching the guide.). She was one of those “full of life” people, and some of it evidently rubbed off on me at the time. After some buildings, including the home of J.F.K’s mother, there was a beautiful big bridge, which we walked slowly across, taking pictures all along. It was nice and warm with a pleasant breeze. (Stuff I forgot to mention earlier. Weather was good on all days except one, when it rained. I was dressed casually on all days, except the day of my talk.) Once on the other side, and a couple or so church/museums later, we were at this TALL tower. Got in, and was conned into walking up some 300+ steep steps up to the top. The view was good, but then again NO view is worth so much work. Everybody was tired.

Then moving along, some more sites and we were idly talking and went off the trail. She then mentioned taking a ferry back to close to where we started, and I found that idea fun, considering it’s less work. Again, walking-talking, and asking several people, we found our way to Dock-4, where a ferry was just getting boarded to leave. Payed the $1.25 and we were on our way. It was pleasant and the view was breath taking.

Back on land, we decided to head off to a nearby aquarium. The entry fee was some exhorbident $ 26 or something, but it was closed. (Which is a good thing since Ashwin told me later it’s pretty much a waste) By now it was 5:30 P.M or so and it closed around 5:00 P.M. So we then navigated our way through to Quincy market, a central place with again, a lot of people and many stalls, stores, etc selling different things. Window shopped for a while and admired some trinkets. Tired by now, decided to just sit down and enjoy what was going around.

Around 7:00 P.M or so, realizing it was getting late, I had to get back to pack and sort out some paperwork, and she had bought tickets to a play “Shear Madness”, we walked back to the nearest major train station where we left on different trains. I reached Harvard Square again, and spent some time on the streets listening to this lady sing in Spanish while a man provided instrumental backup. Now, I don’t know or care for Spanish, but they were very good, and passionate about what they were doing.

This day was important to me, I was beginning to forget how much fun and full of life people can be.

Feeling a bit exhausted by the events of the day, I decided to catch a quick bite to eat and returned home. I then found out from the information desk whether checkout procedures will take time, because, if it did, I’d rather get it over with that night. No real reason to do that was the response, and I returned to my room.

Sorted out different bills and folders. Carefully packed all my stuff, and went to sleep around 11:00 P.M. Slept like a log.