Boston, you have my heart!
Mah, I am already back for nearly a week (already feels so far away again) and have two versions of my trip-review: A kinda short one like "It was so cool *_* blah blah" and one that goes over 3 pages XD So I try to find a middle so not to bore everybody to death.
Really short: Boston is super nice to visit. There is so much history and beautiful places to learn. I had the pleasure to meet the wonderful author somniumdreams before, during and after AB and learned her sweet and gorgeous and tough personality and mind!
I didn't sleep much (or anything), as I was picked up at 4am for airport and still got in lot of stress (I am thankful forever to the ones who took care of my pets during my absence). Flight was pretty good (beside having the morning sun for 8 hours), so after I checked in (tiny room and no natural light but the location and ambiance was wonderful!), I took a walk on Newbury Street, where you find all kind of cute shops (and well, of course I went into the most expensive just to walk out again after some seconds), so I could avoid jetlag as fast as possible.
I learned fast that Starbucks is my friend at waking up...better coffee XD
The long list of things I wanted to see and could see (and which I would highly recommend):
The Boston Common & Public Park: In Spring this place is really nice to walk around. It took me all two weeks to actually see the statues of "Make place for the Ducklings", mostly because I went everywhere but the right place there to find them (No, it's not overly large, I am just utterly blind)
Freedom Trail: is a long red line (around 4km) guiding you through the city along old and historically important places, like the Old State City House, Old South Meeting House, Old North Church, the Bunker Hill Monument. It may not tell you anything but it also comes along with a lot of history about the beginnings of America (like the Boston Masaqure and as for me, it is quite interesting to pass all those historic places and learn it directly (with its contradictions too) and also had a lot of impressions of the city as it is nowadays. I fell in love with the architecture... I just passed the climbing of the Bunker Hill Monument, 294 steps up to see over the city? After the whole hours walking I couldn't myself get to do that XD
Faneuil Hall: or also Quincy Market, was impressive. But either you know what you are hungry for or you are lost in all the food you can get there, Asian, American, sweet or solid, Coffee...200 meters of food. And I was really, really hungry! ;_;
New England Aquarium: It is really impressive. A large round tank over 4 floors gives a good impression to fishes (and turtles) and plants and also small tanks around everywhere (like Vienna's House of Sea). Also there were penguins! <3 They were fed just when I arrived and could be watched openly. And Sealions <3 One particular male seemed to laugh at us because was with a lot of female beauties and we had to hide behind some walls of glas.
Harvard: I had two plans of things to do on this trip. One of them was: Reading a good book underneath a tree in Harvard XD Well...I got there and it was chilly, also all green spots were surrounded to keep people off to let the gras recover. But I could take the "Hahvhad"-tour, a tour around the Harvard-Campus by actual students. Our tourguide was a freshmen and he did a very entertaining job. Lots of more history around the campus. And how I love all the architecture of red bricks and details <3 (I got there a second time and read a good book on the campus anyway, if not underneath a tree)
Museum of Fine Arts: It was...kinda....wow...I know that I need some hours to see all the pictures in the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna, but the one in Boston...I got really tired from inhaling all of these pictures and exhibits after 4 hours and still have the feeling I haven't seen the half of it! So beautiful exhibits...I really like to look at art, get a feeling of it. My brain always is in total awe and my muse is being wild and crazy. (Gotta go to the arts museum again soon and maybe not forget my writing utensils to let the inspiration flow in this surroundings) Absolutely worth the time and if I had the time I would have come again to see everything else.
Fenway Park: Playground for the Boston Red Sox! ^o^ I was surprised how fast a morning tour during the week was filled. Although I got there over half an hour before, I had to get a ticket for a tour on afternoon. The funniest part was the guy who introduced the tour, he kept on joking in such a cute way...The actual tour only was interesting when directly behind the guide, because his micro didn't work. But hell...over 60 and running so fast, even upstairs o_o Well..I was always right behind him anyway!
Trolley Tour: Different busses driving through the city in a manner of Hopp-on-Hopp-off...the driver keeps on telling stories and additional facts about the different parts he drove through. Really nice and with some other stories of places I had already seen. It was raining the day I did that so it didn't bother me too much to drive around this time.
Prudencial Center: Definitely worth a visit to see the city from above. It had been foggy and rainy when I got there but I actually enjoyed it more than the Rockefeller Center in New York.
Also yes, I also hopped down to New York for two days. After all I had another thing to do there!
But first...I am a person that enjoys walking around more than taking a tram or bus, because I get the feeling to miss a lot of impressions sitting in there. So I found it a good idea to walk the whole way from Chinatown up the Broadway to the north end of Central Park...It was, actually, just after 4,5 hours of walking I simply fell asleep...But I think I saw many aspects a city can have.
