Beantown in nice letters.

So, I was in Boston last week.  Yes, an Irishman with family in Boston.  Shocking, I know.

I’m quite glad to be back in Texas though.  One thing I did like very much about Boston, however, and something that hits you immediately, is that it feels considerably older up there.  I guess I really have been living on the frontier.

I mean, just look at this:

Isn’t that a wonderful sign?  I saw this as I roamed around Boston’s almost-European streets (read: no grid system), while realizing I actually like cities built on a grid, despite my years of complaining about them.  I just thought it was fantastic.  I now want an old town camera.  I would have gone in there to enquire, but they were closed.  On a Saturday.  It’s like Boston is living through a European experience that doesn’t exist anymore in Europe.

I also checked out a cemetery for social reasons for the first time since I was nineteen.  Details on that particular episode will remain scarce, but I got to see the rather impressive monument the people of Boston put up to replace the rather ravaged one Benjamin Franklin had left for his parents.

I had this idea that I would take loads of photographs of cool lettering, but lost focus.  I like that picture though.  Boston was crammed full of cool looking things of various description: signs, buildings, people.  I mean, moustaches… really?

All in all, it was nice, but the funny thing is that it confirmed for me that I’m more of a West Coast plus Austin, Texas guy.  I’m not really into grumpy people anymore.  Not to mention rain.  Maybe their signs can move down here.