Tag: history

Having a blast in Boston

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Boston, USA

December 2025

As with most trips from New Zealand, it was a long travel day to get to the east coast of the USA.  First a flight from Christchurch to Auckland, then Auckland to San Francisco, and finally San Francisco to Boston.   You know it is a bumpy flight when the crew were told to sit down 4 times!  Despite the turbulence, the flights were not too bad.

Upon my arrival into San Fran, I decided to try out the Mobile Passport Control (MPC) app, which is supposed to speed up your entry into the US by uploading your details in advance.  The queue was definitely much shorter than the main one, but it did not move for some time as the so called ’dedicated’ gates were taking people from other queues – I can see how it could be quicker but not sure if it was on this day or not. 

Either way it took just under an hour to get through all the formalities and into the departure area where my next flight went from and my search for coffee began. I only drink flat whites at home and many of the places that sold coffee only had filter coffee or something made by a machine (not a barrister) so I joined the long queue for the one that had barristers.  My first observation being that their small is the size of our large – welcome to America lol.  (It was not a good coffee but I drank it anyway as I was operating on very little sleep!)

I was glad to have a window seat on my last flight (and a spare middle seat) and there were great views of the city as we took off into the blue skies.  The flight from the west coast to the east coast took about 5.5 hours, going from day to night, and blue skies and sun to freezing rain. 

It was another bumpy flight and the captain came on multiple times to say that we were ‘completely safe’ 🥴 and I was surprised that on a flight of this length they did not provide a meal (unless you paid for it!) so I filled up on small bags of pretzels!

Upon arrival in Boston my bag did not appear on the carousel – but my airtag told me it was near me.  Turns out it had come on an earlier flight and was left in a corner of the Luggage Hall.  I could have saved myself 30 minutes if they had mentioned this!   It had of course been a very long day (27 hours since I had left home) and I could not face public transport in the dark (and the sleet) to I opted for an uber.  $NZ50 for a 6km journey seemed excessive but it was a stark introduction to prices in the US!

I had my own room in a hostel here in Boston.  The room was basic but functional, quite industrial and concrete floors!  Freezing cold to step on straight out of bed so ended up putting a towel on the floor to step on 🥴. Despite that, I had a great sleep and woke to a beautiful, but bitterly cold morning.  I was keen to get out and explore and the hostel location was just a few minutes’ walk from Boston Common so I across the park to the Beacon Hill area – known for it’s narrow streets, brick footpaths, “federal” style houses and some of Boston’s most photographed streets. 

Christmas decorations along the streets and in the doorways and windows of houses were beautiful, although some not changed out Halloween stuff yet.  I also passed by the “Cheers’ bar (you would need to be of a certain age to know what I mean by that (lol)) and started on my journey through American Christmas drinks – starting strong with an Eggnog Latte.  It was sweet and a little odd (being unfamiliar with eggnog) but it grew on me🤣.

Back into Boston Common, I had the excitement of seeing my first squirrel, busily getting ready for their winter hibernation.  I know they are really just rats with fluffy tails but they are kind of cute!

This morning I had booked to do a Freedom Trail walking tour – accordingly to every website I had looked at, this is a ‘must do’ when in the city.  We only had a small group of 6 in total which was much better than some of the large groups we saw on the trial.  Of course, you could do the walk on your own, following the red brick trial through the city, but we know how much I love a good history walk lol. 

Boston played a crucial role in the American Revolution with the initial battles taking place in and around the city.  I was a little embarassed to admit that most of the information I know about the American Revolution comes from the TV show Outlander and the musical Hamilton so it was time I got some real information! The Freedom Trail is around 4km long and takes you past 16 locations played a part in the history of the country, particularly around the fight for independence from the British. 

We started in Boston Common, the first public park in the USA, and learnt about the earliest European settlers and their interactions with the local Massachuset tribe who were already living in the area. We also learnt about the changing landscape as the area used to have 3 small hills which were flatten and the dirt used to reclaim vast areas of land (the area called Back Bay was once the bay).

At the start of the revolution, in 1770, Boston had a population of only 15,000 people and at that time the Common was exactly that.  A place to graze cattle, a place for public debate and protest (normally by the Sons of Liberty) and subsequently a camp for the incoming British soldiers as tensions built.

