Let me tell you all the story of a man named 'Charlie'...

... On that tragic, and fateful day...

... He put 10c in his pocket, kissed his wife and family and went to ride on the MTA...

Sorry... Every time I go to Boston, or think about riding the MTA I think of this song.  It tells the tale of a man named Charlie who gets stuck on the Boston subway system, it was written as a part of an election campaign for a Mayoral candidate back in the 1940s.  It got stuck in my head one day at Fenway Park back in 2010 and I've been struggling to get rid of it ever since...

Monday

Leaving New York to return in a week I had a busy morning due.  After the normal morning routine I had to go down and get some food and a few bottles of water and killed a bit of time.  I still wasn't feeling that great, so I didn't really want to go wait downtown for the bus to Boston, even though you're less likely to miss the bus downtown, so I tried to spend as much time as possible in the hostel.

The bus was due to leave at 11:10 AM from 34th St, between 11th and 12th Avenue... Not wanting to take the Subway whilst feeling average factored into my decision to take a cab.  So, once I killed enough time I checked out and walked over to Broadway to hail a cab... This took so much longer than I expected... Shows how hard it is for a Kuhne to get a cab in this town... But I was lucky that a cab came after me waiting for 5-10 minutes because any later and I'd have cut it too fine...

The cabbie was a Pakistani bloke who seemed enthralled in speaking to me about the cricket and was loudly telling me that Ricky Ponting's wife once rode in his cab... I agreed that Ponting was a good cricketer, but I didn't go as far as the Pakistani bloke and agree that he was a great captain (but that is just my opinion and I'm happy to debate it in person)... We took the West Side Highway and got caught in traffic, though I was beginning to show signs of worry the cabbie assured me that he would turn off the meter and chase down the bus and park in front of it for me to get it... Nice touch... He reckon's he did it for an old lady once, though I hoped it wouldn't come to that for me...

And thankfully it didn't, despite the cutting it fineness of the trip.  I arrived at 10:50 AM, 5 minutes before I was meant to be there for the Megabus, and joined the back of the line behind two Asian guys... Lazy sods, when the line began moving one of them stood there with the bags while the other moved with the line which went up the street and snaked back around to the bus and then when their tickets were presented the other guy jumped in... I mean, I envy the laziness... But I had to carry my bag the distance, not as fun as being lazy... Anyway, I got on the bus, sat down next to someone, the guy by himself in the seats in front of me got up leaving two free seats and some random dude walked by as that happened which meant I was stuck next to someone where as if I'd been 2 minutes later entering the bus I'd have had two seats to myself the entire way to Boston.  Didn't happen.  And given how average I was feeling it made for a very long drive.

After about 4 hours we rolled into Boston along the Mass Pike where I could see the light towers of Fenway Park out the right hand side of the bus... Yep... Finally back in Boston...

I decided to get a cab to the house I was staying in.  As I exited the South Station doors a guy was asking people if they needed a cab.  So, I said yes, and he showed me to his car... Which was an unmarked sedan... I got a bit gun-shy and asked him if he was actually a cab, and he assured me that he was... I asked him to produce a cab licence... He fumbled around his glovebox for about 2 minutes before saying he didn't have one or a business card... Thanks buddy, but no thanks... I took my bag out of his car's boot and walked a short distance to an actual taxi-rank... Much better result...

The place I was staying at was in South Boston.  I was house sitting for some overseas colleagues of my father who we met in San Diego.  This was a good result, saved me paying for accommodation for a week and it wasn't hostel living.  Though, staying in a South Boston apartment wasn't necessarily what I expected when I walked in, for example, having to carry my heavy bag up 3 flights of thin and winding stairs was not at all fun and I nearly tripped once or twice.  But again, free accommodation, can not complain... Boston, can not complain...

Downside, I had to deal with a cat... I am not a pet person... Anyone who has lived with me during my adult life knows that I'm not a fan of pets... I only had pets once... Rabbits... Back when I was about 6... They ran away one day... Or, that's what I was told anyway... Many years later when sitting around the table at Nona's house for dinner my Uncle took great pleasure in telling me we ate those rabbits and they were delicious... I don't think he was messing with me...

