Tanja's Cupcakes: Sweet Cupcakes, Boston

Seven days of New York City later I packed my bags (including the newly bought huge gray suitcase) and somehow made it to Boston. And when I say somehow, I mean it. All my luggage put together was heavier than me, the hostel had no elevator and neither did the subway stations. Fortunately I only had to get on the A or C train and stay on it for 9 stations. My bus stop was right outside the station and there were some very helpful people who helped me carry my suitcases. I love New York!

On my way to Boston I spent almost the entire time on the internet. How awesome is it that you can be on a bus and have free wi-fi? I had never seen that before. It seems like only yesterday I got internet access and cell phones were as big as the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy and now I'm using Skype to call my family from an actual moving bus? Amazing. My parents could hardly believe it, but then I showed them the cars passing our bus.

I came to the bus station in Boston with no map of the city. I thought they would have them at the station... yet I was wrong. Somehow I found out which way to go using my Rough Guide to Boston and got lost three times on my way to the hostel.

This is Berkeley, the street I lived on during my stay in Boston. Doesn't it look wonderful? My hostel even had free popcorn for everyone!

Sometimes I think it might have been better for me to visit Boston first and then proceed to New York. It almost felt like being back in my hometown (which has 5000 people living in it). Boston is so quiet (except for the subway which is really loud) and small and not crowded at all. But in a way it made transition into my back-at-home life easier. But, seriously, you can walk everywhere. Car drivers don't try to run you over. Amazing.

I had four and a half days to spend in this wonderful city. Of course I went shopping first. Then, the mythical Harvard. Taking the Hahvahd tour was the funniest thing ever. Then of course, some Harvard shopping. I had to buy a few notebooks... it says Harvard on them! I also visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Not as spectacular as some other museums, but still worth seeing. Took a picture with the world's largest dinosaur skeleton. Walked by the TD Garden (in case you need a reminder, the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup last year and most of the games we watched were played in this arena). Science museum. Observatory. New England Aquarium (where I touched an actual shark!). Museum of Contemporary Art.

Before I go on to the last American bakery I visited, I have to mention my favorite American ice cream. Friendly's. Oh, the things I would do to buy some of it here, in Europe... Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl, Hunka Chunka PB Fudge... Even the flavors sound like poetry to me. There, I'm thinking about it again. Great. The reason why I was mentioning Friendly's is because we went to eat there many times when I was living in New Hampshire, and while I liked their chicken tenders and fries, I adored their ice cream. I even bought it to have at home and sometimes ate it for breakfast.

Ice cream for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. It's just that good.

It was weird when I got to New York and suddenly there were no Friendly's around. But when I came back to Boston I did a Google search and found one of their restaurants nearby. When I got there, they were having a private party and were closed. The manager came out and gave me a free ice cream sundae coupon. I waited there for more than an hour and then went in, ate one whole meal (including an ice cream sundae) and ordered another one just because it was free.

That is how much I like their ice cream.

The only bakery I visited during my six days in Boston was Sweet Cupcakes. Apparently, Katie Holmes and her daughter like their cupcakes. There are four shops scattered all over Boston, and yet they are never there when you're hungry. Shame! I was trying to find other bakeries too, but somehow missed all of them.

I found one of their shops in Cambridge when I was visiting Harvard.

I didn't really get the hype of this little bakery. Sure, you walk in, everything is pink and cute. But the prices are high (more than $3 for one cupcake) and you would at least expect the cupcakes to be big. They are not, but there sure is a lot of frosting!

The gift boxes are not free like in, for example, Lola's in London or Magnolia in New York City. There are regular flavors (like mine, chocolate with chocolate frosting) and specials, according to the month. As you might have noticed, I always stick with the classics. They didn't have a lot of flavors available at the time though. Otherwise, I would have tried Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes. After all, I was in Boston.

You can see from the photo below that I didn't hate the cupcake. I just wish the atmosphere of the shop was more inviting and the prices lower.