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I got 7 hours of sleep, having finished Durarara! last night, and woke up to 44 degree weather. Figured I had to get out for that, and did. There was some unprecedented sheet ice at first, but I got out safely, and made it to North End for real this time. It really is very Italian. Also pretty expensive, and most things not restaurants were closed. Cheaper menus on the east edge, also a 7-11 with a not bad German sausage. Went along the shore, and found a public ice skating rink near the bridge that distracted me last time. Continued west to North Station.
I've heard people say South Station needs to connect to North Station. I found that North Station doesn't connect to itself, in a sense. T stop south side of the street, commuter rail and Amtrak north side, there is a walkway leading underneath but you still have a short outside walk into the commuter rail station. If the weather sucks, too bad. Also the T escalators weren't working.
Internal architecture isn't as good as South Station, but the ceiling does have a sign on it saying DO NOT WALK ON CEILING. Unexpected whimsy for the location. On stories above the station was something I couldn't figure out, with security and a giant JetBlue mural-ad. "Hey,he's got a big backpack" a guard said. Turned out to be Boston Garden, officially known as TD Garden, I assume sold off to TD Bank, which isn't a garden at all but some stadium/auditorium/theatre, by the sound of it.
West of there is another bridge, leading to the Science Museum then Lechmere on the Green Line. It was 16:45 but I popped my head in the museum. $21 for the exhibits, geez! In the store I got $5 of tumbled quartz, and some magnetic balls, in way too much packaging including a blister pack.
Lechmere: walked around, found Cambridge Galleria mall and not much else, had meh but cheap sashimi miso and seaweed salad in the mall, looked into Border's, got the first Spice and Wolf novel and a basic 2000 kanji dictionary. Mall closes at 1900, leading to a packed E line. I'm at an Au Bon Pain in Harvard Square.
Misc. human interactions or other notes:
Porter Square had a little girl asking why people walked on the escalator as I passed; I called back "to get down faster!" There was a public toilet booth on the sidewalk on the way to North End. a quarter to use, unlike the free ones in London and Paris. (Go ahead, ask me if I think Boston is a world class city.) As I inspected my magnet package at the museum, there was a girl and her father waiting for her mother. I though she was second grade at first, from something she said ("did you go to 2nd grade?", as if she could't imagine it of her father), but speech pattern and height would have me guess 5th grade or so. Main thing was that she noticed a woman leave in sandals, which seemed strange given the weather and slush. her father said something, which received "Dad, that's rude! Did she look Hawaiian?" I commented that in my limited experience, Hawaiians do wear sandals in weather like this.
At Border's I grabbed a Goodkind book and opened it to random spots a few times. First time was about punishment, second about Richard-worship, third time was just dire writing. Random samples of The Windup Girl just found dire writing.
Green Line had 4 teen girls who seemed very nervous and uncertain of where they were or how to get home. I wonder how they got to the mall in the first place. Tried to help them out in limited time, getting out my map and telling them maps are free, and later confirmed for my peace of mind that one of the buses they mentioned does in fact go from where they got off to the town where they wanted to go. Hope the one girl doesn't need the other bus though, transferring to a 60 minute bus would suck.
Will our Sunday bar be full of Super Bowl crap? We'll see!
I've heard people say South Station needs to connect to North Station. I found that North Station doesn't connect to itself, in a sense. T stop south side of the street, commuter rail and Amtrak north side, there is a walkway leading underneath but you still have a short outside walk into the commuter rail station. If the weather sucks, too bad. Also the T escalators weren't working.
Internal architecture isn't as good as South Station, but the ceiling does have a sign on it saying DO NOT WALK ON CEILING. Unexpected whimsy for the location. On stories above the station was something I couldn't figure out, with security and a giant JetBlue mural-ad. "Hey,he's got a big backpack" a guard said. Turned out to be Boston Garden, officially known as TD Garden, I assume sold off to TD Bank, which isn't a garden at all but some stadium/auditorium/theatre, by the sound of it.
West of there is another bridge, leading to the Science Museum then Lechmere on the Green Line. It was 16:45 but I popped my head in the museum. $21 for the exhibits, geez! In the store I got $5 of tumbled quartz, and some magnetic balls, in way too much packaging including a blister pack.
Lechmere: walked around, found Cambridge Galleria mall and not much else, had meh but cheap sashimi miso and seaweed salad in the mall, looked into Border's, got the first Spice and Wolf novel and a basic 2000 kanji dictionary. Mall closes at 1900, leading to a packed E line. I'm at an Au Bon Pain in Harvard Square.
Misc. human interactions or other notes:
Porter Square had a little girl asking why people walked on the escalator as I passed; I called back "to get down faster!" There was a public toilet booth on the sidewalk on the way to North End. a quarter to use, unlike the free ones in London and Paris. (Go ahead, ask me if I think Boston is a world class city.) As I inspected my magnet package at the museum, there was a girl and her father waiting for her mother. I though she was second grade at first, from something she said ("did you go to 2nd grade?", as if she could't imagine it of her father), but speech pattern and height would have me guess 5th grade or so. Main thing was that she noticed a woman leave in sandals, which seemed strange given the weather and slush. her father said something, which received "Dad, that's rude! Did she look Hawaiian?" I commented that in my limited experience, Hawaiians do wear sandals in weather like this.
At Border's I grabbed a Goodkind book and opened it to random spots a few times. First time was about punishment, second about Richard-worship, third time was just dire writing. Random samples of The Windup Girl just found dire writing.
Green Line had 4 teen girls who seemed very nervous and uncertain of where they were or how to get home. I wonder how they got to the mall in the first place. Tried to help them out in limited time, getting out my map and telling them maps are free, and later confirmed for my peace of mind that one of the buses they mentioned does in fact go from where they got off to the town where they wanted to go. Hope the one girl doesn't need the other bus though, transferring to a 60 minute bus would suck.
Will our Sunday bar be full of Super Bowl crap? We'll see!