Hartford

Went to Hartford, CT for the thanksgiving weekend with Shufen. (Okay, I admit, this is a very late update). The trip with fraught with uncertainty, we didn't know how we were going to get there or when we were going to get there until the very day before! The itinerary was pretty spontaneous too, meaning we mostly ended up wandering around the city of Hartford for most of the second day.

Due to the last minute decision making, we could only get the afternoon coach, meaning we arrived in Hartford around mid-afternoon. Since its winter, that means the skies were minutes to darkening, and we managed to catch a very pretty sunset over the Connecticut River, soft pinks and blues.

The reason we chose Hartford was due to the Festival of Lights, which we thought would be a Thanksgiving celebration, but turned out to be a Christmas celebration, complete with Christmas carols and a Santa Claus sliding down Constitution Plaza! But the lights are magnificent, its very simple, only the mini gold light bulbs were used, no fancy colors or designs, but the sheer number (think 250,000 if I remember correctly) of the twinkling lights used to drape over the trees and sculptures really transforms the place.. the Christmas carols were lovely too, there was a very unique rendition of "Deck the Halls" by a choir that I really liked..

We originally planned on Gillette Castle the second day, but discovered that there were no buses there! Which is pretty incredulous, seeing that it's a tourist spot, it should be easy to reach, else there won't be any tourists? I guess I'm too used to the tourist-friendly Europe, and forgot that in America, you either get a car or you don't go anywhere.

So in the end, we spent the day strolling around Hartford, visited the Bushnell Gardens and the Mark Twain House which was surprisingly engaging. Mark Twain had a fascinating life, and the sound bites surrounding the museum makes me think that his books should be an interesting read. At the very least, his house was beautifully done, and all decorated for Christmas too! Its really beginning to look like Christmas.

We spent half the day walking to Elizabeth Gardens for the roses and greenhouses, actually it was for the "roses in greenhouses", but it turned out to be a separate entity and naturally, we saw rose-less twines around rows of trellis, which with imagination, should be very pretty indeed. But it was an enjoyable walk, and we passed by the University of Connecticut with a very Hogwarts-like school of law.

Due to the long, long walk, we had lots of time to talk, the bus back to Boston turned out to be late, and I discovered that Shufen have a extremely sweet voice when she sings, not to mention a marvelous memory for lyrics! I guess the best thing of this trip is the company - as it always is with trips. =)