On Boston and the Benefits of Baseball

At the end of the week after an exhausting run of exams, I'll be honest - I wasn't really in the mood to travel. By Sunday, I certainly wasn't looking forward to waking up at 6am to make the 9 hour bus trip to Boston, when all I wanted to do was lie in bed and catch up on the TV shows I'd been missing.

Well Boston, all I can say is "Congrats", because you certainly proved my wrong. Hardcore.

What a city. It was so beautiful, lively and full of action! I think it's probably been my favourite trip so far, for three main reasons: the attractions, the vibe of the city itself, and the people.

The Attractions:

My first real experience of the sites of Boston came from a walking tour run by the HI hostel that I did on Monday morning. It was great because our tour guide, Andrea, had the right balance between giving us interesting information, but not overloading us so that we could enjoy the sites and get to know the other people in the group. She also took us to some places in Boston that I would not have thought to go to, such as the Esplanade and the extremely beautiful Beacon Hill (the most expensive place to live in Boston - we even saw Secretary of State John Kerry's house!).

Beacon Hill - this street had a private park that only residents were allowed the key to

There was also a fantastic mix of old buildings from when Boston was first starting out as a city, and new sky scrapers - I found myself fascinated by the architecture I was seeing around the place. My two favourite new buildings in Boston would definitely have to be the John Hancock Tower and 500 Boylston Street.

John Hancock Tower was particularly interesting because it caused a lot of controversy when it was being planned. It was set to be located in a square full of old historic buildings, and people couldn't believe that a 60-storey sky scraper was going to be built right next to these beautiful old buildings. So the architect, Henry N. Cobb, employed some techniques to come to a compromise.

A bit of juxtaposition in the architecture!

The outside of the tower is entirely glass, tinged blue - this was done so that the buildings surrounding the tower would be reflected in the glass, and so that the tower would blend into the skyline on a bright blue-skied day! I thought this was a pretty cool way of solving the problem and extremely effective - on the days that I saw the skyline, I saw both of these effects!

Blending and reflecting!

I also found the Boston Public Gardens and the Boston Common gorgeous places to just stroll through and people watch. This is one thing that I have definitely noticed in America particularly - the prevalence and grandeur of public city parks. In Australia you find them, but I haven't seen one as iconic as I've seen over here yet!

The smallest suspension bridge in the world!

Of course, a trip to Boston wouldn't be complete without taking the subway to Cambridge and exploring Harvard University. I got my first glimpse of Harvard Square at night on my way to a Cults concert that was just around the corner (They were great too! Loving their material on their new album). Already, I could feel the excitement from the flurry of tourists and actual students around the area.

When I explored the campus during the day...well it was pretty incredible. The iconic red brick and the heritage of the buildings and university just made you sense how prestigious it was. The campus was aallllmmost as nice as the University of Sydney's campus ;)

A library on campus at Harvard University

One of the main highlights for me though was seeing Radcliffe College - the first female college affiliated with the University of Harvard - started in the 1870s. It definitely made me a bit nostalgic for The Women's College at Usyd! It was wonderful to imagine what influential women once strolled down its paths and halls.

The entrance to Radcliffe College

Finally, another great and very touristy attraction I did was a Boston Duck tour - certainly a very unique historic tour of the city! You started off the tour in a truck shaped a bit like a boat, and were led by a character inspired by American history - ours was Paul "Reverse" and his voice sounded exactly like Sterling Archer's, which cracked me up a bit! We toured most parts of downtown, and I picked up a few new things that I didn't know along the way, and then our truck turned into a boat and headed straight into the Charles River! It was really a great activity for kids...and kids at heart! We got to quack at passers by, and the children on the boat got to have a go at driving the 'duck' (much to many adults' disappointment...).

Another Duck Tour passing us!

Overall a great tourist-y attraction and worth the money!

The Vibe:

I have never seen a city so proud of its identity before...and not to mention its team! Walking down the street, there would be seas of men, women and children alike wearing "Boston" or "Red Sox" T-shirts, jerseys, caps, scarves, beanies, you name it. Buildings were emblazoned with "GO SOX!", and I even spotted the statue of George Washington in the Boston Public Gardens with a Red Sox jersey on!

B Strong!

