Second stop: Back Bay

This article is the continuation of First Stop: Ruggles, which was the first article in my Boston tour blog!

Back Bay

If you get off the train one stop after Ruggles at Back Bay, you’ll be in the Prudential area. I usually come to this area of Boston because it is so central and there are many sites to see. If I were to lead you around Boston in one day, I would start in the Back Bay.

Copley Square

From here, you can walk down Boylston street, stop by the Boston Public Library, which is very beautiful inside, and I have actually studied here a couple of times for my GRE exam.

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It’s free to go inside, and it has a small indoor garden and fountain where you can sit. I like to come here; it’s nice to sit with a coffee and surprisingly it’s not usually busy. Facing the entrance to the library are a bunch of skateboarders and homeless people hanging out, but they're nice and chill.

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Across the street there is Copley Square and the Trinity Church. I like this square because during the summer (not sure about the winter) there will be farmers’ markets and evening music performances. The Trinity Church is a place of peace and calm, and I come here once in a while to sit in the silence and reflect a bit on everything in my busy head.

To the right of this building is the glass and mirror-looking New John Hancock tower, which is the tallest building in Boston. Continuing your way down the street and past the Trinity Church, you’ll find the Public Gardens and Boston Common.

The Public Gardens

When I was in the first grade (6 or 7 years old), we took a field trip with my class to Boston so that we could learn about our city’s history and culture, and I remember clearly my first memory of the Public Gardens.

It was in the spring time, and we went to the pond where they have the Swan Boat rides. These are paddle boats that you propel with your legs like a bicycle, and the guide took us around the pond.

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In the winter time when this pond freezes, people go to walk on the ice and some even go ice skating on it.

Around the park there are so many squirrels, and many of them are fat because they are always being fed by people. The last time I came here about a month ago I saw a lady feeding the squirrels peanuts, and she was calling them by name and talking to them. Boston is a very diverse and lovely city full of interesting people...

Continuing down the park and passing through the trees and flowers, you’ll cross the street and arrive at the Boston Commons. It’s basically another park but it’s more open-spaced where people can just hang out or play a sport, and there are many summer concerts and theatres that are shown here.

If you wish to continue your walk, you will find the State House to the left (with the beautiful area known as Beacon Hill just behind it), and if you walk to the right side you’ll make your way to Chinatown.

To finish the walk, I would head back through the Gardens, but instead of returning to Boylston street, I recommend Newbury Street. This is one of my favourite streets in Boston, and not because of how fancy it is.

Newbury Street

Since I am a nerdy person, I tend to flip out when I see nerdy things. Newbury Street is amazing because it has something for everyone to enjoy. In my case, I come here for the Zakka Anime store, the Harry Potter Store and Newbury Comics.

While Zakka Anime and the Harry Potter store are very specialized, specific and smaller-sized (and more expensive), Newbury Comics is more generalized. Of these three stores, Newbury Comics definitely has the most to offer. It is a big store, containing cool things for any nerdy thing you could possibly imagine.

They sell vinyl records!

Books and comics!

Cool t-shirts!

My favourite part: The anime section! Containing manga, anime, plushies, accessories and more.

More comics!

Besides these points of attraction, Newbury Street is full of great, diverse restaurants, cafés, clothing stores, and boutiques which both Bostonians and tourists (especially) go nuts over. Just a caution: Newbury Street is kind of expensive in general, but it's worth coming here and treating yourself a bit.

If you make it all the way up to the end of Newbury, you’ll reach Massachusetts Avenue (Mass Ave), where you can either go left and get to the Berklee School of Music campus or to the right and cross the bridge going over to Cambridge. On this tour I’m not taking you to either places because we are going right now back to the Prudential building, which, if you are turned around facing back toward the Gardens, is located on your right hand side and a few blocks up. You can’t really miss it because the Prudential is the second tallest building in Boston.

The Prudential

I don’t particularly like the shopping center at the Pru because not much there interests me save for the Cheesecake Factory and the Pinkberry, but the other shops would interest other people.

What I am really here to do is to take you up to the top of the tower, to the highest restaurant in Boston: The Top of the Hub. This is really the prime place to get a perfect view of the city while sipping an (expensive) glass of wine or while eating some food.

Honestly I think that it is totally worth coming up here and paying a little above normal price for food and drinks because you’d have to pay the same amount of money (or maybe more) if you decide to buy a ticket for the skywalk tour on the lower floor. The Top of the Hub is beautiful and often has a jazz band playing. I recommend a bit better than casual clothing here, but you do not have to dress up totally.

Photo gallery