Three cities

Boston, Washington D.C., Savanna, Georgia

08.05.2010

Boston, the city that we visited on the way to a desired destination. If that sounds harsh, well, it is, sort of. The truth is that after living in NYC for decades, Boston feels horribly immature. There is no real cohesion to the place. Sure, there are some individual streets in a few neighborhoods that are beautiful and old but a few streets do not make a city. Apparently, Boston was poorly planned and even after they spent a fortune burying the main highway that split the downtown in two (The big dig), the area now looks forced and, the supposed parks above the highway are sterile and a poor afterthought and, don't get me started on it's miserable weather. It has the worst of both worlds; as a city it is too small and unsophisticated to be taken seriously and as a college town, it is too spread out and lacks intimacy.

"And one and two and one and...oh come-on Johnson, take it up a notch, that's the spirit!

My stereo would sound amazing in here!

A building in Harvard.

Modern architecture.

Washington is not a place you go to in search of a fine meal. Of course in a city of this size, you will find some wonderful restaurants but I sense that the majority of D.C. locals do not care that much about the quality (flavor or healthiness) of their dining experiences and it shows. We frequented different bakeries and dessert places, all sub-par. We walked around two fine neighborhoods; Dupont Circle and Georgetown. Both were major culinary disapointments. We don't expect much from food when we are in the country (although we have been pleasently surprised on multiple occasions) but when one is in a major city, there really is no excuse for the amount of uninspired food that we experienced. Of course it seems that I'm obsessing about food but after all, why build and maintain a city if tasty food is not part of the equation. Also, D.C. has an inflated and cynical sense of itself. You can feel it when you walk around and talk to people. The energy of the place is a bit on the negative side and with good reason. Imagine all of the politicians, lobbyests, lawyers and other cynical people whose job it is to slice up the country for their gain. Sure, other large cities have powerful greedy individuals in their midst but, this city is built for politicians and all that they represent. Aside from some beautiful old government buildings...