(There was so much information, I will try and keep this to the main points … and even then, this is likely to be a long blog so settle in lol.)

Victims of the Boston Massacre (who are also considered the first victims of the Revolution) are also memorialised here – more about this a little later.

One of our first stop was the Granary Buring Ground, where a number of Boston’s revolutionary heroes are buried:

John Hancock (1737 – 1793) – one of the richest men in the city (having made money from shipping) and a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.  He actually found more ‘fame’ after the revolution. 

Paul Revere (1735 – 1818) – of the Midnight Rise poem fame.  He was a silver smith, cooper engraver, dentist and father of 16!  He had to work a lot of jobs to feed all those children.

Robert Treat Payne (1731 – 1814) – a prominent lawyer and another ‘Founding Father

Samuel Adams (1722 – 1803) – one of the most outspoken of the Son’s of Liberty.  Prior to his death he destroyed all his papers, noting that he had been committing treason for many years, so there is little known about his personal history.  His second cousin, John Adams was another Founding Father and went on to be the second president of the United States.

Our guide noted that a lot of the early headstones would have been wood, or there would have been no marker at all, so many are more recent.  He also told us to look out for some of the interesting death imagery on some of the stones – lots of Grim Reapers and skull and cross bones pictured 🤣 .

We passed the Parker House, a historic hotel, founded in 1855.  Martin Luther King used to work here, JFK proposed and had his Batchelor party there, and they invented the Boston Cream Pie.  Technically a cake, it is sponge cake, sandwiched with vanilla custard and drizzled with Chocolate icing.  I made a note to go back later for this!

We stopped by the Old City Hall (now a Steak House) which is on the same grounds that once housed the old Latin School where all the Boston Founding Fathers went to school. 

In the late 1750s, England were trying to recoup money to pay off their huge debt (a result of the 7 year war with France) and started to impose ridiculous taxes on the American colonies – violating their rights as English people and leading to the phrase “Taxation without representation is tyranny”

It started with a Sugar Act (1764) , taxing sugar and molasses, this was then repealed but soon replaced with the Stamp Act (1765) , taxing paper products!  At this point the Governors house is destroyed in protest, resulting in that act being repealed, but then replaced with the Townsend Act (1967), taxing fancy goods, glass, paint (basically anything used in houses).   

More protesting leads to 2,200 British soldiers being sent to the city to cut back on protests and smuggling (the city only has a population of 15,000).  This lays the groundwork for the Boston Massacre that started outside (now the middle of a busy intersection) the Old State House on March 5th, 1770.

A group of young boys were throwing ice and snow and yelling such insults at him as “you are no gentlemen”!  This escalates with the arrival of another solider who hits one of the boys, bring other people out of shops and taverns to see what is going on.  Tensions are high and a rumour spread that there is a fire.  Church bells start ringing to get people to bring water (as is the norm with fires).  Of course there is no fire and everyone is ready for a fight.

No one really knows what happened next – from snowballs and insults from children, to bullets and death.  John Adams (future president of the independent USA) acted as lawyer for the soldiers who are found guilty of manslaughter and are branded on the hand with the letter M.

After this the British troops are removed form the city and the Townsend Act is repealed.  Tensions die down until …jump forward to 1773 and the Tea Act was put in place.

We continued walking, seeing the Old South Meeting House, once the largest meeting house in Boston, and the starting point for the infamous Boston Tea Party.  On December 16th, 1773, 4000 people from around the region, gathered here to protest the latest attempt by the British to tax the colonies.

The Tea Act gave ships carrying tea just 20 days to off load their cargo (money did not exchange hands until the crates hit land).  They also granted a monopoly to the British East India company, meaning they could only with them, undermining local merchants and distributors and ultimately replacing them with crown appointed distributors.

The Son’s of Liberty rallied and stopped the ships being offloaded and disguised as Mohawk Indians, they boarded three ships and threw their cargo of tea into the harbour. 342 chests of tea was destroyed, valued at around $US1.5M in todays money.

