Boston Lodger

Instead of leaving Boston I ended up getting in touch with Chris, a old friendI haven't seen since high school at least, he's living in the city now and offered me his couch for a couple nights. It was great catching up and talking about old times, we had a few drinks at his place and then headed into the night.

We first grabbed a beer at the kind of bar you could enjoy in any city, and then Chris had the idea to check out a piano bar. I've been to a piano bar in other cities, but this one was more my style, the crowd was on their feet and digging all the tunes the guys were playing, and the pianists themselves were into it feeling every song.

The next day I enjoyed the library, playing with my website under the massive ceiling far above me. That night Chris and I had a few drinks until we realized it was getting late, but still wanted to head into the night. Boston shuts down at 2am, you can't find beer or anything else, that's what we thought. Chris heard rumors of a place in Chinatown where you can ask for the cold tea and get what you need. We drunkenly asked the drunks spilling out of the bars and were pointed in the right direction.

We walked across town and found the spot in Chinatown, we asked for the cold tea and were rewarded with a couple beers. We talked and laughed with some other people who ordered the tea until we were content and headed back calling it a night, a great night.

The next day we went to Sam Adams brewery for a special tour in the name of a charity. It was awesome, starting off with pitchers of beer in their garden while waiting for others to show up, their summer ale and a beer that's never left the brewery they called Devil Mountain Alt beer. The actual tour part showed the brewing process, I smelled and chewed on hops, loving it.

They broke out a beer called Utopias, an exclusive beer they rarely brew. It's 27% alcohol and brewed in barrels with the taste of whiskey, just awesome. We returned to the garden where they gave us more pitchers of good beer and we drank for a while longer.

Later that night I left Chris' place and headed to yet another home in Boston, new couchsurfing hosts where I planned to spend the night. I arrived late and only talked to the two girls a little bit before sleep came about. I was surprised to see an impressive beer bottle collection and they even had an ounce of Utopias in a water bottle stashed in the fridge from some event.

This morning I may aim myself at the bus station and towards new york. The cheaper bus tickets are sold out, but a $15 ticket should still be good. I've blown through my construction money pretty well, every dollar came with a great time. As long as I have dollars left for hotdogs and beer come the 4th of July all will be right with the world, Nathans here I come.

Bouncing through Boston

In the evening of my first full day in Boston I met up with a couchsurfing host named Mike after wandering around Quincy Market in the rain. He was a nice guy with a nice place, clean and bright. He was a programmer of sorts, and his roommates were both programmers working on a pretty interesting project involving clocking workers in via GPS on their phone when they arrived to their job site.

That night we went to a dance club near MIT where other couchsurfers from the area were supposed to meet. I had a beer there and was ready for a scenery change, the sound system was excellent and the music fit, I wasn't dancing though. I wasn't feeling it at the moment and didn't want to rock my limbs with the false emotion you can always spot in a room like that. You can see it in the girls with their hands in their air swaying to a different beat while their eyes dart around for acceptance or shut completely to avoid everything. Guys bobbing their heads hardly to the beat, anchored only by the drink clenched in their fist that they sip every moment they exhaust the spot in the room they've been staring at with a contrived smile, masking their trance of discomfort. While I still dug the people being moved solely by the groove, I stepped outside.

Next door was a bar with the name Mystery of Science, I stepped into a scene where the sound of conversation took priority over that of the music, the menu on the wall was on a chalkboard designed to look like the periodic table, Cb being a cheeseburger and so on, we were near MIT after all. I pulled up a stool to the bar and grabbed a Left Hand Milk Stout, they had it on tap and I couldn't resist. I savored the beer and enjoyed the modest crowd of geeky guys and cute girls with flowers in their hair, I had a conversation about New York and Boston with an older guy next to me at the bar. I finished my beer and headed back to the dance club next door, shortly after heading back to Mike's place and calling it a night.

The next day I went all around Boston with Mike as he showed me spots and told historical stories about them, at one point we went up to the top of a hotel where we were able to look over the whole city just about. Later in the afternoon we met up with some friends and hopped a train for Haverhill, about an hour north of Boston. Natasha, my host from the first night, had a client who owned a brewery there and promised free drinks for her and any friends she could bring.

There were five of us, I sampled every beer they had to offer in between talking to the owner and the master brewer. Their coffee stout, as Mike put it, was like sticking your nose in a bag of coffee grounds. Their Pale Ale was also impressive, and the vibe their was great. I'm tempted to return one day and wash dishes for beer or some such.

We hopped the train back and headed for the local couchsurfing meetup at a bar called the Otherside. I stayed for a few minutes and then wandered away outside, seeing fenway in the distance and a crowd of Red Sox fans leaving I headed for it. The city was more alive that way, people shouting, drinking, laughing and eating. I walked around the stadium and saw a small crowd waiting by the buses screaming every time a ball player emerged begging for autographs.

I made my way back to the bar for a beer and met Philip, my third couchsurfing host for my third night in the city. Last call came early and I headed back with Philip and a group of others. Philip was from Belgium and got me excited about going, I'd recently had a beer from his hometown I discovered.