I settled in, had a random intruder (who was actually the person who was sporadically looking after the cat) and then decided to go to the nearby Southie Food Market where I got a few essentials and then settled in at home and enjoyed a few hours in front of a TV, a luxury not afforded to me properly since Charlotte.  I watched Cartoon Network mostly because Adult Swim was on it and it was pretty funny.

I then jumped into a big and warm bed... Gotta love not being in a hostel...

Tuesday

I was going to go out on Tuesday but I was still feeling really, really awful, so I basically stuck it out inside all day.  I found some food inside that I didn't buy, so I ate some Sugar Frosties and watched back to back to back to back episodes of Law & Order: SVU.

Turns out that USA Network only seems to show SVU... Now, there isn't a problem with that necessarily, but the show is fundamentally flawed I feel... As you know, in the criminal justice system the people are represented by two separate, yet, equally important groups.  The Police who investigate crimes. And the District Attorneys who prosecute the offenders.  These are their stories... Law... AND Order... SVU is only Law, there is no Order... I'll take 20 minutes of Jack McCoy arguing case law and inclusiveness of evidence over an extra 20 minutes of Detective Olivia Benson trying to look menacing and catch an accused rapist... They never actually get to sentencing, hell, they never even get to arraignment... SVU seems like the drama series of the Law & Order franchise... Give me the regular Law & Order over SVU any day of the week... Perhaps it says more about me than anything else that I am more interested in watching an argument than the interrogation of a rapist... Anyway, given I was still feeling super average this was my day...

It was raining and cold outside, and I was still very not right, so rather than catching the MTA I decided to get an Uber to the Garden.  The T station was at least a 10 minute walk away, which I had no interest in dealing with.  I was keen though, it was my 2nd favourite city in Tennessee against my favourite city in America, so why stay home?

Cold and wet in Boston

The TD Garden, the new Boston Garden, is above the North Station in Boston. The Boston Garden, the old Boston Garden, was also above the North Station... The Old Garden isn't there anymore, now it is a parking garage or something.  Because the TD Garden is above a railway station you have to enter by either walking up stairs or escalators just to get to the bottom level.  I walked down the side of the building, hung out in the pro-shop on the bottom level (decided to wait until I was feeling better before buying anything in Boston) and then walked up some stairs, had my ticket scanned and then headed to my seat after two flights of escalators.

View of the rink, of all the Celtics Championship Banners, retired numbers and the Bruins Stanley Cup Champion Banners

National Anthem - Nashville Predators @ Boston Bruins

The seats upstairs at the Garden are different to any nosebleed seats I have been in.  They, like most, are 'bucket' seats (so, you fold them down) but the difference is that the back support part of the seat also moves when you fold out the arse portion of the seat.  This duel movement seat is unique as far as I have seen this trip.  Gotta love Boston.

Given I was finally watching a Boston team in Massachusetts I spent a lot more time watching the game and supporting than I did taking photographs, but I have picked a few and they are below.

The Bruins took an early lead, then conceded a soft goal shortly after... They went ahead again, only to concede a soft goal shortly after... A pattern was forming... But it was a really high energy and entertaining 1st period which ended 2-2.

Opening face off

Boston celebrates a goal

Face off

The 2nd Period belonged to Boston, who scored twice to take a 4-2 lead.  The pattern from the 1st Period clearly didn't hold... At the break, Rene Rancourt, the guy who sung the National Anthem, came out and sung a plethora of Christmas carols... Apparently this is a Boston Garden tradition...  The 3rd Period included a Nashville goal near the midpoint of the period which injected life into the game, but then included a Boston goal when Nashville had to pull their goalie for an extra attacker with less than 2 minutes left in regulation.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable game, even though I was still feeling decidedly under the weather.

 

 

 

This was easily my most favourite photograph of the pre-Christmas games I went to... This resident of the Penalty Box will be getting coal in his stocking

As close to a fight as I saw in all my games of hockey

TV Timeout Ice Crew

5-3 Bruins

Final, Boston Bruins 5, Nashville Predators 3


After the game I left the Garden, jumped in the first cab I could find on Causeway Street and went straight home.  Traffic in Boston tends to be heavy all the time because the streets are so thin and laid out for horses rather than automobiles.  But I made it home relatively quickly and went straight to bed.  Hoping to feel better the next day.
 
