We all love holidays, we all love home, and we all love pecan pie. Highly probable generalizations aside, yet another to be added to the list is that we all hate waiting. As someone who will actively trade Space Mountain for the Alice in Wonderland teacups at Disneyland because of said hatred, I must thus turn to the only website that can alleviate this frustration – no, not Perez, as much as I love his coke-dripping and groin-heart-ing scribbles – but VeryNoice. So begins the Diary of a Holiday Traveller – oh, and all the things I’m thankful for.

3:37 pm: Dear Mom, I know you like to be prepared and arrive three hours before international flights … and domestic flights, and I wholeheartedly believed you and completely agreed about your fear of the Thanksgiving holiday travel rush. Which is why I listened and bought a 3 pm HSA Shuttle ticket for my 7:30 pm Logan flight -you know, just to be on the safe side. Well .. the shuttle took a whole 27 minutes, check-in took a whole 2 seconds (checked-in early, carry-on luggage only – wootwoot), security took 10 minutes – 3 not counting the wild-eyed cat lady in front of me who thought “taking off your shoes” meant opening your luggage and taking out every single pair of Reef and Old Navy flipflops in your suitcase – which leaves me with …. 3 HOURS and 53 MINUTES to kill. Danke.

3:40 pm: Decide to buy a Chai Tea Latte at Starbucks. It just looked so warmly lit and homey, and I’m a sucker for those red holiday cups – it’s like Christmas joy … in a cup. A pilot hands me a cup sleeve when I get my drink with a wink reminiscent of all things 80s and gag-worthy, and informs me that it’s his “early Christmas present to me.” Thanks dude.

3:48 pm: Thanks to AIrwaves – “the official sound of Boston Logan Airport,” I have learned that GOD (aka Google) has given the ultimate holiday gift to travelling college students with overly-prepared parents everywhere – FREE WIFI! None of this $7.50-for-the-day-when-you’re-really-only-spending-an-hour-(or 3 hours and 53 minutes)-in-the-airport-anyway shiet! YES! FREE! THANK YOU GOOGLE. Oh, and Airwaves I guess you get a thank you too. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting November 25th, (great news to any of you going to NYC for Thanksgiving if you don’t live, we don’t know, say a block away), GoToBus will begin a transportation/bus service from Harvard Square directly to New York City. This is epic because 1) it’s only $20 2) it’s from HARVARD SQUARE. We’re lazy, this is great news.

The buses will leave and return via the Charles Hotel from Friday to Sunday once the service gets up and running. We’re thinking a trip is in order? More info can be found here.

Photo credit: here.

Listen: Run DMC – Walk This Way

For those of us hailing from far and farther, navigating Cambridge can take some getting used to. Though Noice has crossed its fair share of disgruntled drivers and been clipped by a number of ecologically well-meaning bicyclists, both would have meant certain death back home. It’s fair to say that this city has it’s own bizarre travel culture in which everyone and their Auntie Re-Re thinks they rule the road. And though it’s nothing Anthony Bourdain would bat an eyelash at, it can be pretty daunting/infuriating/terrifying/insertadjectivehere for pretty much anyone.

Enter TROMP.

Decidedly hip and new-agey in that Le Tigre way.

They’re a grassroots organization (read: angry moms?) aiming for stricter traffic laws and even stricter enforcement. They basically want what we want: for no one to be squooshed to death on an intersection by the Garage.

Read the rest of this entry »