Central Park: Oh no, if you haven't seen it, you can't imagine, how large it is! I couldn't until I saw it.Also I had luck with the weather and so I got to do the other thing I wanted to do: Take a run in Central Park :D So worthy! (and it kept me from waiting an hour before getting into the shower)
Guggenheim-Museum: When you see parts of cars fused and coloured and entangled into each other (nice to look at though) or foam wrapped around itself or rooms full of naked self-portraits...I start to wonder how the art of today is going to be seen in 30, 40 years? Definitely a good time in there. The smooth and stepless build made it enjoyable to walk up and down. It was different and refreshing
The Rockefeller-Center: Well...if you go up there, know that it is better not to go alone, because the top is nice and a bit impressive but actually quite boring too ^^; I couldn't enjoy myself for long (The Ben&Jerry's afterwards was so much more delicious XD)
I walked down to Chinatown too, on the 5th Avenue...so disappointing! DX
Now to the reason that got me into this at all. The Anime Boston 2012 (Or also Marco? Polo!)
I got my badge on thursday evening already to avoid the line on friday morning. (It was really nice to see so many people already running around in cosplay) Friday and Saturday I got to meet somniumdreams again and we hung out together for the days =^-^=. We saw the Cosplay-Deathmatch, the audience deciding over live and death of two oponents (which was entertaining, yet the fights could have been longer), Anime Unscripted, a kind of game show with guest stars and a panel about AB itself. Oh there were so many panels you could attend! Really impressing also was the Dealer's Room, which had an unbelievable size, The Hynes Convention Center & Sheraton Hotel are simply huge! Not even Connichi can impress me anymore if you understand what I mean) and the mass of people and (great!) cosplays. I was so impressed and stunned by everything that I couldn't help but be dragged around by a really patient Prince for most of the time....
I missed the AMV Contest, because I slept in a bit, but there was the Dating Game (The night before was an adult version) and also Family Fuel. Something new and the execution not even close to perfect, but there is hope that it works out better in future (instead of putting the contestents on a stage they were on the same level as the audience and so nobody after row 3 could see anything :((
But after this we could seat early for the Masquerade, the Cosplay Contest with small shows of the cosplay entries, and there were so many! They also showed the winners of the AMV-Contest and it was so impressive. It was like "I want to continue mine too!" all over again.
Sunday I had to run around alone, and still found new places and finally did take some more pictures. Also I got to see the Chess Game. Oh it was so funny and cool and sweet (Real Proposal! <3), Cosplayer replaying a Chess Game with hilarious staged kills. And the Ending Ceremony was so lovely to attend.
I got to meet new people too and it is something that I also liked much.
Résumé? There are still things to see!!! I left a bit of my heart in this city. I really enjoyed lunches and talks with
somniumdreams (So many thanks for your time! <33) And now I have to write an email I promised.
I gotta come again one day! ^o^
Really short: Boston is super nice to visit. There is so much history and beautiful places to learn. I had the pleasure to meet the wonderful author somniumdreams before, during and after AB and learned her sweet and gorgeous and tough personality and mind!
I didn't sleep much (or anything), as I was picked up at 4am for airport and still got in lot of stress (I am thankful forever to the ones who took care of my pets during my absence). Flight was pretty good (beside having the morning sun for 8 hours), so after I checked in (tiny room and no natural light but the location and ambiance was wonderful!), I took a walk on Newbury Street, where you find all kind of cute shops (and well, of course I went into the most expensive just to walk out again after some seconds), so I could avoid jetlag as fast as possible.
I learned fast that Starbucks is my friend at waking up...better coffee XD
The long list of things I wanted to see and could see (and which I would highly recommend):
The Boston Common & Public Park: In Spring this place is really nice to walk around. It took me all two weeks to actually see the statues of "Make place for the Ducklings", mostly because I went everywhere but the right place there to find them (No, it's not overly large, I am just utterly blind)
Freedom Trail: is a long red line (around 4km) guiding you through the city along old and historically important places, like the Old State City House, Old South Meeting House, Old North Church, the Bunker Hill Monument. It may not tell you anything but it also comes along with a lot of history about the beginnings of America (like the Boston Masaqure and as for me, it is quite interesting to pass all those historic places and learn it directly (with its contradictions too) and also had a lot of impressions of the city as it is nowadays. I fell in love with the architecture... I just passed the climbing of the Bunker Hill Monument, 294 steps up to see over the city? After the whole hours walking I couldn't myself get to do that XD
Faneuil Hall: or also Quincy Market, was impressive. But either you know what you are hungry for or you are lost in all the food you can get there, Asian, American, sweet or solid, Coffee...200 meters of food. And I was really, really hungry! ;_;
New England Aquarium: It is really impressive. A large round tank over 4 floors gives a good impression to fishes (and turtles) and plants and also small tanks around everywhere (like Vienna's House of Sea). Also there were penguins! <3 They were fed just when I arrived and could be watched openly. And Sealions <3 One particular male seemed to laugh at us because was with a lot of female beauties and we had to hide behind some walls of glas.