On a trip to a graveyard on the Freedom Trail, my French roommate remarked that instead of flowers, on a lot of the gravestones you would see an offering of the American flag. I hadn't really thought twice about it, so when she asked my why this was, I could think of no real reason other than "...We're in America!".

Not only the gravestones, but houses and apartments were adorned with American flags. This was an incredibly strange culture difference for us compared to our respective countries, but something completely acceptable in America.

"O say can you see..."

The concept of national identity in the US is definitely different to what I'm used to, and this became clear particularly on one occasion in which a Security Officer told me that I was American, not Australian because I was born in the US. I identify quite strongly as an Australian as I left the States when I was 18 months old - so we weren't really in agreement on the matter!

The People:

Both my roommate and I were incredibly impressed by the kindness, vibrance and passion of the people of Boston. From the moment that we opened a map on a street corner, someone would approach us without fail and ask if we were ok to get where we were going to. It was a city where people had conversations with each other, where they listened! I had some great chats with locals all around the city, from the guy serving at Ben & Jerry's who loved obscure jazz guitar music, to Matthew at the Cults concert who had paid $1500 for two Red Sox tickets, to the train conductor at South Acton who asked me about my trip each day, to the guy in a Chilean restaurant who taught me and my friends a rhyme for predicting the weather in Boston (see bottom of post). I can imagine that it would be hard to feel lonely in this city even if you were traveling alone with all these switched on and both interesting and interested people!

The train from South Acton

Not to mention the awesome group of people that I met on the hostel walking tour from all over the world! I met people from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, Chile, England and more! Hope you guys are having the time of your lives on your respective adventures! And thanks so much to HI Boston - it's definitely one of the best hostels I've stayed at so far!

Our awesome walking tour group!

Phew it was really hard to narrow down the highlights of Boston in this post because I enjoyed every minute of it! It is probably the first city I've visited so far (besides Montreal) that I could see myself maybe living in one day...

But now it's back down to earth and hitting the books again! Hope everyone is doing well - I can't believe I'm halfway through my exchange now! Can't wait for the next adventure!

Erin xo

PS: The rhyme for predicting the weather in Boston goes like this:

Steady blue, clear view.
Flashing blue, clouds due.
Steady red, rain ahead.
Flashing red, snow instead.

It corresponds to the weather beacon at the top of the Berkeley Building. I also found it quite funny to note that flashing red in summer means that the Red Sox game has been postponed due to the weather! (Far worse than snow!)

Montreal Bits and Bobs

Sorry about the late post everyone! Generally I try to post every Monday or Tuesday, but this week got a bit hectic.

It's funny how in the space of just a couple of weeks you can go from feeling uneasy to feeling infinitely more comfortable in your surroundings. Almost immediately after my weekend in Mont Tremblant, I felt like my confidence had risen tenfold in my knowledge of the language, my social circles and ability to navigate the city.

In fact, it suddenly struck me this week that I only have about two and a half months left in Montreal and it made me really sad! I've just started to grow attached to everything around me and it's almost time to leave! I have already identified several things that I am going to miss: the smell of the trees, the fall colours, hearing French everywhere, having misunderstandings everyday, the feeling of movement and not knowing what to expect next. Whilst I think two and a half months is going to fly by, it's still quite a bit of time to explore the city more!

So the week just gone has been another great week, mostly doing a couple of touristy things around Montreal.

Last Monday evening after a hard day of study, one of my roommates, a couple of friends from uni and I headed to the Jardin Botanique de Montréal - which was quite unlike any Botanical Gardens I'd ever seen before in Australia! The Botanical Gardens in Canberra I feel is really a natural exploration of the different flora you will find in parts of Australia. The Montreal Botanical Gardens by contrast had a lot more of an emphasis on the 'garden' concept - full of well-kept hedges, magnificent tree sculptures and fountains!

Gorgeous sculpture

The gardens were absolutely enormous as well - I think we spent about three hours there and we only had time to explore one side of them! As night fell, the crowds filtered into the stunning Chinese Gardens exhibition, which lit up beautifully. It reminded me a lot of Floriade Nightfest in Canberra actually! (a world class attraction...just try and keep up Montreal!)

The Chinese Gardens lit up...pretty cool I guess

I was pretty stoked as we also bumped into some friends we'd met at a party from the other side of Montreal at the gardens - it's always a good sign that you've lived in a city for a decent amount of time when you can bump into people you know at a random place around town!

