Cheers. Where nobody knows my name.

Boston is a city of Universities. Some of the world’s biggest and best universities are situated here. Think Harvard, M.I.T, Boston University, University of Massachusetts, and the list goes on. Obviously, the grandest of those is Harvard and that is where I headed today. But before then, I was in desperate need of doing my laundry and I refuse to pay the prices the hotel would charge to get it sent out and cleaned so I walked over to Salem St in the North End to locate the Laundromat I had seen the day before. I found it easily enough and went in armed with quarters to wash almost everything I had brought with me. Unfortunately the washing and drying took a lot of time and before I knew it, I had spent about an hour and a half doing my laundry. The walk back to my hotel with my load took about 15 minutes, and once there I quickly changed and headed to the subway to get over to Cambridge to check out Harvard. The metro system in Boston is the best I have experienced since I have been in the US. It is SO easy to use. There is just four lines, each in a different colour that cover the whole area and only cost $2 a trip. At various points the lines intersect if you need to get somewhere different. For someone who can find these things confusing, I loved it. So I got onto my train and had a chuckle at the fact that they don’t have guards, the driver just sticks his head out the window, checks for people, then leaves. Also the fact that you can get onto the train using stairs to the driver just like a bus is weird. Anywhoo. After 10 minutes I had landed in Harvard Square. The population of Cambridge consists of 30% students, so that can indicate how huge Harvard is. It’s summer holidays for students at the moment so it’s a bit more quiet, but many tourists go to visit. I had a look in the Harvard Co-Op where you can source all your books, and I can tell you after looking through the selection, there is some hard core titles in there for the brain drains. No chick lit. There was also quite a few books containing successful Harvard essays for the future student. I walked away with a book, I had to buy a book at the Harvard book store, and then asked around for directions to the John Harvard’s Brew House for some lunch. By the looks of the place, I think it would be popular with students. They even brew their own Harvard beer. I grabbed a burger and went searching for the Harvard Natural History Museum. On the way to the museum I went to the Harvard store where you can literally buy absolutely anything imaginable with the Harvard logo on it. I guess when you pay $50K a year on tuition, you wear the name proudly!

I got to the Harvard History Museum in the Harvard ground and had a look around. It was interesting and the highlight for me was the Glass Flowers exhibit. It was just unbelievable. They had quite extensive collection of bugs and insects and taxidermy animals, including some Aussie locals, the koala and kangaroo. It wasn’t a huge museum, but if you like your Natural History museums, check it out. Afterwards I went to look at Harvard Yard. Harvard Yard is just the central area of the university grounds. The buildings are beautiful and the grounds are so well kept. It made Mac Uni look pretty shabby. There were many tourists around taking pics, which would be kinda weird for a student I reckon. My fun at Harvard was up and I ended back to my hotel to start to think about dinner. I’m told Pizza Regina is the place to go for good pizza in Boston so I went and bought a couple of slices, and it turns out it was pretty good. Worth doing if you’re in Boston. Then it was onto Cheers again for a beer or two. I spent the night chatting to a guy from Amsterdam who is over here working for Westin hotels. I got some interesting insight into the hotel business and headed to my hotel.

What I learnt in Boston today:

• Bostonians are huge Red Sox fans. It’s everywhere and on every TV
• Harvard is very swanky and I’m not surprised people pay what they do!
• Boston’s Metro system is freakin’ great.

A couple of Harvard students running the Unofficial Harvard Tour. Free to join.

Outside of John Harvard's Brew House.

The Harvard Co-Op. All things Harvard.

An example of the Glass Flowers. Yes, they aren't real but made from hand blown glass and then hand painted. They were used by botanists as the real thing died very quickly.

Harvard University Library. Nice huh.

Hanging out with Norm at Cheer's.