The next day we wandered Boston again with a girl visiting from Shanghai, China. The conversation lingered on the differences between Europe, Belgium, and America. I mostly listened, Americans cannot be easily pigeon holed to any type of behavior and I couldn't imagine other countries could either, but they spoke in firm generalities. "European girls are like this on the first date, Chinese girls do this, how are American girls?", questions that have no one answer.

We ended the night at an interesting bar with a wide beer selection. Stella, the Chinese girl, is not a big drinker at all, but followed my lead and ordered the OPA-OPA-IPA because "the name sounds funny". She didn't like it, many people don't like the bitterness that often comes with a good IPA, so she got a lemonade and I drank for two. Once again last call came earlier than one would think and the night came to a close.

This morning I packed my bag and parted ways with Philip for now. I'm unsure if couchsurfing will pull through for me tonight, I may bus it to New York, I may camp out a night in Boston, I may hitchhike towards Marthas Vineyard, or something unthought of yet. I still have a week until the hotdog eating contest in Coney Island, so time will tell.

Classic NYC and off to Boston

The past week was spent wandering NYC and late nights every night. Larry came into town, I met him at the Shake Shack with the tenants of the Tubridy Hostel, we all chowed double shack burgers after the traditional hour wait in line. Larry, who I met couch surfing in Phoenix, wanted to see the city so I took him to the landmarks.

We walked up broadway, past Macys, and onto Times Square, Bryant Park, and at Grand Central we hopped a train downtown to the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked by a lot of NY situations I would have usually breezed by, but were unfamiliar to someone coming for the first time. A cabbie told a cop he wished scafolding would fall on her, the cops response was "Whatever, whatever! I walk in front of any cab I want."

We grabbed a couple bikes and rode completely around central park, I'd never been to the north part of the park until then. We stopped at one point to watch close to 12,000 people run by in a mini marathon. We ended the night almost going up the Empire State building and instead going to a couch surfing meet up in a bar downtown.

Saturday was Mark, Sean and the members of Decisextilian (the name for everyone who's been jamming on wednesday nights) performed in various combinations along with some other artists out on the Steinway street. After the show we enjoyed a great beer, Brooklyn Breweries East India Pale Ale, Sean said it was his favorite beer based mostly on the satisfing moment in which we all sat on the stoop after the gig and drank it.

Larry came through that night and Sean cooked his world famous chicken parm which we enjoyed in the cool air on the stoop laughing and telling stories. Larry took off to a party in the city, I stayed behind, but found myself heading to the same party a few hours later around 2am. Everyone was headed to sleep save for a couple looking to have criminal makeup sex, so off I went into the night.

It was a packed party on 5th Ave and 23rd, music still pumping as late as it was. Someone mentioned the abandoned building, I climbed the fire escape all the way to the top to find many others up there drinking and looking out on the Empire State building and New York City looking as impressive as ever. We even found a loose door and explored the insides of this gutted and forgotten building in the heart of Manhattan, fantasising about underground parties and a potential place to sleep. We ended the night with a diner trip and I passed out in Astoria defying the sun's direction.

Sunday night kept me up until 4 or 5 in the morning again in the apartment drinking beers with Carl and a couple drunk blondes, in the morning I packed my bag and headed into the city with Boston on my mind. I had an incredible burger with Larry at Jackson Hole on 3rd ave and eventually headed to chinatown for the bus.

I arrived in Boston greeted by Natasha, a couchsurfer here. She walked me around the Boston night and eventually we headed back to her place. We laughed ourselves to sleep telling stories and cracking jokes. In the morning she went to work and I wandered to Boston Common and slept on the grass for a while listening to a man dance around with a funny top hat jiggling coins and singing "change, change, do you haaaaaaaaaaave any chay-hange!".

I have another couchsurfer lined up for tonight and aparently some interesting nights ahead with some folks in town, including a possible brewery tour/tasting/party tomorrow. All good times I'm sure, and I should be back in Coney Island before the 4th for hotdogs and greatness.

NYC Free and Drunk, Philly Dreaming

My final court appearance went as smooth as something like that could go, I'm done with all of it. I capped the morning by getting a needed new camera and enjoying a beer with friends in midtown.

I do love beer, there's good places in the city to pick up a six pack with a variety of choice, so I've enjoyed some new tastes. Saturday night brought more drinking than I expected, or rather more alcohol. I met some friends at a bar birthday party downtown, my first question to the bouncer was what kind of beers were going on. He later found me and told me the name of a great bar down the road. Before I had gone to the party, my friend Carl had loaded me up good with a drink called Devil Springs, it's 160 proof Vodka and even more lethal than it sounds as I would find out later.

Mark and I broke off and headed for the place, walking in we both stared up at the giant chalkboard filled with the selection of beers, mostly on tap. I turned around to tell him what I was getting, before I could say anything he said we should try the Unearthly IPA, the very beer I was about to suggest from the list of close to a hundred.

