A walk to remember

Sometimes in college, disease is rampant and the stress of midterms and a slight cold makes you want nothing more than to retreat home. So I did. Unfortunately, that ended up forcing me to cancel my intended apple-picking trip and left me here without a weekly adventure (because as much as maneuvering the Greyhound and chilling in dirty Jersey was an adventure for myself, it really is not relevant to the Tufts public.) Luckily, since the weather has just made a turn for the better, an old excursion I had documented from the first warm day of spring is still relevant. Change this to the last warm day in fall and I think we could make this work!

I went for a walk. Now, if someone told me that, I would raise my eyebrows, give them a scoff and a “whoopdi-doo,” but this was a really refreshing walk -- perhaps the highlight of my second semester. On a brisk Saturday afternoon my friend and I decided to go on an adventure. With limited research he invited me to go to a coffee shop-bookstore that he thought was off Park Street. It wasn’t. What it was, though, was a beautiful day and the first weekend the flowers were in bloom along the Boston Common. So, naturally, The "Good Will Hunting" (1997) in us made us spend an hour roaming the premises, observing the tulips, watching the ducks, witnessing a croquet match performed by people in grand corset dresses and soaking in the view from the brownstone houses to the pond. This might sound mediocre, but for a girl who had been waiting on bended knee for the barren, long winter to finally run its course, such beauty was truly magical.

Yet, nothing quite requires you to change your course more than a rumbling stomach. Reminded of coffee, pastries and a place to buy a book that was not the Tufts University Bookstore’s basement, we exited the park, put on Google Maps and decided to walk. Once again, a seemingly simple task became an awesome adventure. Though I always knew that Back Bay had a tree-lined path that cut through the city, I don’t think I had ever realized how long that path is, how many statues are erected along its walkway or how many beautiful buildings line its sides. As my friend and I took in the fresh, though still slightly chilly April air we also took in the rich history of a city I knew little about and the beautiful architectural sights I never knew existed so easily and so publicly.

By now we had gone from the Common to the Boston Public Library and were awfully close to the mysterious bookstore-coffee shop, which I now know is called Trident Booksellers & Cafe and is relatively popular in the area. Walking down the stairs of the shop I found myself in this adorably bright bookstore. Wooden bookshelves overlaid most of the space directly to the left of the entrance. They had a variety of books from high school classics to hipper reads such as Anton Chekhov, David Foster Wallace and Maya Angelou, and finally to non-narrative aesthetically pleasing coffee table books on topics ranging from basketball to Wes Anderson movies. Upstairs was a beautiful cafe with large windows and interesting sandwiches. After splitting one with my friend and having two cappuccinos, I felt the warmth of a solid day. As I left the shop, with a new book, a full stomach and sore feet, I felt pretty joyful.