Mr. Samsa

So I am heading to Boston and will be there from May 5th through the 8th and wanted to know what fun and cool spots there are to see and check out:
Examples: Bicycle shops, record stores,museums/gallery's bars, etc, etc, and I’m vegan so any vegan restaurants would be nice too.
Its my first time going to the east coast...yeah i live a damn sheltered life...

andrewssohip

ok so go to the MFA, it's nice, big and interesting, also go to the museum of science, always really fun, and then finally, as a fellow vegan, YOU NEED TO GO TO GRASSHOPPER- it's a fantastic vegan restaurant in the allston neighborhood of boston, it's impossible to miss if you follow commonwealth avenue(a main thoroughfare) all the way down. Good luck! Have fun! feel free to pm if you need anything else!

BuddyMike

I'm pretty sure grasshopper is at north beacon and cambridge streets.

Depowsepow

institute of contemporary arts for modern stuff. too much old stuff at the mfa, unless you're into mummies and baroque paintings.

ken cummings

Try the Museum of Science and Technology.

ratattack

also for some excellent vegan food, veggie planet @ harvard sq in cambridge. amazing flatbread pizza/rice dishes, caesar's salad, soups, etc.

also, if you need a tour guide i'm always up for a ride. most likely the only day i'd be able to do it before 4pm is that tuesday (don't know what time you're leaving) but if you're interested PM me and i'll give you my number.

sers

asian vegan grasshopper is at the intersection of brighton ave and cambridge street. two doors down is t.j.'s vegan pizzeria. both are ungodly good. buddha's delight is in chinatown on beach street - awesome food and a pretty mean buffet. my thai cafe (former location of buddha's delight too) is at 404 harvard st in coolidge corner in brookline. veggie planet is located in club passim at 47 palmer st in harvard sq. there are a number of rebecca's cafe's throughout the city that have a vegan soup or entree some days.

i'm going to be in barcelona during your visit, otherwise i'd show you around.

hairlessbill

Try the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to check out their atrium and courtyard. It's right across from the MFA's main entrance. In Harvard Square the Fogg Art Museum or the Museum of Natural History. On Newbury St., the Pucker Gallery has four floors of art and they will give you a tour of all of it if you ask.

Visit Harris Cyclery in West Newton and eat at the Blue Ribbon BBQ around the corner. If you do go the the Museum of Science, you have to catch an IMAX movie in the Omni Theatre. Only one of two of its kind in the country.

MissAnyweather

Two suggestions for records stores to check out:
1. In Your Ear, 72 Mt. Auburn Street in Cambridge - great selection of 45's and neat old movie posters.
2. Twisted Village, 12 Eliot Street in Cambridge - psych and garage and offbeat stuff.

The Otherside Cafe, 407 Newbury Street, is a nice place to hang out for dinner (def. some vegan dishes) and drinks. And the Public House or Washington Square Tavern on Beacon Street in Brookline have GREAT beer selections.

brunop

definitely. even if ya skip all the museums go here. to me, harris is one of, if notTHE, best bike shops ever. and ride out to walden pond.

Ya Tu Sabes

Have a nice ride along the Charles - criss-cross a couple bridges and ride on both sides of the river - the views from the Mass. Ave. Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge (the one with towers that look like salt and pepper shakers) are really nice.

john_and_off

grasshopper goes without saying (andrewssohip is a little mixed up - like everyone else said, it's at the intersection of brighton and cambridge in allston), but i'd also like to second buddha's delight in chinatown for vegan food.

i'm not nuts about tj's house of pizza, but that's just me...

the mfa is free after a certain time on weekdays, i believe, but if you do pay to get in, it also gets you into the isabella stuart gardner museum for free, which someone else mentioned (but again, if you ask me, skip that one if you only have a few days)

check out boston or cambridge bicycle (run by the same people) for fixed-specific stuff. harris is good if you are into the sort of stuff sheldon brown is (practical, commuter-type goodies) but boston and cambridge have a decent stock of high-end track parts, njs ****, etc.

my favorite cafe is espresso royale in kenmore square on commonwealth ave (i'd guess maybe at about 750?) but then again, i live around the corner [edit: and they have lots of vegan goodies! try their banana bread or cookies - just ask what's vegan - there's a fair amount!]

i've heard that deep ellum in allston is cool and has a lot of nice beers, but i'm under 21, so i wouldn't be able to confirm it. the other side is ok.