The middle of my week was pretty quiet and spent mostly frantically trying to get an assignment and readings done by Friday! So I celebrated the end of the week with some friends Friday night by having drinks at a cute little indie bar called Drinkerie in Little Burgundy - where I finally found some cider! (It was incredible, in case you were wondering. The brand was called "Cidre Mystique"). They also played some great music (from the likes of Daft Punk, Miike Snow and Metronomy) and had a really cute, relaxed atmosphere.

On Saturday afternoon, I hijacked HEC Montreal's trip to an apple orchard just outside of Montreal with my roommate (who actually goes to HEC). The forecast had predicted rain, so I wasn't sure how the weather was going to pan out, but it ended up being lovely! We had a wonderful time roadtrippin' along in our yellow bus and frolicking in the fields of apple trees, taking lots of silly photos! (see below)

Enjoying the...fruits...of our labor!

There is nothing like just taking an apple off a tree and eating it like that. I found it so cool! There were about ten different types of apples and they all had different tastes and purposes. My favourites were the Empire apples - crunchy on the outside, sweet and juicy on the inside...

So cute!

I also managed to meet another Australian on the trip - from my university back home no less! I always get so excited to meet Australians over here, and can thus detect an Australian accent from a mile away. For example, a couple of days ago I even met a girl at UdeM waiting for the elevator by recognising her Australian-French accent when she spoke English - turns out she had lived in Canberra for 8 years and went to Telopea/Bundah!

Saturday night, I had a Canadian-themed night with my friend from Vancouver which was awesome fun! We started off at Schwartz's, a famous smoked meat destination in Montreal, where we both had a smoked meat sandwich, pickle and black cherry soda.

Now we're talkin'

It was a fantastic joint! The workers there didn't even bother talking in French, they made fun of each other and had their jobs down to a fine art. Within 60 seconds of ordering, our meals were delivered to us with an apologetic "Two smoked meat sandwiches, pickles and sodas. Sorry for the slow service." I found myself laughing at the dialogue that was going on around me every couple of minutes!

I really liked the decor of the place too - it really reminded me of New York in a sense, but also felt like Montreal at the same time. 

Packed to the rafters!

After eating, we headed to an English pub down the road to catch the end of the Montreal Canadiens game (we won! Go Habs!) and the start of the Vancouver Canucks game. I figured the pub was probably a good place to start to learn the rules before I saw a live game of hockey... (I may have indulged in another glass of cider as well)

Then we headed to my favourite chocolate café so far in Montreal - Juliette et chocolat. It reminds me slightly of Koko Black in Canberra actually, except they have to wear funny red hats! (As my friend told me, he was going to apply for a job there, but this was a deal-breaker for him)

I noticed on my way home that the weather here is starting to get quite chilly at night - I fear what is coming weather-wise in winter...I really do. Speaking of which, went coat shopping on Sunday - it really gives you a headache here, there's so much choice! But I'm looking forward to getting all rugged up in my coat, gloves and tuque in a sense....at least for now whilst it's still relatively warm I can dream!

Last week was also the start of my comic strip classes for the fall trimester - we've got to write a 3-10 page comic on a story of our choice. The teacher has an absolutely incredible knowledge of comic strip/graphic novel artists and recommended artists to each of us according to our tastes. This week I gave Michel Rabagliati a go - he's a Québécois author - and guess what I came across!

I recognise this place...

That's right - Schwartz's! It was in his graphic novel Paul en appartement, which I found was a beautiful little story, a really nice representation of life in Montreal, and just plain relatable in general. I loved learning more Québécismes along the way too as I was reading! I'm also in the middle of reading Louis Riel by Chester Brown, another Canadian author, which I am finding a lot more detached as a story but heavily influenced by the style of The Adventures of Tintin (and thus awesome)!

Well, that's about it for this week. I am expecting a weekend of hard study this weekend as I have my mid-semester exams next week! After then, I've planned a trip to Boston - can't wait!

Erin x

Mountain Adventure to Mont Tremblant

Since coming to Canada, I've realised that Autumn is a difficult concept for me as an Australian to grasp. To me, Autumn means slightly colder weather than summer, the end of beach season and beginning to bring out the orange and red clothes in my wardrobe. However, where I bring out the seasonal colours in what I wear, Canada shows them off through its trees - and I mean each and every one of them. 