5 months later, when the news got back to England, they enacted the Intolerable Acts in 1774, which included shutting down the port of Boston and 4,000 soldiers were deployed to the city.  This resulted in the Sons of Liberty leaving the city for Lexington and start their stock piling of guns and ammunition for the inevitable revolution.

The Freedom Trial then took us across to the “North End” of the city, through some of the greenways that were created when they put a lot of the highways underground.  Starting in the 1980’s the so-called Big Dig disrupted traffic in the city for 30 years!  I can only image the disruption but I am sure it makes a huge difference to the city today.

This part of the city is the oldest residential area, some of which was settled in the 1630’s.  There are lots of old buildings, lining cobble stone streets and is well known for its Italian population, leading to lots of great Italian restaurants and bakeries.   

One of the last remaining wooden houses in the area is that of Paul Revere (who we met in the cemetery earlier in our walk) which was built in about 1680 and housed Revere and his family from 1770 to 1800.    Today it has been fully restored and is a museum.  The area is also home to an imposing Paul Revere statue, riding his steed in his infamous “midnight ride’.

The reality of the ‘midnight ride’ is not the same as the famous poem. There were a number of riders, including Mr Revere, who rode from Boston to Lexington to let the Son’s of Liberty know the British soldiers were coming.  He was joined by Dr Joseph Warren and Dr Samuel Prescott amongst others and they travelled by horse and boat to ensure at least one of the messengers got through. Dr Prescott made it to Concord where the stockpile was.

Because of the early warning, 75 rebel were there to meet 700 soldiers and the soldiers fall back.  On their way back to Boston they get shot at all the way.

The Freedom trail ended up on the shore, looking out towards Bunker Hill, the site of a great battle where the rebels were attacked by waves and waves of soldiers.  They were finally defeated by the 3rd wave and although the British won a victory here, they lost so many soldiers in the process.  As a result of the battle, nearby Charlestown caught fire and burnt to the ground.  Abigial Adams, wife of John Adam’s wrote in a letter “the decisive day has com e on which the fate of American depends”.

I walked back to historic Quincy market, a purpose built market, built in 1826.  There were lots of food options, lots of lobster & chowder which the city is famous for, and the continued to walk along harbour walk along water front. It was all pretty quiet but I am sure it is a different place in the summer.

On my way back to my hostel, I did not forget to stop by the Parker House to get one of the Boston Cream Pies.  It lookedbeautiful and given it cost me $US12.95 for a small one, I hoped that it was made of gold lol.  I justified that it was one of those ‘when in Boston’ kind of things.

I rounded up the day going to a Cirque de Soliel Christmas show in the beautiful Wang Theatre (I was staying just around the corner from the theatre area) “Twas the night before”.  The first of many shows and a great way to start my festive trip. 

For my second (and final) day in Boston I adventured on the “T”, the Boston metro system and went out to explore the outlet shops of  Assembly Row. It’s great that these days, many cities public transport can be paid for just by tapping your bank card.  No need to buy a ticket. It makes taking the transport so much easier. 

I had expected a mall but it was just a little suburb that was like a ghost town at this time of the day. Thankfully I had not expected it to be cheap despite being the outlet stores, with sales!  There are however different shops and different options than at home so I did get a few things.

I headed back to city and had some lunch in a British pub (why I don’t know?) but I did get a  Samuel Adams beer as I believe that sis another ‘must do’ in Boston.

I enjoy just wandering around the streets as it is a great way to stumble across things – this time I found myself in the main shopping area (which had odd Christmas ‘statues’) and on to the Copley Place mall, full of high end shops.  Today’s novelty hot drink was a Gingerbread Dirty Chai – it was ok but not as good as the Eggnog Latte.

It had been a cold day and it was only to get colder as I headed out to see the Christmas tree lighting in Boston Common – a 2 hour concert and then the tree lighting .  It started at -3 and snowing and ended feeling like -15! How festive 🤣❄️

It was televised live starred the Pointer Sisters and in typical  American style the concert had to stop for adverts!  Despite this, and the cold, it was worth the wait to see the tree light up and the accompanying fireworks.  I was happy to sample a hot apple cider (typically non-alcoholic here) on my way back to my warm bed.

Boston was a blast but time to move on.

