<p>The T is mostly a subway, but the Green Line is also an above-ground fast-rail service. Keep in mind that Brighton is served by the Green Line, and the Green Line is notoriously inefficient: it tends to have random “express trains” that skip several stations at a time, and after the B, C, and D Lines (the Green Line splits into several different branches) merge at Kenmore (and again when the E trains merge at Copley) the trains stop a lot between stations. Other lines are better, but Green can be frustrating. I would recommend getting a bike for clear days.</p>
<p>Also, as someone who’s lived in the Boston metro area for years: please don’t say, “pahk the cah in the Hahvahd Yahd.” Just don’t. We don’t find it amusing, because not very many people talk like that. It’s like going up to a New Yorker and saying “fugeddaboutit!” It just makes you sound silly.</p>
<p>Edit: Speaking of ice cream: there’s an amazing ice cream place on Newbury Street called J.P. Licks, and there’s a really cool Frozen Yogurt place called the Angora Cafe on Commonwealth Avenue past the West Campus of Boston University that lets you customize your FroYo (I get mine with Butterfingers, coffee flavoring, and Twix).</p>
<p>I made up a map of local stores and attractions for the Harvard and MIT freshmen this year which may be helpful as you try to locate stores for apartment-furnishing. It’s a Google map located [url=<a href=“Boston-area stores - Google My Maps”>Boston-area stores - Google My Maps]here[/url</a>], and I’ve tried to include directions on public transportation when feasible.</p>
<p>
I’m originally from Ohio, but I consider myself a Bostonian now (it helps to intermarry with the natives). When I first came out, I had to bring a photo to convince two of the Massachusetts natives in my undergraduate dorm that my house in Ohio was not, in fact, a log cabin. :p</p>
<p>Boston is great. Agree with others, public transportation (especially from Brighton) is terrific and having a car is a hassle. I think Boston is a very expensive city in which to reside, from rents to entertainment. There is so much to do, but much of it is quite costly. Yes, there are free things and inexpensive things…but many things are expensive (getting tickets to a Red Sox game for example…). Big plus for young people…there are a LOT of young folks residing in Boston…I think I read that there are 500,000 college students alone in the “greater Boston” area, add to that the number of young folks who chose to settle there. Using the T (subway) is easy to learn and makes the city accessible from almost anywhere. On the other hand, the streets twist and curve and driving is a headache…from parking to learning your way around to the cost of car insurance. There are a ton of wonderful restaurants, many ethnic choices that are great…as well as food markets of every kind. There is NO shortageof shopping opportunities in Boston. In addition, getting to and from Boston is easy via train, bus, or airplane. You can also check flights out of Providence, Manchester NH as they are not all that far away and sometimes cost less. It’s a short drive to Providence, Cape Cod, NH (if you happen to want to ski), the beaches in Maine or Massachusetts or RI. And it’s a very easy train ride to NYC (although much of what you can do in NYC …shows, concerts, eating out…can be done IN Boston).</p>
<p>Be careful with your built in Navi system…ours was a little outdated with regards to the big dig…luckily, I am originally from Mass and knew that the roads that it was directing us onto to head to the Cape no longer exist.
Also, the green line can be a little delayed when the Sox are playing !
Ice Cream is a hardcore, competitve business…which is a good thing if you like to indulge. On the bad weather days, the Pru and Copley place are fun for some indoor shopping. Will second the suggestion for the duck boat tours…I learned things I never knew about my former state capitol and the guides are amusing.