Wednesday

Christmas Eve in Boston... So, Christmas Day in Australia... No White Christmas in sight for Boston, so to get that summer Christmas feel in the Northern Hemisphere what better place to go than the heart of Boston... Fenway Park...

I woke up late, which has been a standard practice since Baltimore, and then got a ride out to Fenway.  The guy who took me asked me which way I wanted to go... This probably gave him a licence to go wherever the hell he wanted as long as I got to where I was going eventually! It felt like we went the long way, but perhaps it was because he was trying to get me to describe cricket to him.  This was like pulling teeth, but eventually we pulled onto Ipswich Street and I disembarked at the Cathedral of Boston.

I bought a ticket for the next departing tour, which was at midday, and then spent a bit of time perusing the team store.  I won't say much about the store, but I will say this... The place is freaking massive... Honestly, it is a team shop, and it is big enough to house virtually the entire floor space of the bistro, front bar, dining area, pokies and Power Gear Shop at the Port Club at Alberton... Those of you familiar with that site will understand the size... Those of you who don't, well, I would encourage you to head down to Queen Street, Alberton, get a meal, spend some money at the club, and learn about just how big the Red Sox Team Store at Fenway Park is.

This is the larger room, but there is a full room behind me as well

I bought a shirt and some pants and watched the checkout girls spend their time watching Frozen and not doing their jobs, though, I was killing time until midday, so I wasn't in much of a rush.  I haven't actually seen that film yet... I'm sure I'm in a minority here because everyone seems to be bad shit crazy about it, but, uh, yeah, what it is is what it is, let it go people...

After killing enough time we crossed Yawkey Way and entered America's Most Beloved Ballpark, lead by our tour guide Francisco.

I would encourage anyone who has not been to Fenway Park, baseball fan or not, Red Sox fan or not, to come to this ballpark and take the tour.  The history of the place is amazing, the stories the ballpark holds, the scenes it has seen. 

The Red Sox moved to Fenway Park from the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds (which is where Northeastern University now is).  Fenway Park opened on April 20, 1912, with the Boston Red Sox defeating the New York Highlanders 7-6 in extra innings... The Highlanders were so ashamed they went all the way back to New York and the following year changed their name to the Yankees... So, the Red Sox have been beating the Yankees at Fenway since day 1.

Fenway Park got its name due to the area of Boston it was built in,, that neighbourhood was Fenway, which was created in the 19th century by filling in marshland or 'fens' which created the Back Bay Fens urban area.  Boston is largely a landfill city.  I'll talk more about that a bit later on.

We began in the bowels of the stadium and learnt about the Boston Strong jersey which followed the team from Cleveland through to the 2013 World Series Championship after the tragic Boston Marathon bombings on Patriots Day in 2013.  We then walked up and caught our first glimpse of the hallowed ballpark.

Boston Strong

Beneath the grandstands of Fenway Park

First glimpse of Fenway in winter

Fenway Park

We then headed back underneath the grandstands and actually got to enter the Visitor's Clubhouse.  I found this really cool, and this was not something that I was able to do when I came 4 years earlier and did the tour.  Given my obsession with sports I kind of have a weird desire to see locker rooms where elite sportsmen get changed... I don't know why, but I can now say I've been in a room where X number of Major League Baseball All Stars have been, I even got to lay a hand on Derek Jeter's favourite locker as a Fenway Park visitor; though, I can't say I'd have selected that locker if I had been a Major Leaguer, I mean, it was right by the door, I'd much rather somewhere without the foot traffic... I feel as though Derek Jeter would have benefitted from my hostel bed selection guide.

The entrance to the Visitor Clubhouse - In open view under the grandstand... A very old ballpark feel

Visitor Clubhouse (1/3)

Visitor Clubhouse (2/3)

Visitor Clubhouse (3/3)

The tunnel to the field... The locker to the left of the door was Jeter's favourite

After the away rooms we headed up to the grandstand seats and got the history of the ballpark and the team.  All the World Series Championships through the early years of the century, winning in 1918, then owner Harry Frazee selling Babe Ruth (and the majority of the rest of the 1918 Championship team) to the New York Yankees (this is why the Yankees were so good during that era, they bought Boston's starting rotation and best players), the downturn and awful play of the 1920s and 1930s, and then the purchasing of the team by Tom Yawkey in 1933.  Mr Yawkey bought with him much needed capital and began to reshape and renovate the deteriorating ballpark.