Caves, canyons and wine

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Armenia, April 2025

I was back in fine form today and I was ready for our busy day ahead.  Our first stop was at Zorats Karer, also known as Karahundj, or the Armenian “Stonehenge”.   Despite it already being around 9.30am, the site was closed and after waiting for a short time, taking in the beautiful morning surrounded by mountains and bird song (and the toilets with a view), we went on a mission to get in! 

This resulted in us walking through the field next door, through thick clay like mud that stuck to our shoes – by the time we got to the fence on the other side our shoes were sooooo heavy, caked in this mud!!  We then had to slide under the fence, and I was very grateful I did not put clean trousers on today 😂 – it was all part of the fun though and there was no way we were going to miss out on this. 

Unlike the English Stonehenge, which you can now only view from a distance, this megalithic site is free for us to roam around, despite the fact that these stones are thought to be 3,500 years older than the English equivalent!!

There are over 200 large stone monoliths, 80 of which have distinctive holes bored near the top edge and the purpose is still being debated.  Most consider it an ancient astronomical observatory (it was one of the world’s first), but other theories include a Monument to the Sun God and/or a burial site or sanctuary for soldiers.

It was an incredible site to see and by the time we had finished looking around, the site caretaker had turned up and unlocked the gate (so we did not have to walk through the field again to get out).  Of course she did tell us off; to be fair she only told Levon off, for effectively breaking in 😂 .

Every day in Armenia seems to bring windy mountain roads and spectacular views and today was no exception as we continued on through the countryside, passing through more small towns.  Most with friendly stray dogs, some with Storks, nesting on power poles (as we saw in Georgia).

 

Our next stop was Areni-1 Cave complex, named after the endemic Areni grapes, which grow in the area with very little water.  This particular cave complex became renown in 2008 when a PhD student, researching the early Bronze Age site, found an old shoe!  Not any old shoe, perhaps the oldest complete leather shoe found in the world, being dated to approximately 5,500 years ago!   Despite its age, it is in pretty good condition due to the cool and dry conditions in the cave, and the layer of sheep dung it was sealed in!  The actual shoe is now kept in the museum in Yerevan.

Other artefacts found in the caves include weapons, jewellery, ceramics, petrified grains, apricots and grape seeds, burial jars with human remains.  They also found wine making artefacts dating back more than 6,000 years!  Only 10% of the cave complex has been excavated so there are likely to be more exciting and important finds in the future.

 

As a side note, Levon told us that during Soviet times, the Soviet rulers insisted on all the winery’s making Brandy rather than wine and Armenian brandy was some of Stalin’s favourite.  He actually supplied Churchill with it!

We had lunch in a lovely café covered in beautiful wisteria and this time Levon recommended something with buckwheat and mushrooms (Emmer Pilav), something with the wild herbs that we have seen people picking on the road side and egg (Mandak)and then a meat dish which can be served cold (which is very fatty) or hot cooked with egg which we opted for. 

If I recall, this is a very traditional dish, where the meat is cooked with lots of fat and then stored in clay pots to preserve it (dating back to harsh winters before refrigeration and war time).   Google tells me it is called Ghavurma.  Having it cold with all the fat was a stretch too far, but cooked with the eggs it was pretty tasty. 

It is quite clear to me that I will never be a food blogger!  I forget to take photos before we start eating and/or I forgot to properly note what we are eating!  Whatever it was, it tasted good!

I might just note that there are more Lada’s here, and even a new one, so they are clearly still making them. I bet they won’t last the many decades the old ones do!

From our lunch spot we drove through the stunning red cliffs of Noravank Gorge to the Noravank Monastery complex.   The area actually sits in the Noravank Sanctuary which covers a number of diverse ecosystems, as well as being home to Bezoar goats (or ibex) that are native to this region. 

We did scour the higher areas to see if we could see one, but sadly not – thankfully Levon has one tattooed on his leg, so we kind of saw one??  Super guide Levon comes through for us again lol.

