Boston, MA

After checking in at a youth hostel I decided to begin my trip with some sightseeing in the central parts of town like Beacon Hill, a grand upmarket district with leafy boulevards. However my jetlag soon made me feel very sleepy and early in the evening, after experiencing my first over-sized American meal, I decided to head back to the hostel.

The following day I moved my bags over to the house of a guy called Ken. I had met Ken through the www.couchsurfing.com website - a brilliant thing where people who are interested in meeting foreigners agree to let you sleep on their couch or show you around town. During my visit to the US I stayed at five or six different homes of total strangers, and only had very positive experiences. Not only is the Couchsurfing alternative a money-saver, you also get to see a town from a local’s perspective and discover things that you otherwise probably would have missed.

Later in the day I met up with Brianne, another person from the Couchsurfing website, who had kindly agreed to be my tourist guide for an afternoon. Brianne took me to see the Christian Science centre, as I hold a curious fascination for oddball cults.

Like many other groups, Christian Science has its fair share of controversy. Treatment for an illness is not sought through consulting a doctor or by taking medicine, but by “Christian Science treatment” – a form of prayer said to have a healing effect. Followers believe that illness is caused by fear, ignorance or sin. Brianne told me of recent court cases where parents had refused to take their cancer-suffering kids for conventional treatment. Staff at the Centre did not seem to be very happy to talk about this though.

Over the next few days I checked out Harvard university, saw the house where JFK was born, visited a Kabbalah temple, had some food at a Greek festival and walked for miles through suburban landscapes. Everywhere I went, I would see people jogging or doing some form of exercise. I was surprised to see such fit, health-conscious people in a place like this.

written by  niklasbergstrand on January 16, 2009 from Boston, United States
from the travel blog: Niklas in America
Send a Compliment

comment on this...