Christmas in Boston

 

Boston was beautiful.

On Christmas Eve we watched The Nutcracker by the Boston Ballet. What a treat. By this stage, after our long drive North and three days experiencing what is the hurly-burly of New York before Christmas, we needed to slow down. We headed to the North End Italian Quarter for a big bowl of pasta. The perfect Christmas Eve dinner tradition. Our tummies quickly filled up and we began to digest the holiday.

On Christmas day the city was quiet and the air was cold. Really cold. We took the day slow, enjoying each others company – eating, walking and eating some more.

On Boxing day it snowed. I couldn’t have been happier. The city woke up and it was the perfect opportunity to bundle up and wander the streets of Beacon Hill, to ice skate on The Frog Pond, to venture to South End and eat a post Christmas cup cake at South End Buttery and to hunt for the perfect wine & cheese at Formaggio.

I loved the way the season was celebrated here. It seemed as though every door and lamp post was adorned with hand made wreaths and swags – giving evergreen & appeal to the dead of winter. And just as we left, the sky cleared and the sun came out. As though the entire snowy Christmas holiday was a secret.

It was a very special Christmas. We were far from our homes, but relished the comfort and slow pace that Christmas in Boston gave us.  This – our wintry, northern Christmas – felt right.

New York | Part 2

We woke up to rain. Rain in the city –  any city – is one of my most favourite things. Reflective puddles of light, tall buildings hidden by low lying clouds, muddy taxis, sidewalk seas of umbrellas and the opportunity to wear gumboots.We ventured to the highest points, to the oldest bridges, to the freshest restaurants. Like a sponge, we soaked up every possible drop that the city was willing to give us during our final hurrah to our surreal dream – meeting New York City…

We fell into a daze as we looked down to the island below.

We relished yellow cab rides, until traffic jams stopped us from moving and we had to get out.

Once, Jakob sat in the front.

We became mesmerised by grand buildings and their grand light displays.

We were disenchanted by all things touristy. We looked else where for inspiration.

We ate at Vinegar Hill House. We discovered pear and fennel and fell in love with linen napkins.

The rain cleared. We walked past back streets filled with wire mesh and stopped into a bar to listen to a band playing Christmas carols.

We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and quickly became mesmerized by its presence at night and its view of the glowing, festive Manhattan skyline. We stopped to take silly photos and to breathe in the view.

One the bridge, we found love.

We huddled inside cosy library bars to keep warm. We drank tea and hot chocolate until we could feel our toes again.

New York.

New.

York.

It was so nice to meet you.

One day soon, we will meet again.

New York| Part 1

New York.

New.

York.

It was like deja vu. An encyclopedia of this place had already been penned into my head. Despite never actually having been to this city, all of the movies, songs and stories had me believing that I already knew this place. Its neighborhoods. Its culinary musts. Its residents. Its sounds.

Three days before Christmas and many, many days longing after its charm, this city and I finally met. For real.

We wandered through parks. We looked up at the buildings and they looked over us. We chased squirrels and watched people ice skating through the trees. We listened to buskers and bought soft salty pretzels.

We found strange, beautiful objects on the ground. We stood by the pond and watched the ducks stand on the ice.

We went on long walks, miles from our apartment. We ate hot dogs from hot dog stands and sat outside a patisserie. We were cold and cheerful. We found streets with brownstones that were being covered with steam from chimneys coming up from underground. We wandered past museums and watched a homeless man write a haiku in the street.

We found Christmas markets and stood under the twinkling lights. We drank hot cider. When our feet hurt and we felt tired, afternoon naps helped.

We took the subway downtown. We explored Nolita in the dark, sometimes finding alley ways and cobble stones.

We had a blissful dinner at Freemans, and toasted Lisa, the friend who recommended it to us. We drank cocktails and ate whole baked fish. We shared our dinner with a taxidermy bird.

We caught our first yellow taxi.

We slept on the Upper West Side alongside a view that disappeared into the night.

We dreamt of being in New York.

Charleston, SC

There are a couple of very special places in this world that I have visited so far, that if given the chance, I would move to tomorrow. Charleston is one of those places.

This city has charm. It has old world charm; where cobbled stone streets meet the edge of the peninsular and every corner you turn another beautiful garden window box is hugged by perfectly painted shutters and engulfed by the sweetest smell of jasmine vine, where church steeples are everywhere poking the sky and secret garden pathways lead you to timeworn and peaceful graveyards. And it has new world charm; where you will find folk biking around the narrow streets, where an endless supply of the coolest independent cafes, restaurants, cocktail and wine bars are popping up, where once tattered neighborhoods have become gentrified and trending and where there is such a fresh feeling of adoration and support for the city and its ever-evolving spaces.

Every time I visit this city I very willingly loose hours in the day wandering, daydreaming and exploring. There is always a plethora of exciting new places to be found and plenty of favourites to come back to. When I’m not in Charleston, I dream of being in Charleston. It is a little gem of the South that holds on to so much history and yet breathes so much new life – and it blends the two together perfectly.

If you ever get the chance to visit this stunning city of endless charm, please do. I have a feeling that you may just want to move there too.