In 1926 a fire, from a cigar left behind by a patron, burned down the left field bleachers, which were never replaced (the charred remains were simply carted away, which allowed left fielders to catch balls well beyond the previous boundary of the field); in the time between the bleachers burning down and the purchase of the team by Mr Yawkey there was simply a gentle 3m rise in Left Field before Lansdowne Street which was called 'Duffy's Cliff', named for 'Duffy' Lewis, Boston's first star left fielder who had mastered the art of running up and down the incline to catch fly balls.  After the purchase of the club by Mr Yawkey 'Duffy's Cliff' was levelled but the wall remained unchanged, which resulted in home run balls occasionally going over and hitting parked cars or windows of shops across the street; Mr Yawkey got tired of paying for this damage (and he also got tired of people sitting across the street and seeing the game for free when he couldn't sell out the game inside the ballpark) and so he organised the erection of the 37 foot high wall, 310 feet from home plate, now lovingly known as 'the Green Monster'.  At the time of it being built it was covered in advertisements, though they only remained until 1947 when the ballplayers complained and the wall was painted Fenway Green (which is a trademarked colour... If you want to use it you have to own the Red Sox...).

Our guide also explained the retired numbers hanging in the Right Field Corner,:
1 - Bobby Doerr;
4 - Joe Cronin;
6 - Johnny Pesky (the right field foul pole is also named for him);
8 - Carl Yastrzemski (I had to look that up for spelling),
9 - Ted Williams ("Teddy Ballgame", "The Splendid Splinter", "The Kid", "The Thumper" and "The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived");
14 - Jim Rice;
27 - Carlton Fisk (who hit this home run in the 1975 World Series); and
42 - Jackie Robinson (the first person to break the colour barrier)

We also learned that the seats that we were sitting in during this information overload were the oldest seats in baseball.  Added at the beginning of the Yawkey administration, the blue seats beneath the grandstand at Fenway Park are the original seats that were put in during the 1930s, and as such hold all kinds of history... Theoretically, if you knew where your great grandfather sat when he went to a Red Sox game during the 1930s then you could sit in the exact same seat.  So, from that perspective, the ballpark not only holds the history and stories of baseball and a team and a city, but also of families and provides a connection between generations.  They are also seats indicative of old style ballparks and the architectural limitations of classic ballparks, as the pillars for the grandstand provide countless obstructions to the viewing of the play.

View from the 3rd base line in the Oldest Seats in Baseball

We then headed up to the EMC Club and media area.  The media room provided a great view of the park, and was the room where Brad Pitt got a job offer when he was playing Billy Beane in Moneyball. 

The front row is reserved for National Media, such as the Baseball Writers Association of America, the second row is for Local Media, such as the Boston Globe, the 3rd row is for out of town media, and the 4th row was added when the Red Sox acquired Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okijima back in 2007 (apparently the Japanese like baseball... Like, really like baseball).

View from the pressbox

The tour was running well over time because aside from the only two Americans on the tour, and myself, we had two Asian guys (who were obsessed with getting a perfect photograph and thus didn't move when told) and (surprisingly) worse in the form of 4 Mexican tourists who played by their own rules, to the point where the guide had to retreat from where we were to go searching for them.

We ended up looking over "the Red Seat" situated in the Section 42 bleachers (Row 37, Seat 21) which signifies the longest home run his inside Fenway Park.  It was hit by Ted Williams on June 9, 1946, officially measured at 502 feet (153m).  The ball landed on Joseph Boucher, going through his straw hat and leaving him with a nasty bump on the head.  Mr. Boucher was quoted as saying "How far away must one sit to be safe in this park? I didn't even get the ball!".  Apparently the newspaper the next day showed a photo of Mr Boucher holding up his ruined hat with the headline "Bulls-eye!"

The lone red seat in the Fenway Park bleachers marking 502ft from Home Plate

Sam back at Fenway

Back on the Monster

The ballpark portion of the tour ended on the Green Monster.  Though, the Center Field part of the Monster, so I couldn't go to sit in the seat I sat in 4 years earlier, however, it was still a wonderful experience.  At this point the Mexicans made absolute nuisances of themselves, but I guess that'll happen. 

