I have visited Boston a few times, but a year and half of flying never gave me a long enough layover to really get into the city and experience it. This August, I finally got the chance.
I try not to make too solid of plans for layovers because the joke in the airline industry is the
second you make plans, your trip will fall apart and you won’t be able to do anything you originally planned. So for Boston I had the idea of renting a bike and cruising around Cambridge and Harvard. But when I checked my Mapstr (an amazing app that lets you plot different restaurants and attractions on a digital map), I realized most of the food options I was looking to try out were in Downtown and Back Bay. Harvard would have to wait.
I started the morning heading to Faneuil Hall Marketplace to get some breakfast and coffee. What can be crudely described as an indoor/outdoor flea market, is one of Boston’s historical sites, dating back to the 1700’s.
From there I made my way to Boston Commons. The day was beautiful and the park was full of picnics, frisbee games, and families strolling the grounds.
I exited the park on the west side and continued walking down Commonwealth Avenue and then turned around and headed back toward downtown along Boylston Street.
I stopped for a quick lunch at Luke’s Lobster and then decided to check out the North End. The North End is the historically Italian neighborhood and it did not disappoint. Not only did it give me all the Italian feels, it was the day of The Feast of Saint Anthony! There was a huge block party, lots of delicious smelling food, and a live band playing all my favorite Italian-grandma music. There were a lot of calories consumed that day and they were all worth it.
The festival was one of the coolest things I’ve ever stumbled into. Full of people, and fun, and music, and food. And all I kept thinking was how this wasn’t in my plan at all. If I had stuck to my original idea of biking around Cambridge, I would have never found this festival, or the street market of local vendors selling hand made crafts. I wouldn’t have seen the ducks in Boston Public Gardens.
Sometimes we get so focused on following our originally planned idea, that we can miss out on amazing experiences. Who knows what I would have seen in Cambridge that day. But I do know what I would have missed out on if I had gone. And I’m so happy I didn’t.
AAdventure Seeker 