Pre East Boston

It's MaStory time again, boys and girls!

Up relatively early today, so train to MITSFS to exchange books, running into an SCA acquaintance playing keyholder. Unlike SPECTRE where only I shelved returned books, they all seem to. Also there are actual checkout terms and fines, vs. Caltech's return it whenever, and maybe I'd nag you if I noticed it was out too long.

MIT student art gallery: meh. Student Center "bookstore": more of a clothing store. But I found a real bookstore by the T stop, got some interesting titles.

Downtown Crossign. Pedestrian only streets, some musicians, and maybe 10 vendor stalls; I tried some amepa? Not sure, but sweet corn patty wity mozzarella. It was okay. Walked up to State. Borders is still open. A colonial dress band was playing nearby. I got a 50 cent peach from another vednor, decent (firm, sweet, some juice) but not Immortality class.

Orange/Blue T entrance turned out to mean "orange here, walk quite a way for blue." I guess such tunnels are good for bad weather, but I hate having my expectations messed up.

After 6 months, I'm finally on the Blue Line, heading to East Boston. "No one goes there", or knows what's there, apart from some old dog race track and presumed residential neighborhoods. My relocation guide didn't mention it. It gets cut off on a lot of maps. The Blue Line runs a bit less frequently than other lines. Yet, you know, this train is rather crowded for a place no one goes too.

One webpage had said East Boston was largely Hispanic, and that's not contradicted by the visible passengers, though there's some number of conventional whites. Few blacks or Asians. The train mostly runs aboveground, near water, there was a beach at Orient Heights, maybe. Poorer vibe off the passengers, like working class clothing, or just not hip; northern Red Line feels a lot different. Friendly when I asked if there were interesting things around. "Beach. Bus to Salem." Hour long bus sounds like, 20 miles.

A wifi spot here at Wonderland is "FrickenRevere".

On to explore!

In East Boston

Salem buses run every 30 or 60 minutes. There's two of them.

The beach road lacks passenger yield signs, at least where I crossed, so exciting crossing. Such signs are rather common in Cambridge.

Beach is definitely in use. Looks clean from up here. Frequent but small waves. Views of peninsula, islands? distant sailboats. Plane taking off from the nearby airport. Chirping birds in the shelter, mostly invisible, but I saw one what looked like a white breasted sparrow, and a similar one with a red head and upper breast. Someone on the beach has a large half-tent instead of planted parasol... Make that several people.

I suspect beach zones tend to be the same. Tall pastel apartment buildings, various eateries. Reminded me of La Serena, the last beach I've been at. Walked up Revere Beach Blvd to Oak Island road, bacl down North Shore, which ran out of sidewalks. Not a ped friendly area. Passed a large field full of what at first I thought might be corn but are probably just grasses no one's mowed because it's held for development.

i typed the last paragraph in the shade of a fire station, so just got to see a fire truck pull out, and on its back, "9-11-01 NEVER FORGET". Hmm, the 10th year anniversary is in a few months.

I once again give thanks for the GPS mapping function of my phone, and curse the sad battery life.

Walking west on Revere Street. Actual urban blocks and sidewalks but little interest.

Very confused church bells, at an intersection I can't safely cross. Crossed. Found a far deadlier roundabout. Am still uninjured.

Someone on IRC says there are a bunch of shops for Latin American cuisine. i'm across from a supermarket advertising $0.99/lb red peppers, which tempts me. This is right after passing a Hispanic kids' party, music and inflatable thing and lots of kids. A friendly older guy told me what it was and invited me to come in and have free food. I felt too weird about it too accept, which is probably disgustingly Anglo of me.

Ooh, romaine $1.29/each.

And ends. My father used to get cheap cuts, the ends of the blocks they usually slice from. Some delis or butches will sell them cheap, here 2.49/lb for Italian meats, 1.49 for cheeses and hams. i have left with rather more food than I anticipated, some of which should go find a fridge. New Deal Fruit.

Huh, I've been here only 2.5 hours. Felt like longer. Blue line cars are very air conditioned and half the length of normal cars.

Was heading home, because my feet hurt and I have meat, but given the time, I popped out at Suffolk Down to explore more since it was green. I asked a handy T attendant if there were anything interesting, and he indicated the greyhound track in one direction and a marsh in the other. I opted for marsh and am here in the Belle Isle Marsh Reservation. Looks more like a park so far, but I'm not in much yet, stopped to eat some food. And discover why a passing dog was so interested in me: the meat was put into ziplock bags which were not actually locked, so I've been trailing pastrami and mortadella and capicino odors.

Marsh: initially park with blobs of cattails. Then muddy trail (not taken) into the cattails. Then wooden observation platforms over grassy or mossy water. I was particularly taken with what looked like a stream several feet wide yet had a central channel a few inches wide, with the presence or absence of water plants just beneath the surface makes the difference. Marsh is also right under the airline takeoff path. Marsh had several robins as I left.

Walked to Ocean Heights, the next stop. I finally found an interesting looking neighborhood, e.g. fancy streetlights and a Columbian restaurant and other visible shops -- right when my feet moved up from "aches" to "stabbing pains", so I'm calling it quits for the day.

A lot more people get on at the aquarium than at the airport. Of course the airport stop is now suboptimal into the city, because of the silver line.

I forgot earlier to snark about the people waiting at State to catch the blue line one stop to Government Center. I suppose they might not have known Bowdoin is closed weekends.

Lucky! Was going to walk aboveground to Park, but if a Green Line is right there to take me... I suppose in general transferring via Green isn't unreasonable, since there's four of them.