Harvard: I had two plans of things to do on this trip. One of them was: Reading a good book underneath a tree in Harvard XD Well...I got there and it was chilly, also all green spots were surrounded to keep people off to let the gras recover. But I could take the "Hahvhad"-tour, a tour around the Harvard-Campus by actual students. Our tourguide was a freshmen and he did a very entertaining job. Lots of more history around the campus. And how I love all the architecture of red bricks and details <3 (I got there a second time and read a good book on the campus anyway, if not underneath a tree)
Museum of Fine Arts: It was...kinda....wow...I know that I need some hours to see all the pictures in the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna, but the one in Boston...I got really tired from inhaling all of these pictures and exhibits after 4 hours and still have the feeling I haven't seen the half of it! So beautiful exhibits...I really like to look at art, get a feeling of it. My brain always is in total awe and my muse is being wild and crazy. (Gotta go to the arts museum again soon and maybe not forget my writing utensils to let the inspiration flow in this surroundings) Absolutely worth the time and if I had the time I would have come again to see everything else.
Fenway Park: Playground for the Boston Red Sox! ^o^ I was surprised how fast a morning tour during the week was filled. Although I got there over half an hour before, I had to get a ticket for a tour on afternoon. The funniest part was the guy who introduced the tour, he kept on joking in such a cute way...The actual tour only was interesting when directly behind the guide, because his micro didn't work. But hell...over 60 and running so fast, even upstairs o_o Well..I was always right behind him anyway!
Trolley Tour: Different busses driving through the city in a manner of Hopp-on-Hopp-off...the driver keeps on telling stories and additional facts about the different parts he drove through. Really nice and with some other stories of places I had already seen. It was raining the day I did that so it didn't bother me too much to drive around this time.
Prudencial Center: Definitely worth a visit to see the city from above. It had been foggy and rainy when I got there but I actually enjoyed it more than the Rockefeller Center in New York.
Also yes, I also hopped down to New York for two days. After all I had another thing to do there!
But first...I am a person that enjoys walking around more than taking a tram or bus, because I get the feeling to miss a lot of impressions sitting in there. So I found it a good idea to walk the whole way from Chinatown up the Broadway to the north end of Central Park...It was, actually, just after 4,5 hours of walking I simply fell asleep...But I think I saw many aspects a city can have.
Central Park: Oh no, if you haven't seen it, you can't imagine, how large it is! I couldn't until I saw it.Also I had luck with the weather and so I got to do the other thing I wanted to do: Take a run in Central Park :D So worthy! (and it kept me from waiting an hour before getting into the shower)
Guggenheim-Museum: When you see parts of cars fused and coloured and entangled into each other (nice to look at though) or foam wrapped around itself or rooms full of naked self-portraits...I start to wonder how the art of today is going to be seen in 30, 40 years? Definitely a good time in there. The smooth and stepless build made it enjoyable to walk up and down. It was different and refreshing
The Rockefeller-Center: Well...if you go up there, know that it is better not to go alone, because the top is nice and a bit impressive but actually quite boring too ^^; I couldn't enjoy myself for long (The Ben&Jerry's afterwards was so much more delicious XD)
I walked down to Chinatown too, on the 5th Avenue...so disappointing! DX
Now to the reason that got me into this at all. The Anime Boston 2012 (Or also Marco? Polo!)
I got my badge on thursday evening already to avoid the line on friday morning. (It was really nice to see so many people already running around in cosplay) Friday and Saturday I got to meet somniumdreams again and we hung out together for the days =^-^=. We saw the Cosplay-Deathmatch, the audience deciding over live and death of two oponents (which was entertaining, yet the fights could have been longer), Anime Unscripted, a kind of game show with guest stars and a panel about AB itself. Oh there were so many panels you could attend! Really impressing also was the Dealer's Room, which had an unbelievable size, The Hynes Convention Center & Sheraton Hotel are simply huge! Not even Connichi can impress me anymore if you understand what I mean) and the mass of people and (great!) cosplays. I was so impressed and stunned by everything that I couldn't help but be dragged around by a really patient Prince for most of the time....
I missed the AMV Contest, because I slept in a bit, but there was the Dating Game (The night before was an adult version) and also Family Fuel. Something new and the execution not even close to perfect, but there is hope that it works out better in future (instead of putting the contestents on a stage they were on the same level as the audience and so nobody after row 3 could see anything :((
But after this we could seat early for the Masquerade, the Cosplay Contest with small shows of the cosplay entries, and there were so many! They also showed the winners of the AMV-Contest and it was so impressive. It was like "I want to continue mine too!" all over again.
Sunday I had to run around alone, and still found new places and finally did take some more pictures. Also I got to see the Chess Game. Oh it was so funny and cool and sweet (Real Proposal! <3), Cosplayer replaying a Chess Game with hilarious staged kills. And the Ending Ceremony was so lovely to attend.
I got to meet new people too and it is something that I also liked much.
Résumé? There are still things to see!!! I left a bit of my heart in this city. I really enjoyed lunches and talks with
somniumdreams (So many thanks for your time! <33) And now I have to write an email I promised.
I gotta come again one day! ^o^