The tour officially ended in a small museum with some facts about the ballpark and some artifacts and trophies and the like.   This was a great way to end the tour and it was fun browsing and reading and all that good stuff.

Fenway Park seating through the ages

World Series Champions memorabilia

The 2004, 2007 and 2013 American League Championship Trophies

Teammates in front of Gate B

Yaz

I walked out of the ballpark onto Ipswich Street and saw a hop-on hop-off tour bus roll up, so, I walked over, asked if he was taking passengers (the bus was empty) and I hopped on.  This was a very lucky result for me.  The driver's name was Bubba, and he had the heaviest Boston accent I've heard since I entered Massachusetts.  It was amazing to listen to him and listen to all those hard 'h' sounds.  He was actually pretty funny anyway, accent or not, and I was laughing most of the way.

I'm not even going to try to write the stuff he was saying because I can't remember all of it and I was laughing through a lot of it, but suffice to say, when he said "you cahn pahk youh cah heah on weekends" I was loving it... ("you can park your car here on weekends")... I can't remember where he was even talking about, it just seemed like he was trying to cram in as many words which showed off his accent as he could.

I said I would speak about the origin of the Back Bay Fens and the Back Bay neighbourhood earlier, so here I will do, Bubba explained it on the tour (better than the tour guide at Fenway Park).   The name Back Bay is derived from what it originally was before it was livable, and that is literally a bay to the west of the Shawmut Peninsula (Boston) between Boston and Cambridge.

The poorly drawn X is the Back Bay area

Boston was previously a city on a peninsula, accessible by land only by a thin piece of land known as 'Boston Neck' (which explains why it was so easy to blockage and place under siege during the British occupation of the city prior to the Revolution).

Back Bay, as shown above, is the bay behind Boston.  It was a tidal bay, so, the water level rose and fell several feet over the course of each day.  Many people would dump their garbage there, then when the tide came in it would be washed away.  This continued for many years, old habits die hard! Eventually in the 1850s there was a project to create land, and land fill was brought in.  The present day Back Bay neighbourhood was filled by 1882, and the project more than doubled the size of the Shawmut Peninsula.  This was something that I did not know before I came to Boston 4 years ago, but something I didn't know in as much depth until I took the bus tour with Bubba.  The neighbourhood is actually really beautiful, Victorian architecture and nicely laid out streets, I mean, Beacon Hill is the nice neighbourhood, but there is a lot to say about Back Bay...

The tour continued over to MIT where we heard some of the crazy pranks the kids had undertaken, like painting the dome of the main building at MIT to look like R2-D2 from Star Wars, or putting a full size working MTA Subway Car on the roof... Crazy College kids and their pranks... I guess it makes sense that a place which stand for 'Millionaires In Training' (and not the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) would be able to get stuff like that going on their campus.

We eventually made it to the 1st stop, where I paid my money for the tour (it was good for 3 days, excluding Christmas Day), so I could use it until Saturday, and it also gave me entrance to the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, which I was intending on doing anyway, so this was another win.

I rode the bus back to the North Station where I jumped off to go to the Bruins Pro Shop to buy a Celtics shirt for the basketball on Friday (rather than getting dressed twice on Friday, once at home and once at the Garden)... Although, it was closed... At 3:30 PM... I guess the Christmas Eve closures were taking hold... I was pretty devo, but it got worse as many restaurants nearby were also closed.

As much as I had spent most of my day out of the house, I still wasn't feeling wonderful, but a little better than the days prior.  So, despite feeling pretty poor I ate my first good meal in a number of days, stopping for some 'steak strips', which was like having small chunks of beef which were marinated... Every place I walked by offered steak strips but not a regular steak... So be it... I didn't eat as much as I would have liked but I did eat and I was beginning to feel better.

I got home a while later, and basically just sat out in front of the tube watching Christmas stuff on TV.  Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was on; every South Park holiday episode ever created was on back to back to back, I found things to watch quite easily that wasn't Law & Order: SVU.

