The “problem” with working nights is that your sleep schedule is all….shall we say amiss. On Wednesday morning I didn’t go to bed until 2:30 am because I simply wasn’t tired. I had worked the night before and slept a good portion of the day so I was bright eyed and ready to go! I slept until about 6, showered, tried to pack everything I thought I would need for a night and set out.
I needed to stop and pick up a backpack as I didn’t bring one with me to carry the couple of things I would need for staying overnight in Boston. And believe me; I actually did go VERY minimalistic on this trip! Naturally, in stopping at Target prior to going to the train station I ended up missing my train by mere minutes. I have never booked it through Target so fast in my life! The backpacks were all the way in the back of the store, I walk up to this vast array of backpacks and I knew the Swiss Army backpacks would be expensive but I saw some for $24.99 as opposed to $55.99 so I grabbed it and went on my way right to the price scanner and of course it scanned for $55.99. Great! Back to the vast array I went. Many backpacks now do not have just one big open area, they have many small compartments. I finally found one for $20 and I had a $5 gift card so it all ended up working out. I booked it out of Target (walked right past Starbucks – feel free to let your jaw drop now) and zoomed out of the parking lot. GPS took me on a round about way to the interstate and I think I missed like the first three turns I was so flustered about making the train on time. I got to the parking lot with about 3 minutes to spare.
There was a sign at the parking lot that said “Maximum of 24 hours parking” so I asked the lady at the window and she said “Oh no, you can park for more than 24 hours.” Really? Then why does your sign say that? So stupid and now you’ve wasted 30 seconds of my time! I could see the train waiting and sitting on the Amtrak. I knew I wasn’t going to make it. So I parked, got all of my belongings, started walking away and realized I was going to get a water bottle, what the heck, might as well turn around and get one from the trunk, not going to make the train anyways!
So I walk into Union Station in New Haven, and find the window to finally go get my ticket. I felt so excited to be ordering my first train ticket! “One ticket to Boston please,” I say. “You’re at the wrong window…” Fail! So I walked down a couple more windows, my bubble now burst and order my ticket. I had an hour and fifteen minutes so I walked to Dunkin Donuts and got some coffee. I was starting to get a sore throat, that I was confident would soothe it.
I sat down with my coffee and all of my belongings close at hand, pulled out the iPod and watched the newest episode of Downton Abbey. I wasn’t really sure how the whole Amtrak thing worked and how I would know which “track” to choose but I was confident I would figure it out, so back to my episode I went. I of course allowed enough time for a bathroom stop before trying to figure out where I needed to go.
I walked down to where the tracks were and expected to find direction on which track to take and there was no direction. So I backtracked and found the board on the top level that said where to go. So I found where I needed to be and went to Track number 2! On top of Track number 2 I met a really nice older couple and their granddaughter. We all started talking and continued talking the next 2 ½ hours on the way to Boston! Their names were Happy, Helen and Nicole. Helen and Nicole were riding with Happy to Boston to help him catch a bus to spend 10 days with his brother. Happy has some memory problems sometimes so they didn’t want him to miss his bus or get on the wrong one.
Once in Boston I said my farewells to Happy, Helen and Nicole and set out to find the bathroom! That was mission number one to get the trip started off right. Then I decided to just ask someone how the best/easiest way to get to Boston Common was. They said to walk straight up Summer Street and I would run into it.
So that’s what I did! I walked out into the daylight that was Boston and off to Summer Street I went! Summer Street turned into Winter Street and there I was. The Boston Commons! I knew that the trolley station I had gotten a ticket for was at one of the corners but I didn’t know which one so I set off straight ahead (which of course ended up being the wrong way). I walked around the Common, took some pictures, it was overcast but still a beautiful day. I then looked up to see where the trolley store was and found my way there. I arrived to see a not saying “Back at 1:30.” Naturally it was 1:05 so I walked through the Public Garden and took some pictures in the mean time.
Towards 1:30 I made my way back to the trolley and finally got on! It only ran until 4 pm so I’m very thankful that they had a special that if you bought a ticket it was good for 7 consecutive days. I listened to the tour commentary and took some pictures but I also had to figure out where I was going to stay for the night. When mom and I were coming to CT we stayed in rooms for about $110 a night so the night before when my brother-in-law said he could get me a room for about $159 I thought to myself – oh, I’ll just wait and see what I can get cheaper. Well, in downtown Boston you can’t get cheaper. So I ended up booking myself at the Holiday Inn Express off of stop number 4 on my tour.
When I got off at stop number 4 I looked up on my phone to see how far I would need to walk to the hotel. Apparently I was practically standing in front of it. All I had to do was cross the street and walk down a couple stores. This Holiday Inn Express was located in a brick set of buildings and only identified by a banner hanging far above the building. I walked into the lobby and checked in (the lobby was only as wide as a local store), went up to my room (the hotel was mostly just tall) and dropped off my backpack. The hallway was very narrow.
I went to the lobby and asked the easiest way to get to Quincy Market; I was told that it was within walking distance so off I set! And it was pretty easy to get to on foot. I shopped Quincy Market. They had many, many, many places to eat and shop. I shopped for a while and then when I got hungry went to the Hard Rock Café. I don’t know why I always go there, I’ve only had one thing there that I really liked. I should just go and get my cup, it would be cheaper. The dinner wasn’t bad though. I was famished. I hadn’t stopped to eat that day because I only had the trolley until 4 and I only had daylight until about 4:30 so I wanted to optimize my time. After dinner I went to Starbucks and got some coffee and headed back to the room.
Once safe in my room I laid down on the bed and I was exhausted! I had been up since 6 am and had been going full speed all day long. I attempted to read some of The Hunger Games and I don’t’ think I even got a full page read before falling asleep at 6:30. What a good first day in Boston though!
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