The monastery itself dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries (after the earlier 9th structures were destroyed in an earthquake) and was the residence of Orbelian princes and now the resting place of kings.  It is much more ornate that most Armenian churches and is the only church which has an image of God in human form (a practice that is against the Armenian Apostolic Church’s rules). In the intricate carving, he is apparently holding Adam’s head in his hand and it was supposed to be a simple explanation of the bible for those who could not read.   

After exploring the complex, we headed back down through the gorge (stopping for photos and taking video as directed by Levon lol) and it is time for wine tasting at Areni Winery.  A family run business that manufactures around 250,000 bottles a year from local grapes, some in the traditional clay pots and some in the European barrel method. 

As in Georgia, I preferred the barrel method wines, but perhaps it is because that is what I am more used to? They also had a number of fruit wines (peach, raspberry, blackberry, cherry and pomegranate), all of which were very strong.

My favourite here was the semi-dry red, and I decided to purchase a bottle.  Not just any bottle.  One dressed in the costume of a traditional Armenian man lol.  The outfit cost a lot more than the wine but I must admit I love him – and have named him Armen.  Armen the Armenia wine guy 😜 .

After a few days of low cloud, rain and cold, it was lovely to have some warmth and sunshine again as we drove through a small part of the country that bordered on Turkey, Iran and part of the Azerbaijani occupied territory of Artsakh.  The good weather meant we got our first glimpse of Little Ararat, and her famous big sister, the mighty Mt Ararat of biblical fame – where Noah’s Ark landed after the flood.

We continued to pass cars and trucks that looked so old and so battered that we were surprised they could be on the road.  Levon told us that although there are ‘fitness’ checks for vehicles, if they were extensive (like they are in other countries) there would be hardly any cars on the road!  Apparently, they only check brakes and lights and sometimes even those checks are falsified!


As we were close to the border(s) we talked more about the ongoing territory conflicts in the area. It turns out that not only is Levon a superstar guide, but he is also a bit of hero! Back in 2020, he and a number of friends went over the border into Artsakh in the middle of the night to save khachkars from likely destruction. Some of those saved were over 1000 years old.

We stopped at the perfect photo stop with the Khor Virap Monastery over shadowed by Mt Ararat and the beautiful Armenian flag flapping in the wind.  Unfortunately, the lighting wasn’t perfect but it was still a stunning view!  From here we could also see how close we were to the border with Turkey (see the white mosque). 

Despite being right on the border with Turkey, there is no open land border crossing between the two countries and to enter Turkey, you actually have to travel up to Georgia and then cross from there.  This is testament to the tense relationship between the two countries since WWI.

The Khor Virap monastery was one of the most touristy sites we had visited on the whole trip, with a huge line of souvenir stalls lined up on the pathway to the monastery.  Thankfully it was not that busy at the time we were there, but it is one of Armenia’s most important religious sites. 

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, Gregory the Illuminator brought Christianity to Armenia in 301AD.  Ironically, he was assistant to the pagan King Tiridates III and initially, the King tortured him for his Christian beliefs and then imprisoned him and left him to die when he heard that Gregory’s father had murdered his father!  His dungeon, and home of 13 years was at Khor Virap, which actually means “deep dungeon” or “bottommost pit”. 

But he did not die, and 13 years later when the King became sick (apparently because he ordered the death of 40 women preaching Christianity), his wife dreamt that only Gregory could save him.  So he was brought out of the pit, cured the King, was given salvation and the King accepted Christianity!  Well, that was the story we were told. 

I have read some variations on this but the gist is the same.  Punished by the King for being Christian, someone had a dream Gregory saved the life of the King, the King converts … the end. The pit that St Greogry was allegedly kept in is still open for people to climb down, via a steep ladder.  There was a bit of a queue so we did not bother!

The first chapel was built on the site, in a mark of respect to St Gregory in 642 and this has been repeatedly rebuilt over the centuries until 1662.   Today you can see inscriptions on the buildings which apparently is graffiti from people fleeing the genocide in 1917/18.

From Khor Virap we continued on the 45km to Armenia’s capital, Yerevan.  It looked huge as we drove towards it, a great sprawling city, housing over a third of the country’s population. 


We checked in to a lovely hotel here, I even had a view of Mother Armenia from my window!  It had been yet another awesome day.  Armenia truly has been full of laughter and kindness.