Atlantica - 01.06.2004, Blaðsíða 26

24 A T L A N T I C A
The Back Bay area is the prime start
for any walking tour. Built on marshland
landfill in the 1850s, the Back Bay is a
diverse neighbourhood that is home to
some of Boston’s wealthiest residents,
as well as students scraping by month
to month on Stafford loans. The neigh-
bourhood boasts hip cafes, extravagant
restaurants, funky shops, and high-end
boutiques that will satisfy the most
snobbish fashion hounds.
Newbury Street should be the first
street on your itinerary. From Armani to
the shop Sugar Heaven, where those
addicted to sweets can enjoy candy in
every colour of the rainbow, Newbury
Street beckons. Looking for Wi-Fi, head
to Starbucks. Interested in athletics,
check out Nike Town. If chasing sexy
European women is your thing, walk up
and down the street all day long and
your neck will grow tired from craning
back and forth. Then there’s the Virgin
record store on the corner of Newbury
and Mass. Ave.
When all this shopping and people
watching stirs your appetite, pull up a
table at Sonsie. The swanky bistro is the
place to eavesdrop on the conversa-
tions of the Newbury Street crowd while
enjoying a Chicken Caesar salad, or a
thin-crust pizza and a bottle of Merlot.
One block over, and running parallel
to Newbury Street, is Boylston Street.
The highlight of this busy, but rather
ordinary, street is Copley Square. On
one side of the square is the Boston
Public Library, the oldest public library
in the country (Boston’s full of firsts),
founded in 1848. Closing off the square
on the opposite side is the neo-
Romanesque Trinity Church, which
reflects in the glass windows of the
John Hancock Tower, designed by leg-
endary architect IM Pei. In the middle,
you have skateboarders. Lots of skate-
boarders, who do freaky stunts in front
of the tourists and the businessmen and
women enjoying their lunch in the
square.
Copley Square is yet another junction
in Boston where the modern and historic
collide. And by collide I mean literally, as
portions of Trinity Church were damaged
during construction of the John Hancock
Tower. As the Tower grew inch by pre-
cious inch into the sky, the darn windows
kept popping out, crashing to the
ground. A structural flaw was found (it
was the windows, insisted Mr. Pei) and
each of the 10,344 panes (according to
the guidebook) had to be replaced. Now
that’s one big "pane" in the neck….
IT AIN’T EASY BEING GREEN
Just because Boston is a walking city
doesn’t mean you must trek through
every neighbourhood on tired feet.
Boston
"BOSTON’S A SMALL CITY BUT HAS THE CULTURE AND ENERGY OF A BIG CITY."
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