PodCamp weekend: The city of Boston (and Cambridge, and Manchester)

October 31, 2007

In BostonI love Boston. Whether it was the excitement surrounding a looming World Series victory or just the normal hustle and bustle of the city, Beantown just has a higher level of constant energy than I’ve seen anywhere else.

“But Justin,” you ask, “you’ve always said that you don’t want to live in Boston.” That’s true. As much as I like the city, it’s just too busy for my taste as a rural/”suburban” Maine guy. I’ve started to enjoy each visit to the city more, and I do like spending time in it.

I managed to become somewhat of a subway master on this trip. I’ve always loved the T (and trains in general); the concept of having a speedy underground train racing around a city has always fascinated me. Sure, the system isn’t perfect – there were shuttle buses for one part of the Orange Line last weekend, and then there was that time where I had to get out of the car and walk to the closest station when the train didn’t work correctly on a previous trip – but it’s a very efficient method of transit overall.

I also had the pleasure of riding the Silver Line for the first time. The Silver Line is a 5-year-old section of Boston public transportation that uses underground electric buses instead of trains. I loved it.

The star of the weekend for public transportation was the Red Line, my favorite leg of the T. The Red Line has become familiar to me since most of my Boston area friends have lived in Cambridge; the Harvard station is one of two (along with North Station) that I feel familiar with. On Sunday I parked at Alewife at the end of the Red Line and rode from there to South Station with a couple stops along the way. I was really impressed with the ease of the new CharlieCard stored value system as well.

Thanks to my friends Kelley and Ian, I was able to stay in Manchester, NH for the weekend. I’ve really started to appreciate Manchester after the two BarCamps there and this last trip; if I was to move away from Bangor, I’d probably end up there. It’s tough for me to think that I might leave Maine since I really love it here, but it’s always good to have options, right?

The trip made me want to explore places outside of Maine more. When I get some time, I might just do that.

Check out a few of my photos from Boston on Flickr. I also uploaded a video from the Red Line.