Apr 23, 2006 22:12
So... here i am in boston... heading north over the charlestown bridge to "Cambridge"
Cambridge is not north of the north end... Charlestown is. Which is why they named the bridge just that... ::curses to ones self::
Imagine seeing yourself over the charles river and realizing you're four miles east of where you need to be... and the only way west is over 20 lanes of highway, bridges, tunnels, train tracks, private buildings, and barbed wire fences. I could walk back south to get to boston and then take the correct bridge, but no, i'm stubborn and just want to go straight west.
One thing i've always been fascinated with is the massive bridgework done for the Big Dig. Just north of boston there lies one of the most complex systems of interchanges for different streets and a few tunnels... rivaled only by an even more complex system created just SOUTH of the 93 tunnel for the I-90 interchange. But since i'm right next to the Zakim bridge, and have always wanted to see it up close... i'm happy to be on the north side this night.
looking for a way west, but heading north, I happen uppon a small walkway with dr seuss style striped light poles lining it. It turns out to be part of a park not yet completed. While i may have happend upon signs telling me the place was closed... any U.E. adventurer sees signs as merely recomendations.
While my goal is to end up somewhere 4 miles north west of where i am... this path takes me directly south. Not in my intended direction, but it spits out right UNDER the Zakim bridge. The sight is beautiful. The bridge is luminated from the top with blue lights for effect, and there are these little diamond shaped holes in the bridge (originally intended as a way of letting sunlight through to the charles so that fish would not get lost in the bridge's shadow... i couldn't make that shit up) which let the blue light illuminate the entire atrium sized area under the bridge. Now when i say Atrium... imagine a pile of sticks all staggered and criscrossing, with the tallest ones in the middle, and the shorter ones to the outside (there's four running north to south, and four east to west) and they form a huge space beneath them. This is, to me, a beautiful sight.
After enjoying the view for a long moment... I started my long treck north again.
Little did i know, my night peaked there. Heading north under the zakim leads you to nowhere's land. It also leads you to places i can't divulge over the internet without some prick officer happening upon my blog and busting me for circumstantial evidence of trespassing. While fascinating to me, all i can say is that there were lots of train tracks, highways, rubble, parking lots (though, i started hated parking lots after the fifth one with a fence around it... it was getting REALLY tiring), and barbed wire (much of which was put up for my safety... so i heeded those warnings).
It took me until 2 in the morning to get on to webster ave after talking to three cops (stupid cops), five locals (stupid locals), and some college kids (smart college kids... they knew where the place was).
When i got through the last mile and made it to the towing company... I had warn out my mind from over-stimulation, and too much fucking walking... i couldn't speak right. I started thinking it was going to be weird driving home after all this... and after i get to the lot, get in my car (check to make sure it's not busted), and start home... i DID feel weird. The physical things i expected... my hands hurt from them swinging at my sides and all the blood settling into them, my face was numb, and my body ached. But I walked so long that i had gone from wanting to walk, to getting excited about walking, to being just plain excited, then getting tired of walking, wondering when it would end, wondering if it would end, pondering my life, not pondering at all and finaly just walking blindly and not caring.
Did i not say it was an adventure? (i'm a glutten for punishment... we know that) Once i drove home I immedately checked out Google maps and figured my path. I walked about 10 miles with all the aimless wandering. All of it was fun, now that i look back on it. It's now something i can point out... and i plan to take some of my U.E. friends in boston to some of these places when we get the chance.
::zip:: it goes in my file as another memory... to be cracked open later... or forgotten. I'll always have to do this again sometime.
urbanexploration