Ive been three times, the first time was during the summer, billions of people and almost impossible to get down that long food bit inside the market and possibly a bit too full of tourists for some.
However I've also been there during the week in the springtime and during December and it was totally different. Very quiet and totally different. I spent my time watching and listening to a Vietnam veteran lecturing two school kids about sacrifice and how they had it so good now. He looked crazy so they just stood and listened. Funny as hell.
The best thing though happened as I was was just strolling through the city centre. I assume lots of people living in Boston arnt from Boston originally as I didn't hear much of the accent until I heard a very loud woman across the street. At first I thought she was mental but she had a uniform on and was at a bus stop. She was clearly working for the bus company. She was maaaaaad with someone and was yelling down the phone in a fantastic Boston accent. I stood there watching for about five minutes. It was better than the Freedom trail.
I then hired a car and drove to Bar Harbor (work thing). As it was late I stopped on the way there at a Motel (hard to find one open in December). This was easily three hours north of Boston but the owner was from there and we sat and chatted at the reception for ages. I was the only customer. I remember him asking me how to say 'Shire' as in 'Yorkshire' and me explaining that it was different to just the word Shire on its own.
Jesus how boring does that sound? It was fun actually.
The next day I set off for my drive to Bar Harbor. I had no sat nav so stopped in some small town to ask directions. I asked in a small corner shop but the guy behind the counter just stared at me. He then mumbled something about 'ill call Steve' or something.
Two minutes later I was surrounded by baseball cap wearing rednecks. Is that right? Can you have Rednecks in New England? They all looked crazy and I could barely understand a word. I was looking for a direction to run should any of them pull out a knife or a penis. In the end though it seems I was just a silly foreigner panicking too much. I was told to head for the Turnpike and head North on the ……
I remember standing there next to my car, surrounded by crazy looking men (about 8, I'm not joking) all discussing where "Ba Haba"was, (apparently I sound 'funny') with me thinking 'what the FUCK is a Turnpike, a piece of farm machinery?
Anyway, I finally got going and hours later made it to my destination. Ive seen quite a bit of New England and as a Englishman, I can tell you it looks quite a lot like England.
Thanks for listening.
