Boston, week one.

So I'm sure you all know by now that we arrived safe and sound in Boston. After a mild panic attack on the first couple of days... which we wont talk about... we settled into our place here for the month. We have been finding it hard to blog about Boston because we have been so darn busy exploring! We have yet to take the camera out into town I am afraid but we have got some pics from the highlights of the week.

There are all sorts of free money saving activities that we have been taking FULL advantage of. Our favorite so far came about from the rivalry between two local Boston beer companies Sam Adams and Harpoon. So we thought it was only fair that us beer drinking Brits go and show them what it is all about.


We had a nice early start so as to fit in the optimum about of beer tasting. Off we ventured on the T (Boston underground) to the far end of town in search of the fabled Samuel Adams. Arriving at our stop we made a point of looking gormless until a very nice assistant gave us directions. By the time we got there it was only about 9.45am... this was gonna have to be bloody good beer to settle on our stomaches so early. We got two tasters on arrival, a blackberry and a coffee one.


My God were they delicious, more than made up for the association of Sam Adams with the Boston tea party. The tasting continued through the tour and into the official tasting room. I have to say that there wasn't one that I disliked and to top it off I won a posh beer tasting glass for guessing the secret ingredient in their most expensive brew was (c: not bad for a mornings work eh!


After a hearty and delicious meal at a local pub with sweet potato fries and freshly battered onion rings we headed off to the docks to compare Harpoon. The brewery here tried a different approach to a beer tour, less of a tour more a open bar with free samples of all there beers. While drinking you would get a brief history of each drink and how it was made. Seeing from our ID's that we were British, the tour guide/barman immediatly assumed that we would allready know about different types of European Beer and so would regularly redirect questions to us (Are German beers fruity?, whats your option of French strawberry beer...etc etc) and at several points during the 'session ale' taste asked about how we would drink this at every meal and what an Englishman would consider a good alcoholic content for such an Ale...


Anyhoo maybe it was the 2 free tasting glasses, or the fact Tess won a prize, but we preferred Sam Adams, sorry harpoon.....

Ps .. my favorite moment came when a southern man , who proclaimed himself to be a true beer drinking American asked the tour guide at Sam Adams why they were effeminate beer by adding fruit and 'delicate girly' tastes. All he wanted was a real American Bud!. He looked proudly at his son, as if he had just beaten some sense into all these 'beer homos'. The tour guide sighed and asked us in the calmest manor ' i hear in Europe Bud is seen as an effeminate drink compared to Ales such as Sam Adams? Oh yes! Tess replied, something you would give to children..