Boston. Poor Boston! With 11 days of smooth running travel, great food, amazing attractions and great hostels... who knew that Boston would be where it all went wrong.

It all started with the 7 hour coach journey, which ended up being closer to 9, and an Indian family who seemed hell bent on bringing every one of their possessions on the bus, while letting their children run riot all over the place. Tom began to feel unwell and the worse he felt the louder the children seem to get.....at one point the dad even looped his coat over the back of Tom's chair covering his face, I thought he might explode he was so annoyed!

We were itching to get off the coach and lie down in our new hostel which we had high hopes for, it looked to be a good choice on the website. When we arrived though the first thing they said to us was that they "don't give refunds", which should have been our first clue that things were amiss. It appeared on the surface, a nice place; they had a cinema style TV room, free breakfast and "Starbucks" coffee, but this was just an elaborate facade designed to hide a much more sinister truth.

It was very hot when we arrived in Boston, about 95 degrees that day so we put the temperature in the hostel down to that but as we went up the odd smelling lift, my stomach began to drop as we arrived on the 7th floor and our room, room 708. We were greeted by a wave of heat which I can only equate to the final few minutes of life in Pompeii!!(yes Tom added this, I would never say anything this clever). Oh, my, god. Imagine a nuns bedroom in a tiny Italian village (stone floors, whitewashed walls, dark furniture, questionable sheets, the lot) and your half way there! The smell wasn't any better, a mix of damp musky paint and stale cigarettes. To top it off we only had 1 tiny fan to ventilate the room, it was doing its best but it was a bit like throwing a stone at a tank. I pushed back the urge to cry, and reminded myself that I had lived in worse places than this when I worked abroad. Tom was trying to be upbeat and said it "wasn't too bad", but it was so hot!! That night neither of us could sleep, a mixture of sweat, the room and disappointment fresh in my nostrils, we just lay there waiting to see if breakfast could cheer us up. We went down to the "free breakfast" after about 4 hours, looking at each other with even more disappointment as slop was put on our plate by butch, sweaty men in hair nets and sat down looking at each other. Before I could say it, Tom said "we can't stay here, we have to get out". I knew that it was bad if Tom wanted to leave with no refund, but we saw a nice hostel the night we arrived down the road so we went there and thank god they had space. It was worth paying the extra money - air conditioned rooms, clean sheets and lovely free cereal and toast.

Since then, Boston has tried to recover by offering us good weather (and now air-conditioned rooms), nice food and people but unfortunately the damage had been done. Tom was still feeling unwell, and has been in bed most of the days (poor him as he never gets ill, or at least he never admits it!?). I have been doing my best to look after him and remember all the things mum did for me when I was sick but panic not parents, he is fine "just a bit dehydrated" he assures me. He felt a bit better yesterday so we went to the seaport district and had a seafood lunch, Clam Chowder, Scallops (8 of them!) and fish tacos overlooking the bay! The highlight of the trip so far by a long way.......

We are leaving Boston tomorrow for 3 nights back in NYC before heading up to Camp where Tom is looking forward to someone taking care of us (I think he means making dinner and washing our clothes, at least that's what I hope he means). We are also hoping to see Miss Polly Knight as she will be in NYC on a fashion shoot (she's so cosmopolitan!) - can't wait!

Update soon xxxxxx