Hi everyone and welcome to almost the last week of our trip! We used to say to people we were going away for six and a bit months, well we're now well into 'the bit'.

Well the bus trip from Niagara to Boston took so long because it went via New York. For those of you not up on your US geography, that's a very indirect route! Just another staggering decision from Greyhound, officially the worst bus company in the world!

We got here ok though and have been enjoying Boston for the last three days. We took a walking tour of the city on our first day, visited Harvard yesterday and today ventured a little further to Salam, home of the 1692 witch trials.

Most of Boston's historical landmarks and museums focus on the War of Independence, which as a Brit is a bit weird. I couldn't help wondering as we went round what would have happened if we'd given them taxation WITH representation and kept them happy. We'd have probably ended being superceeded by the US and being incorporated as a 51st state, given the financial mess the US is in at the moment I can't help but feel they probably did us a favour!!!!

I know times are bad in the UK at the moment with jobs but things here are alot worse. At least ten of the 50 states are technically bankrupt having failed to agree budgets that should have started in the 1st July. They include California which is currently paying it's employees with IOUs, and to top it off the national debt topped $1trillion for the first time last week and is expected to hit $2trillion within a coupld of years!

Boston is a fantastic city and has a brillinat public transport system. We have found ourselves kicking our heals a couple of times though and two days is probably enough to see it all In a reverse of the saying it's a lovely place to live but not great to visit! If anyone was planning on visiting we'd thoroughly recommend it but only if you're going to hire a car and make it part of a New England trip.

Our day at Harvard was well worth the visit, with some lovely old buildings with classic New England archithecture. The tour turned into a bit of an advert expleining why Harvard was a nice place to study, which we found strange as we didn't think somewhere like Harvard really had to advertise, being voted the best university in the world three or four years in a row should take care of the recruitment! We did however learn a couple if good facts about Harvard. First, (former vice president) Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones were room mates! I'd heard that before but thought I'd share. Second good fact was that when Harvard graduate Harry Elkins Widener died on the Titanic (he got into a life boat but returned to retrieve a rare book and didn't make it back into a lifeboat - so much for the best and the brightest!) his mother donated $2million to build a memorial library. The money came with three conditions and if any condition was broken the land instantly became the property of the council rather than the University. Condition one was that not a single brick ever be moved from the library, this meant that when they expanded they had to dig down and out, so the library now has 8 floors, 6 of which are underground. Condition two was that there is an exact replica of Harry's study maintained in the library and Condition three was that every single person who graduated from Harvard had to complete a swim test because if only Harry knew how to swim..........

The swim test is the only condition not kept to as it fell foul of Equal Rights legislation in the 70's

Tomorrow we're soaking up the last of the Boston revolutionary atmosphere and catching an overnight bus to Washington DC. Like London, almost all the museums in Washinton are free, along with tours the Capitol, so there'll be no heal clicking!

Sorry for the lack of photos, the last three hostels we've stayed in have all had technical issues with their computers that have meant we couldn't upload any pics. We will try again in DC but failing that we'll show them to you in person in a couple of days time!!

Lots of love to everyone

Greg and Steph

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