Victory Tour - Boston

The perfect place to stop, take stock and contemplate. Boston, the largest city in New England, perhaps one of the most European cities in the United States has served me well as the beginning of my US tour in the wake of the stunning Obama victory. It is a beautiful city - with stunning vistas across the Charles River to Cambridge on one side, and an urban skyline on the other - walking around takes very little time, and it is always worth it.

I can't say that I have done everything here - far from it - but I feel that I've seen the highlights of an intellectual, sport-loving and architecturally beautiful city. My favourite places have been:

• Walking along the Esplanade. I spent my first morning wandering along the river, reading plaques about the history of the esplanade. Stunning views across bridges and the river really added to a sense of peace and calm that was most welcome after the previously incredibly hectic week.
• The Mary Baker Eddy Library and Mapparium. A building that has the lofty ambition of being for the 'Betterment of Humanity'; the Library itself is a stunning piece of architecture. And, at $6, it is entirely worth taking the 15 minute Mapparium tour. A huge glass globe with incredibly bizarre acoustics, walking inside you are reminded just how small and close we really are.
• The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The site of one of the greatest art thefts in recent times, this is a fantastic building. Housing an eclectic mix of mainly renaissance art, the Venetian style building is breathtaking in itself, and completely worth the entry fee.
• The JFK Museum and Library. Itself, an interesting look at the history of JFK and the other Kennedys. However, it is the setting and the building that are particularly stunning. On a bright and blustery day as I visited it, the views are spectacular and it was nice to get out and see Boston from another angle.

There are plenty more sights - wandering through history on the Freedom Trail into the North End, with its lovely Italian restaurants; a drink at the top of the Prudential tower; Trinity Church. Boston is a city I very much enjoy.

This period has also been my first attempt at travelling alone. After a shaky start, being awkward in talking to people, I quickly made some friends that I could hang out with. Dinner with a Belgian/Canadian - our poor grasp of each other's language wasn't particularly useful; drinks in a pub with an incredibly interesting Nigerian man who really wanted to change the world and a night out with an eclectic mix of people - starting in a blues bar and ending up in a cheap college dive bar where the beer was big but the nacho's were huge! I enjoy the opportunity to explore alone but spend evenings with new found friends, learning their culture and their values. It is a confusing situation to grasp onto someone as a friend, spend a night with them, and then part knowing you'll almost certainly never see them again.

And so, I leave Boston happy that I have had a chance to stop and contemplate. On to New York, and the crazy sights of a huge city. I can't wait.