We sat at the end of a long wooden table, talking between scrolling through the beer list more. The bathrooms were downstairs, 5 unisex doors, my second trip down I found myself going through a 6th door, unfortunately not a bathroom but rather the storage room. With my drunken explorer hat on I crept all the way down and the room twisted in another direction. I treated the darkest corner as a bathroom, and made my way out, not before stuffing two mystery bottles in my back pockets.

This last bit was not very discrete, I immediately saw the watching eye of a bus boy as I stumbled out of the room into the crowd of people waiting for the regular bathroom. I headed up the stairs quickly and went for the door, waiting for me was the bus boy and the bouncer, I slid right past them as they pulled the bottles from my pockets, seemingly unconcerned with a drunk as they were with creating future drunks. I called Mark and told him to meet me at Union Square, the general direction I was running towards. I took turns running, walking, and having drunk conversations with drunk people along the street, apparently Mark had a bit of the same time and we hopped the subway towards Astoria where we ate, played video games, and passed out.

The next day I recovered, all day, the following day I found myself on a bus headed for Philadelphia where I met Heather after work. We had beer and fries, a night. The next day I looked forward to the Lakers game, and found myself in an Irish pub at tip off with Heather and her friend. Heather left just after halftime, right around when the Lakers chances of winning left. I stuck around talking to her friend, a conversation about his dreams of riches, a wife, kids - he didn't seem to care about the path to riches or how long he had to stay on it. My glass was empty, I left.

Heather had similar thoughts to add in the dark as we laid on her bed, my eyes were out the window on the only visible star past the buildings, I was hardly tired and a beer shy. She somewhat defended her friend's comments from the bar, "The dream of everyone is housing, money, and love. The American dream is a bigger version of that, it's what everyone wants". Simple as that. Being homeless, generally broke and on the go too much to hold on to a love, and happy all the same, I questioned her generalization. I don't remember the last thing said, but silence came and I forgot why I was laying in that bed at all. I wanted to go into the night and find a mind I liked, hear a story, have a beer, kicks. Sleep.

In the morning we parted ways and I hopped the mostly empty bus to NYC, I had the driver let me out at a red light once we made it and I walked up Broadway. I took a seat in madison square park to soak in the scent of Shake Shack, and then met Sean and Kelly for lunch in Bryant Park. Back in NYC I'm looking forward to some good times, and a potential mini road trip starting this weekend, let's see what time brings.

Greyhound as Usual

Greyhound is known for being unreliable and generally sketchy, and my 2-3 day trip did not disappoint. I launched off from Phoenix, leaving within half hour of the scheduled time, pretty good for the the grey dog, but our very first stop in Glendale just up the road kicked off what I'm used to.

We were picking up a handicap guy in a wheel chair, the driver had a hell of a time trying to pull out and lower the ramp for this. With the help of some passengers the old driver got the wheelchair man in the bus, but then failed to get the ramp to slide back into the bus. Two hours of phone calls and laboring attempts went by before a new bus showed up for us to move into. On the road again.

Flagstaff was next, the wheelchair's last stop, but when it was time to get on the bus the driver had a new problem. He locked himself out of the bus. A step ladder and some fooling around finally got the door open 20 or 30 minutes later. On the road again.

The bus rolled around, delays here and there, none of us cared anymore. Most of us on the bus knew we would miss our transfer in St Louis eventually, so losing a half hour here and there hardly mattered. After a long wait in the arch city I was on the final bus to New York, we eventually hit Pittsburgh where I was able to catch part of the Laker game, enough to see them take the final lead of the game.

Getting on the bus a new passenger got on next to me and we got to talking. He was a fellow traveler, and a carney at that. He told me the ins and outs of working carnivals all over the country, our conversation about hobo and carney life was the only conversation on the bus riding through the night with mostly sleeping passengers.

After 3 nights on the Greyhound I arrived in NYC around 9 or 10 in the morning, I went straight to Astoria where I instantly saw some familiar faces and grabbed some breakfast with Mark. The vibe in the apartment is a good one, good ole' Astoria.

The bus ride did me good, a lot of thinking and people watching, few minor fights between passengers for entertainment, and plenty of good scenery out the window. Final court date in a matter of hours, should be fine.

Finishing Phoenix, NYC Bound

My time in Phoenix was relaxing and rewarding, generally good times. I spent a most weekdays at the construction site with Larry installing glass doors in a relative highrise in Tempe. At night and on weekends I relaxed, nights of good beer and couchsurfing parties here and there.

Partway through last week a few other couchsurfers came to stay with Larry, one German and his new English girlfriend, and one French guy, they all met recently with hopeful plans to continue west and sail to hawaii and then new zealand.

Wednesday we planned to go the grand canyon, the 4 of us couchsurfers renting a mustang. We made one or two too many stops on the way in sedona and other places and managed only a dim post sunset view of the windy and cloudy canyon, I was impressed all the same and look forward to the next time.

The last couple days Larry and I really got to work on the "not so secret website" of ours, and I'm happy to reveal all the details here in a post this week, we're ridiculously excited. I'm now sitting on a Greyhound pointed at NYC that has already brought classic greyhound stories, but I'll save those stories for the next post when the journey is complete, so unti