I first noticed a change in the trees' colours a couple of weeks ago in my street, and remember thinking "Aww, that's really cute.", thinking of my autumns spent in Canberra, and even my trip to Orange - great destinations for autumnal beauty in Australia.

My street in September

Well, gradually and gradually the trees began to turn deeper and deeper vibrant shades of red, orange and yellow and I couldn't believe my eyes. Walking down my street I began to get hit by the ever-falling leaves on the way to class and the simple autumnal beauty was stunning.

But absolutely nothing compares to the landscape that I experienced on my trip to Mont Tremblant this weekend!

My group of friends (from uni and their roommates) caught the bus at the Gare d'autocars in Montreal at the crisp hour of 7:30am, raring to go on our mountain adventure! 

To give you some background, Mont Tremblant is a ski village during the winter, but an awesome autumn holiday destination to experience the full flair of the colours in season. The village is situated quite close to Mont Tremblant National Park, a beautiful (and huge) park with a spectrum of outdoor activities to try. 

We started off our trip by dropping our bags at the hostel, then taking the bus into the National Park itself to do some hiking! On the way, we ran into a picket line of strikers protesting the salaries of park workers in the area. 

Arriving at the park, we were met by the incredible view of an enormous, glass-like lake (to be honest, I have no idea what it was called - there were so many lakes around that it was hard to keep track!). They had set up some wooden chairs in front of it, so people could admire every part of the landscape, so we started out our day in relaxing fashion, watching the activity and peacefulness of the lake. We were all starting to wish we'd brought our swimmers!

View of a lake at the National Park

After relaxing, and almost drowsing off in front of the lake, we decided it was about time to get out into that nature and do some hiking! We took the nearest trail up to the (La Roche?) lookout point, and stepping into the woods was like something from a dream. The shadows of the forest, the colours, the crunching of the leaves and the trickling of a creek...nothing could be more perfect!

Beginning the hike

Seriously...does it get more perfect than this?

At the top of the view point, we got a great look at the lake from the beginning from above! There were a whole heap of fellow tourists up there, and even a wooden wall of graffiti with the original countries of past visitors etched into place. Whilst the sheer beauty of the forest was incredible, I was quite surprised at the lack of wildlife we spotted in the lush forests. I imagine the sounds of tourist families drove them away!

Definitely worthy of an Instagram

After walking and exploring for a couple more hours, we headed back to the village and grabbed some take away pasta for dinner (the prices were so expensive around the place!). Then it was back to the hostel for some great chill times and a Boréale beer at the pub. 

The hostel was fantastic - love sticking with my HI hostels!! There was a pool table and I was pretty rusty, but challenged some Belgian guys who we had met earlier that day to a game. My team member and I ended up smashing the team of the other guy and a pool champion at the hostel! We were pretty stoked (there may have been a lot of distraction tactics involved). After this, I went and ate S'mores by the fire with the girls, then all of us headed down to the lake behind the hostel and watched the beautiful blanket of stars (I can't believe how different the constellations are here!). We even saw some shooting stars! I have to say, I definitely do not regret the decision to stay overnight.

The next day, we went to the lake behind the hostel for a morning canoe! Whilst the lake was quite small compared to the other ones we'd seen, it was such a relaxing and picturesque nook to canoe with a great bunch of people!

Gorgeous canoeing spot behind the hostel!

Walking back to the hostel, I finally managed to catch a chipmunk I'd been chasing around on camera. He was a sneaky little fella!

Gotcha!

In the afternoon, we took a walk along Chemin du village and stumbled across a road full of lakeside properties....we may have trespassed to have our picnic for lunch, we weren't really sure! I couldn't believe that all the land along the lake's edge was private - places that looked like public parks even were all private! (Thanks unknown strangers who hosted us in your backyard...)

Then it was back to the village for a Beavertail (I got a nutella/banana flavoured one this time!) and we walked up the main mountain at the back of the village to see the view of Tremblant Lake and the village. The village had a very European influence to the architecture - it almost looked like little doll's houses in real life size. 

View of Lake Tremblant and the Village

Overall, a great weekend spent amongst the beautiful scenery and a very Canadian way to spend autumn! I slept so well that night...

Can't wait for the next adventure - better get started on those assignments now!

Erin xo

Feeling relaxed after a great weekend away