My family and I stayed in a quaint little town called Rockport about 30 miles north of Boston for Christmas, where we’d rented out a nice wee domicile that had a distinctly Christmas-y dimension to it (maybe because it was surrounded in snow) nevertheless it was a fantastic place to spend Christmas – everyone in the town was really friendly and festive, Boston was a short train ride south and should we feel like a dose of culture the surrounding area was steeped in American history.
We took day trips into Boston, Salem (famous for its witch trials in the late 17th century) and Plymouth Rock where the first settlers lived on arrival in the New World. I’d recommend the area to anyone – Boston as well as its surrounding area is beautiful under the snow and the architecture and history are far more impressive than one may imagine for part of such a young country. If that isn’t enough everyone talks like they do in Good Will Hunting – what more could one want?
After saying Goodbye to the family they went straight to the airport as I caught a train down to New York nursing the damage of all the holiday’s fantastic food on my waistline.
Obviously I was in New York for the attraction of Times Square at New Year, which no shortage of other people had come for too. As a result the city was particularly crowded, with queues for most attractions ridiculously long. I got to see most of the things I went for but the part to which I was looking forward most was TERRIBLE! I’m sure most of you have good memories of your New Year (or no memories at all), try comparing them with mine…
I arrived in Times Square at 4pm – 8 hours until midnight I thought I’d be in reasonable proximity to the dropping ball and the stage with the live music on. In reality the closest I could get was 49th street (the ball was on 43rd street and the stage was facing away from me on 47th). Those of you in Edinburgh may be thinking, so what? Street parties are fun at New Year! Party would be going a little far. There was no alcohol allowed (family event), we were kept in actual pens (like sheep) there were no public toilets (if you left to go to one you couldn’t get back to your spot) so all we did was stand looking at a ball (we couldn’t here anything as the speakers were pointing away from us) for 8 hours! Never mind, the ball dropping MUST have been cool? Not really…I’m not sure if I’m the only one, but I kinda expected it to drop as anything else does when subjected to the force of gravity, instead it just descended slowly over the course of a minute to a not very spectacular stop.
I recommend it to everyone!
At midnight we just left with everyone else and well… went to bed. But 2008 is a New Year! I hopped straight on a train in the morning to Washington where I met up with a flatmate of mine for New Year and he kindly let me stay at his place for a few days while I checked out Washington, which I loved. Forget about the Whitehouse and Capitol Hill which are kinda cool, but around them is such a wide array of Museums, Memorials and Monuments (wow, alliterative) that I spent my whole three days just wandering around there! Definitely go if you get the chance!
I’m back in Santa Barbara now and am active again straight away – sorry I dragged my feet a bit on getting this out! Happy New Year!
