All was quiet on Hemenway Street at 2am until the excited voices of backpackers were heard in room 205. I peeked out from behind the curtains and caught a glimpse of what all the fuss was about: a bit of slush and some snow on a car roof. Somehow I still managed to make it back to the land of nod after all the excitement: astonishing. I had a proper lie-in until 8.30 this morning, crazy. I wasn't at breakfast until a whopping 9.30! Good job I didn't rush though ...

After avoiding the cereal and slimy yogurt at breakfast I was ready to roll for the Harvard tour at 10. Unfortunately the tour guide was nowhere to be seen so the hostel ended up printing off some directions and walking all twenty of us to the bus stop. This brilliant organisation got us to the bus in time for us to see six or seven rangers with their blue lights going ten to the dozen following a FedEx van. The van wasn't going that fast though, and the rangers ...

After a much needed lie-in until 8am I got up and enjoyed the worst breakfast for a long time: gross shreddies-like cereal that were too sweet with too-sweet strawberry yoghurt. The stay at Lorne Park really has altered my attitude to hostel food, oh dear. Good job there's only a few more left. I headed over to the information centre on Boston Common, avoiding the blokes in costume who were charging $12 for a tour of the Freedom Trail, instead opting for a $7 gu...

Megabus redeemed themselves for my final trip: they were on time, the driver knew where she was going, and we arrived in Boston only 45 minutes late. Alas the journey wasn't perfect, but this time because of the passengers rather than the company. I decided to sit on the lower level for a change, but this put me on the opposite side of the isle to a bald man with a ponytail. This would be fine except for the fact that he chose this journey to eat nuts the whole ...

Forget 501 things to do before you die, let me fill you in on the best way to spend 13.5 hours of your life. Start with the most wonderful hosts dropping you off at the bus station to find the bus on time, the driver a little cranky about me having two bags rather than the Megabus standard of one, and a departure that left on time at 12noon. Proceed to the US border on time too, get through there unscathed, apart from having my oranges confiscated. Not happy, th...