October 16 – Drive to the best town ever, according to its name
It was time to head back to the rental station. The first part of my return route was a 7 to 8 hour drive. On the way it was sunny, cloudy and it rained. The good part about the rain was that the imprint a bird left on my windshield was washed away without me doing anything. While searching for a place to sleep between Montreal and Gaspé I came across a very interesting name on the map: Saint-Pascal. I knew immediately where I would stay =)
October 17 – Return to an old friend
Well rested I started my last journey with the Jeep. The drive from St.Pascal to Montreal was rather boring, simply turn cruise control on and listen to the music. I arrived exactly at the time when I was due to give the car back. Over the past 5 days I drove 2276 km with the Jeep. After having checked in at the hotel I took my dirty things (the clothes) and went for a walk to the nearest washing saloon. Once again I was having a rather funny conversation in Frenglish, this time with the guy working there.
October 18 – Back to the Yankees
Once again a very travel heavy day. At 8:15 AM the Greyhound bus left Montreal headed for Boston. On the way it seemed like I was driving across Europe. Not because of the landscape but because of the cities we were driving through: Hanover, Manchester, Montpelier, etc. It seems the first settler were very creative with the naming of their settlements =)
October 19 – First steps along the line
And once again I had luck with the weather. In Boston they created the Freedom Trail, a brilliant idea for tourists. The Freedom Trail is a route marked with red bricks starting at a garden in the heart of Boston. From there on this trail guides the traveler along most of the historic buildings in Boston. The trail ends at the USS Independence in the harbor. Unfortunately the ship wasn’t in the water, at the moment it gets overhauled and is in a dry dock.
On the way I came across some shops and I decided it is time to replace some of my clothing. At first I thought the prices are a little bit high, but not that high and I decided to buy some of the items. I was prepared to pay the full price and was surprised when I had to pay only half. Apparently I was in some kind of factory store and all the clothes were reduced between 40% and 60%. Quite a pleasant surprise.
October 20 – Let’s get amphibian
While walking around yesterday I saw these amphibian vehicles driving around the town. I remember having heard about them before and decided to book a trip with one of these buses. In order to save some bucks I took an early tour and had therefore to stand up “early” (The alarm clock went of at 8 AM =). Our driver Major Tom was at the same time our tour guide. While driving through the city he told us all kind of funny and interesting stories. The highlight of the trip was of course driving around the river in the bus.
In the afternoon I went to MIT and Harvard. I imagined those campuses to be way better than what I have seen. In reality those campuses were nothing special, only some medium-to-large-sized buildings. The campus of McGill at Montreal was much prettier than what I have seen here at MIT and Harvard. Maybe they have some kind of hidden area but I doubt that =)
After having been disappointed by the looks of those two universities I decided to look them up in the internet. And once again I was disappointed or better said: impressed what the Swiss universities are doing. MIT has over 11’000 students, Harvard has 21’000 students and the ETH Zürich has over 18’000 students. In the number of students those three play more or less all in the same league. But their budget differs completely: Harvard 36.7 billion dollars, MIT 13.5 billion dollars and ETHZ 1.6 billion dollars. No wonder they have to pay that much for college in America. MIT for example would have over a million dollar per student in their budget. They obviously spend most of the money on research and not on the students. That makes the fact that the ETH Zürich and other even less funded universities from Switzerland can compete with them even more remarkable. We have a really good education system back in Switzerland! =)
Impressions
So far Boston was a very impressing city. No wonder the prices for a place to stay a few day rivaled them from New York. I was astonished at how high the prices were on booking.com, expedia or airbnb. But after having spent two days in this city I understand why. It is a very beautiful city, has a nice old town and a more or less modern public transportation system. You have all the benefits of a big city while still retaining the perks of being a small city. I live for example in a neighborhood with small houses and calm streets. A school with a large playground is right across the street. In 15-20 min I would be at MIT or Harvard and it takes 20-25 min to be in the city center. All-in-all the best city on my trip so far.
Update
Some things I saw and did in Boston after my last post
