I’m back from my first state side visit and I am very tired. As great as city breaks are, one thing they are not is relaxing.

My body clock is all over the place, went to bed last night at 2.00 am and I wasn’t even tired - now I am. On the flight back, Holly and myself were sat in between other people – for 7 hours and 30 minutes.

Now, normally when I let one rip, I have the decency to disappear and set it free. But when you are sat there on a plane, for 3 hours, holding it in and the person sat next you is in a deep sleep, I think you have to let all the rules of etiquette go and just let it all out.

But yeah, other than the journey back and getting used to the time difference – I had a great time.

I’ve never been to America before. I’ve always had the opinion that it is quite a paranoid nation, anyone with an accent other than American is not to be trusted and where everyone owns a gun and eats donuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I arrived and it took about 10 minutes for me to spot a gun (on a cop). Around this time, I was in the immigration hall and there was a TV screen with CNN on – on that, George W. Bush was going on about the ongoing “war” on terror. Upon having my passport inspected, the fella asked me a number of question – How long am I staying? Have I been to the states before? Purpose of visit? – I was beginning to think my presumption wasn’t far off.

However, once we got past the airport and arrived at our hotel, my opinion completely changed.

Boston is a lovely city (if a little cold this time of year). It is a bit like London, but everything is bigger – the cars, the buildings, the streets, the food portions, the shops – the only thing that wasn’t was the speed bumps.

The people of Boston (that we spoke to anyway), couldn’t of been any more pleasant. At one point, Holly and myself were walking down to their underground train service (AKA, the subway – not the sandwich shop!) and we were going the wrong the way, until a homeless man sitting on the floor said “Its all happening that way kids” and pointed us in the right direction.

At one point we were walking the Freedom Trail, just next to Quincy Market and this fella dressed as Benjamin Franklin (who I hope) was a tourist guide said he had just finished a tour but was happy to tell us about the area – we didn’t ask him to, he just stopped and told us about the place. As pleasant as he was, he did go on a bit and I think he was a bit drunk.

I also had an interesting run in with a Taxi Driver, who took a deep interest in everything English. Among the subjects he brought up, were the origin of his name (Evans – which is from Wales), the elegance of Lady Di (I will admit my eyes did roll a bit at this point) and the name of Tony Blairs successor.

But yeah, a very pleasant place to go.