I then had a nice 45 minute Skype call home as all my family gathered at my Mum and Dad's house for Christmas lunch.  It was probably the point in the trip where I have been the most homesick, because I was able to speak to all my family members who were present at the time, my mum, my dad, Nona, Leo, Anita and the boys, Vincent and Anne, Aunty Mary and Uncle Jack... I got to see briefly the pinball machine set up (which had me super jealous, and looking forward to Easter when I am promised that I will be able to get some more and play for free for 4 days straight), spoke to my cousins who got a Playstation as a part of their Christmas (which I am super, super jealous of!), got told of their University acceptances, heard a very interesting rumour as to the true nature of why former Adelaide Crows coach Brenton Sanderson was sacked *rubs nose*, and got told a filthy story from my father about running on Christmas Day and picking up a loose hanky from the ground...

It was wonderful speaking to everyone, and seeing everyone, albeit on a small computer screen.

I then retired from the call once I'd spoken to everyone and they all got sick of me and returned to Cartoon Network.  CN in America after 8 PM becomes Adult Swim, so I spent my Christmas Eve watching Kristmas with Krampus... Don't ask...

Thursday - Christmas Day

Merry Christmas from America!

No White Christmas in Boston... So, essentially it was a complete waste of a trip and I should have just stayed in Australia... Didn't see snow at Christmas... Complete waste...

I am kidding, but I was hoping for snow...

It was a Christmas miracle, I was feeling a lot better and was, for the first time since Charlotte, feeling relatively healthy.  To make the most of this, I spent the day in front of the TV.

It turns out that without any family in town, and with nothing open, there isn't really much you can do.  And that is all the excuse I needed to sit in front of the TV all day and watch various Christmas things on TV (mostly cartoons and sports)

I fed the cat 3 times and spent more time fighting with it than doing anything else on Christmas.  This has only strengthened my resolve to never get a pet.  Seriously, I think it is plotting to kill me... I only fed it that many times because it kept on coming up to me and scratching at the couch and then at me/my already torn jeans...

Watching the cat eat made me feel like a meal, so I found about the only thing I could that delivered on Christmas (I didn't think ahead to buy food to cook myself) and got a pizza.  I didn't have any cash though, and I can't order online and pay with a card because apparently a 4 digit postcode doesn't count... I went to the service station around the corner to use the ATM, thankfully they're still open on Christmas... I only have $157 left on my travel cash card and I have a week to run on my trip in the USA.  This is cutting it fine... But it also says something for my haphazard budgeting prior to taking the trip, I'm pretty happy I got so close to what I needed without really giving it heaps of thought... And honestly, there have been places in this country where I've spent way too much money than I should have done... Anyway... Enjoy the trip while you have the chance Sam!

The food came and I spent the rest of the day watching basketball.  The house I am staying in does not have the channels I would usually go for (I.e. I would have the Sports channels automatically), so I could only watch 2 of the 5 NBA games, the two that were on ABC.  I watched the Oklahoma City Thunder play the San Antonio Spurs, then the Cleveland Cavaliers play the Miami Heat.

I made a 30 minute Skype call home (as mum and dad were still around on Boxing Day before heading to Port Julia with the Italian family down in Australia).  In speaking to them I kind of got worried about when I get to Italy, I am sure I will be fine, but learning a language all of a sudden has become a bit more daunting... I'm not sure it should have, but speaking to home and briefly speaking to Italian family who couldn't speak English got me a little worried... Ah well, there is always Google Translate if I get really stuck!

I honestly spent my Christmas watching TV, eating pizza and fighting with the cat.  Fighting with the cat was the largest part of it... I don't know how people get behind pets at all... Bloody things are so damn demanding! He spent most of the day jumping up and down over me as I lay on the couch, and I spent most of my day swearing at it... It keeps on making sounds at me which sounds awfully reminiscent of a clicker from The Last of Us (best PlayStation game I've ever played by the way), which may be why I am so afraid that the cat is going to kill me... I'm generally fairly laid back but this cat got the better of me... Never will I get a pet... Won't happen... If I have kids and they beg and beg, well, I'll be happy to tell them 'no'...

I went to bed at a decent hour ready for the Celtics tomorrow!

This is where I am going to end this post... The next one will include the Boston Celtics, sight seeing in Boston, and in all likelihood a trip to Foxboro for the New England Patriots (though at the time of writing that hasn't happened yet... Hopefully it does, I already paid for the ticket!)