by Whalehead King

Created on: January 28, 2009

Anyone adventurous doesn't need ten tips to be a tourist in Boston. The city is so rich with sights and attractions that just putting your foot on the sidewalk is reward in itself. A "touristy" tourist has already bought into a package deal full of coupons and nose-leading, pre-approved and merchandised experiences. If that's what you want, you wouldn't be reading this so I won't bother you with a list of things you "must do." Boston is a city and it contains all the things being a cityentails. It is hurly-burly and muscular as well as being the "Athens of America." The flavors of Boston run from coarse to decadent and they all coalesce into a world-class metropolis that lesser cities envy. Be glad you can spend a little time here and make the most of it.

Here is one tip: get out and about. Whether you find yourself in the Charlestown Navy Yard, home of the USS Constitution, or on the industrial shipping docks of South Boston, you will see Boston's maritime heritage. Whether you visit the historically Italian-American neighborhood in the North End or the historically Italian-American neighborhood of Orient Heights with its Madonna Shrine and magnificent views, it doesn't matter; both are a part of Boston's culture. Whether you visit a humble Haitian grocer in Mattapan or you shop at a chi-chi Newbury Street boutique, you are sampling the wares a great, vast city has to offer. Whether you walk the shores of Jamaica Pond, or the Frog Pond in Boston Common, or ride a swan boat in the Public Garden, or you stroll the promenade at Castle Island, you are in Boston and that is enough.

Can any living city be summed up in ten points? Boston is home to 600,000 citizens and 600,000 points of view within it's municipal boundaries. Things go on every day that tourists never see. Don't you want to be one of those visitors who gets to say on returning home, "I was in the belly of Boston. I liked it. Those Bostonians know how to have a good time." There is only one way to do it. Throw away your preconceived notions and get into Boston the way the natives do. Follow your own nose and stop wherever seems appropriate. Take the T (our subway) take the bus, get off the beaten track. Make your own judgments of where to eat and what to see. You may end up in some industrial looking places, but you know what? Work gets done in Boston. It's not an amusement park. Despite that, people live rich lives full of color and character and you can partake of that if you go out to find it. Boston is a kaleidoscope of life ever-shifting and ever-moving. If you dare, you can catch a glimpse and a taste of it. Then you'll see the real city, the real Boston. They don't sell that for tours. You have to grab it on your own and you'll have a better sense of the city by doing so.

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