The final stop on the near two month US trip was Boston.

Boston was named after the town of Boston in England after many of the city’s settlers came from the English town and kept the name.

It’s a place known for its firsts in the US.

The first public park in the US was Boston Common in 1634, the Boston Latin School was the first public school a year after, and the Tremont Street Subway was the first subway system in 1897.

If you’re someone who has a sweet tooth, the first Dunkin’ Donuts was located just over 10 miles outside of Boston in Quincy. The very first chocolate factory in the US was also in Boston.

Boston, which is Massachusetts’s most populous city serves as the cultural and financial centre of the New England region.

Harvard

Here we have one of, if not the most famous university in the world.

Harvard, named after its first benefactor John Harvard, is the oldest higher learning institution in the US.

The prestige of going to Harvard is the equivalent to going to Oxford or Cambridge university.

I didn’t really have a plan when I turned up. I just walked around the campus, had a look around. I don’t know if I wanted to see what the hype was about or if I wanted to just say I’d been to Harvard.

I’d met a couple of Harvard students the night before at a pub, Darius and Cade. We spoke about all sorts. I asked them on life at Harvard and was curious more than anything about what life is like for students at Harvard.

I find that there is a common perception that students at prestigious universities tend to be up their own arse.

Darius and Cade were humble, down to earth guys. They worked hard to get to the point they’re at. No hating on that. Everyone is on their own journey.

Don’t get me wrong, you’ll probably come across the pretentious snobby types, but if I was a betting man, I’d say it was less common than you think.

Boston Public Market

Boston Public Market is a year round indoor market featuring 30 New England artisans and food producers under one roof preparing food, crafts and speciality items.

The market opened in 2015 and is run by the non-profit Boston Public Market Association, who select the vendors for the stalls on the condition they sell food, and other produce made in New England.

The market was the first in the US to have an all local food requirement. The operators of the market do allow for a limited amount of produce to be sold at the market if for whatever reasons it’s unable to be grown in New England.

For a market it’s pretty quiet. I don’t mean that it was dead or anything like that. The vendors and clientele seemed to be chilled. It was refreshing rather than a market than could typically be overcrowded.

It was reasonably priced. Understandably you don’t get that often as local vendors need to make ends meet. Supporting local businesses isn’t always the cheapest option but you can generally see the difference in quality.

Freedom Trail

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile long route that passes through 16 locations of significant history of the US.

The locations range from churches, meeting houses, parks, museums, burial grounds etc. You can get a map online to help plan out your route or split it rather than doing it all in one go.

I saw parts of the trail. I didn’t bother with the whole 2.5 mile walk because having been near the end of a long trip I wanted to keep it relaxed. I casually wondered than really take notice of where I was going.

The good thing is locations 1 – 11 are within close proximity to each other. Locations 12 – 14 aren’t too far away. The majority of the walk is getting to the last two locations.

If you’re a history buff and want to make it an experience, you can buy a ticket with a tour operator who will go in depth with you.

Underground at Ink Block

Underground at Ink Block is an 8 acre underpass in between Boston’s South End and South Boston Neighbourhood which has been converted into an active urban park.

It’s walking distance to Boston’s downtown, and you’ve got amenities such as a dog park, cycle paths, landscaped pedestrian paths, markets and more.

It helps connect communities which would have been separated before by the highway.

There are events held here such as the graffiti festival.

It was the street art that I was interested in. It isn’t the biggest showing of street I’ve seen. There’s 13 feet of public art walls to go with the area around the car park and the underpass.

It made an area which would have been deemed ugly previously look good and more appealing to visit.

Food

Boston in its own right has a good food scene and so many options that I could write a blog post or two about it.

I’m going to focus on two pizza places as it’s an easy one to compare, and something most of us love.

I had a recommendation from someone who was a former customer in my old job, Jorge. He’s a Boston native and he’s obsessed (rightly so) with a pizza place in Boston’s East called Santarpio’s.

And I’m here all day for it. I can appreciate someone who has that passion for food.

It’s family owned and has been open since 1903. Apart from pizzas, they’re also known for their grilled meat skewers.

The other place I tried was Regina’s at their original North End location which opened in 1926. You’ll see places that collect memorabilia whether it be sports jerseys or currencies from around the world, Regina’s had a collection of police badges which is an usual one.

While the capricciosa pizza at Regina’s was good, Santarpio’s wins this one. The sausage and garlic pizza hit different.

Apparently the live music scene is good. I got refused entry to one place because the bouncer wanted my passport so he could scan it. I only had my drivers licence and even though it has my date of birth he still refused.

I thought the bouncer was winding me up when he said he needed to scan it, I’ve always been use to showing my ID, having the date of birth checked and carrying on. There was an element of not wanted to lose my passport. I never carry it with me anyway, because why would I? I only need it for the airport.

I do have a scanned copy that I keep on my phone but he wasn’t having any of it. Rather than stand there and argue, I wished him a good evening and went to pub, did a pub quiz and won with the assistance of Google.

I found out the whole thing of scanning your passport is actually a thing. This is due to Boston being a student city and cracking down on underage drinkers.

It’s something to remember for next time, so if you want to go into a bar, club or see live music, bring your passport.

Otherwise I really liked Boston. it’s a walk able city and it’s the best place in the US I’ve been to for exploring on foot.

Depending what you’ve heard, it’s got a good vibe and the food scene and nightlife is good.

Boston has other stuff you can do such as the Boston Harbour City Cruise. You’ll find it hard getting bored here. In fact I’ll be pretty impressed if you got bored of Boston.