as for touristy stuff? don't let anyone tell you that it's not worth it to go to the top of the hub - it is! go there some evening, take the elevator to the top, and sneak a peek at the spot before you need to pay! best view ever of the city, even if you can only glimpse it before they kick you out - if you want another nice view, check out the dorchester heights monument in south boston or the bunker hill memorial in charlestown.

go ahead and walk newbury street and all around the back bay and downtown crossing and everything... if you've never been to the east coast, you'll enjoy it.

if you need details on any of these things, feel free to pm me

chainline

the isabella gardner is like 10 or so, if you have a student ID its 5, last time I went there. It is this crazy lady who went around the world to buy all this art. I like that one over the MFA. The Fogg, in harvard is also very good mostly if you like bauhaus.

the MFA is only free on thrusday nights. If you want to check that out, I get in free at the MFA, so I can pick up free tickets for anytime. Just PM me and i can pick them up and drop them off.

Blue Jays

You could visit the GORDON RIKER ghostbike memorial while you're there. He recently died following a bad collision with a taxicab and a dumptruck.

disco2000

[QUOTE=MissAnyweather]Two suggestions for records stores to check out:
2. Twisted Village, 12 Eliot Street in Cambridge - psych and garage and offbeat stuff.
QUOTE]

+ aliens. I totally forgot about that place, but loved it when i lived in Boston. Nice people, only place where you can find Boredoms & Stockhausen in the same room!

hairlessbill

The Fogg will also let you look at their drawing collection if you ask nicely. Check the hours before you go but this feature trumps all of the other museums if you are an art student. They'll let you check out drawings and you can study them in the flesh (so to speak) at your leisure as long as you want without crowds of tourist elbowing you. Cool atrium too.

Stewart Gardner was probably one of the single most influential people when it came to bringing Impressionism over to the U.S and making it popular. The stuff in there is like looking through an art history book. There's even stuff in the walls in secret compartments.

If you do go across the Mass Ave. bridge you can count the Smoots and check out the MIT museum. Truly a geek's paradise but in a really cool way. If you can have ice-cream then get something from Toscanni's at the student center or farther down Mass Ave. Make a pilgrimmage to the Middle East and see what's playing for some night life. Course now you are no longer in Boston....

sers

is there an espresso royale in kenmore sq now? i grew to hate the one near guitar center during my time at bu. it was the closest coffee shop to the cs lab, and the service was terrible, especially near closing time. that was years ago though.

john_and_off

that's actually the one i was talking about - the service can be spotty, you're right, but i like their coffee, the pastries are good, and i'm friends with a few of the folks who work there, so they hook me up from time to time with free drinks! (plus the music isn't bad)

edit: i forgot that i have seen before that you went to bu. what did you study?

jacobs

the mapparium at the christian science center is pretty breathtaking, as is the reflecting pool on a nice night.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapparium

both are free.

the peabody museum at harvard is pretty awesome, if i remember correctly it has the largest collection of dried(?) butterflies in the world, although i can find nothing saying that online. it's a very interesting place either way. i know they have the only surviving artifacts from the lewis and clark expedition.

https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/

the mfa is awesome, and has way more amazing artwork then you'll ever be able to absorb in one day. you also get money off your admission to the isabella stewart gardner museum if you bring your ticket stub from the mfa.

i second buddhas in chinatown for vegan eating. i think it blows away grasshopper, and it is a fact that grasshopper was opened by an ex cook from buddhas.

john_and_off

i've always thought the mapparium cost money - if that's right that it's free, i've always wanted to see it myself

jacobs

well, i just checked, and apparently now it does. $6.

it definitely did not when i went last, but that was before the "restoration" they performed, which still sounds to me like it's going to suck a lot of the life out of that beautiful room (something about colored lights/sound/"how the world has changed since 1930").

unfortunate really, but probably still well worth the $6. that complex of buildings is absolutely unreal.

jacobs

john_and_off

looks like it would probably be worth the 6 dollars... i might pay it a visit myself!

BuddyMike

Twisted village is awesome and easy to not find, even if you're right in front of it. I forget which record shop I got this at, but there is a map of all other small indie record stores in the area. I found a 22 minute keith fullerton whitman mini cd there. 1 of 50 of them. Also saw some weird White Mice vinyl there.

sers

computer thience