Harvard Square is fun to visit too. We like a little Mexican restaurant there called the Border Cafe…always seems to be busy and it is very reasonably priced.</p>
<p>In Chicago, with relatively few exceptions (which tend to be what once were major Indian trails), the streets are organized - with what some might find numbing monotony - in straight lines and at right angles. The grid is King. </p>
<p>Not so in Boston (and Cambridge) where – when European folks were first settling in, they must have been thinking about how “quaint” they would want things to appear hundreds of years hence – streets abhor straight lines and right angles wherever possible, opting instead to curve here, jut diagonally there, etc.</p>
<p>well…maybe. If it’s up to date on road construction, you’ll be fine. Otherwise you may have to “redo your route” when you get to a contruction area. True story: DS was applying (and visiting) BU during the Big Dig ( a HUGE road construction project). That was when Mapquest was my major routing method. No matter what I did, I ALWAYS seemed to come out where the “hole” was. It was annoying. And it just wasn’t a matter of turning around and just going to the next street. Many streets in Boston (especially the side streets) are one way. </p>
<p>So just beware…For shopping, you might be wiser to head OUT of Boston rather than towards downtown. There is a BB and B on the east end of the Boston University Campus…and it may look closer on a map. BUT you could probably head west from Brighton to a more western suburb. For example…there are a number of retail “vendors” in Framingham which is west of the 128 loop…but there is free parking in the plaza lots, and many many choices (Target, BB an B, etc), and that might end to be an easier drive from Brighton than going IN to Boston proper.</p>
<p>Zamzam beat me to it, but try to go to JP Licks! Their ice cream can’t be beat. Also, check out the science museum. It’s always got some interesting exhibits and such going on. AND they have a giant map of Boston (I do mean giant), and you can see where popular locations are, which is always fun. </p>
<p>Good Mexican food in Boston? I suppose it’s theoretically possible, but it would be like going to El Paso to look for good New England clam chowder.</p>
<p>I used to walk through the Combat Zone when I was 11 or 12. The YMCA was on the edge of the Combat Zone and I used to go there to play chess and table tennis. This was usually during the day though. Back then, the train fare was only a dime.</p>
<p>epistrophy - I have to agree with you on the grid system. It is fabulous. </p>
<p>I’m starting to believe that driving in Boston is like driving in Ireland, except in Boston, you’re on the correct side of the road (and all the turnabouts)!</p>
<p>Regarding the Navi, it is relatively new… about a year. And yes, they never account for construction, but whenever I’ve encountered a detour, once you commit to the detour, the Navi will keep re-routing to get you to your destination. It also knows one-way streets (of which we have many in Chicago). </p>
<p>mollie - what an awesome map! Thanks for the link!</p>
<p>H is from Connecticut, so I’ve gotten a bit of a taste of narrow winding roads, although I never really drove when we used to go there. But for the life of me, if someone ever asked me which direction we were going, I’d probably get it correct one out of four times.</p>
<p>Is there anything I should know about sales tax? Any special periods of the year when they give a moratorium on sales tax on certain items, etc.? Is there a huge difference between suburbs so that you should shop in one 'burb as opposed to another?</p>
<p>The sales tax holiday is usually in August.</p>
<p>The shopping in the suburbs is usually located near major highways. There’s a nice upscale mall called the Burlington Mall which has an Apple Store if you need free internet access (you can get it at libraries too). Brookline has a lot of ethnic restaurants and is fairly well-served by the T. If you like visiting colleges or college libraries, there are lots of those.</p>
<p>Mass has no sales tax on clothes. As for where to shop, the further you go from the city, the less expensive. Newberry Street (Boston) or Copley Place (Boston) = Very Big Bucks. Chestnut Hill Mall = Big Bucks, but a lovely shopping experience. The newly re-done Natick Collection has a range of stores, from Big Bucks to Sears. South Shore Plaza (Quincy) is a more mid-range, along with Burlington Mall.</p>
<p>Also, regarding the GPS: the Big Dig is done, so if your Nav is only a year old you should be ok.</p>
<p>One problem with the NAV is all of the little construction sites and detours that you run into in MA. The Big Dig sucked out a lot of construction money from the state so construction projects around the state had to be prioritized which tends to mean fixing stuff that really is in bad shape.</p>
<p>When I lived there, MA had a luxury tax on clothes. I think that the threshold was $175. Items above that were taxed at 5%. I don’t know whether or not this is still in place.</p>