Halloween Was Awesome
Man, it was great to be away from the computer from Weds to Sunday night.
WEDNESDAY:
I landed in Boston at noon on Weds and waited for Dan and Trinity’s flight which arrived at 1:30pm. From there we hit the hotel and then went into Salem for a bit before going to Blue Ginger in Wellsley, MA. Salem was just as I remembered it and parking was a bit hard because of the season. Weds we mainly window shopped and looked around the town. Blue Ginger though was incredible. Ming Tsai was even there and he came over to our table and chatted with us for a spell. We were going to get a picture with him, but he ended up having to entertain a group that booked a private room. Holy crap was the food amazing. I had Foie Gras-Shiitake Shumai in Sauternes-Shallot Broth and an amazing duck dish with Warm Spiced Kabocha Doughnuts with Maple Ice Cream and a side of Pomegranate-Quince Puree. Yum. Trin had this lamb hot pot and Dan had a polenta dish. It was all amazing and I’m glad to finally have eaten there. I’d been dying to try his place since Ming’s Quest and East Meets West aired while I was in college.
We drove back to the hotel and then changed for clubbing. We found two goth clubs on the International Goth Club Website which is sorely outdated. Of course most of the clubbing info we found on the web is sorely outdated for Boston. The first club we tried is now a dive bar. The second club still exists but is only every other Wednesday and we were there on the wrong one. Instead Club Ramrod was hosting a gay night. The third club we tried was called either Aqua or Aria, but it appeared to be nonexistant as well. Finally we found a cool place near Fenway called Jillians which was an amazing building and a really cool atmosphere…but we were the only people there at 12:30am so we left and went back to the hotel.
We would learn the next night that the Weds goth night is in Salem. Wah wah.
Thursday
Back into Salem! This time we looked at a Salem Witch Trial re-enactment, had some yummy thai and Trinity bought some gifts for friends back in MN. Then we met up with Gina and drove two hours west to an abandonded mental institution and had a romp around in this VERY condemned building. I found a neat case file about staff stealing form patients and also clippings about a herpes outbreak back in ther 70’s in the place. Ew. We then drove back to Boston and ate at a decent vegan place called Grasshopper. About this time Dan was feeling pretty sick (he ended up with a bad cold for the rest of the trip) and so while he got some much needed rest, Trinity and I headed back into Salem to the 80’s/Electro club night and a mainstream party at a bar a few blocks down. Lots of fun and people gawking. This is also about the time we noticed that MA has a Dunkin’ Donuts every three blocks or so. We found a 24 hour one as we were peckish and needed a sugar pick me up. I bought 25 munchkins but the clerk gave me 50+. SO MANY DONUTS. Oops.
Friday
It’s Hallowe’en baby! This was an amazing day. We drove into Salem at 1pm and already the town had tens of thousands of people and we had to park about a mile out of town. Trinity was a vampire, Dan was a priest and I was Akuma from the Street Fighter series. Little did I know how popular that costume would end up being. I ended up posing for what felt like hundreds of pictures. Even in the Witch’s Cottage, which was a little thing about the supernatural happenings in Mass, the narrator stopped and spent 3-4 minutes giving my costume a thumb’s up and talking directly to me. it was flattering and fun.
We also learned something very odd. About 75-80% of the people that recognized me were girls. Mostly Japanese and Chinese girls, but girls nonetheless. I was stopped countless times by Asian tourists to take pictures with them or do a Hadouken, Shoryuken, or Akuma’s finishing Pose. I got an amazing amount of snogging in too from all this. Happy Happy, joy joy. I was surprised and happy with how many people recognized and complimented the costume. It was a pretty busy night of meeting new people, striking up random conversations and having a party that was like Mardi Gras but which 1/20th the drunkenness. Amazing time in all.
There were a ton of great costumes too. There was Barf from Spaceballs, Dread Cthulhu (which was amazing), the “Yup Yup Uh huh uh huh uh huh” aliens from Sesame Street, a ton of transexual Mario and Luigis, some female Freddy Kruegers, and an amazing amount of well done costumes. When Dan uploads his pictures, I’ll post some here, including me encountering Ken Masters and Ryu, which was hilarious and Awesome. The town was jam packed and even thought it was only in the upper 40’s/low 50’s, we were all pretty warm due to the amount of body heat that comes from supersaturating a city that normally holds 21K people with about double that.
This is exactly the kind of party I’ve always wanted on halloween. Just random strangers coming together to have fun, be nice to each other and people gawk. I know I’ll be coming back again - maybe even next year. The three of us talked about a Fighting Game Character theme for next year since Akuma proved to be staggeringly popular with everyone there. Get someone to be Scorpion, Terry Bogard, and on down and you have a great group theme and we could even act like bigger idiots. Fun time and I strongly suggest it to everyone and anyone. Go to a Salem Hallowe’en at least once in your life, but be prepared to do things New England style which mean the party starts VERY early, but shuts down about 11pm save for private events and bar get togethers. Awesome, awesome time.
Saturday
Our last full day in New England, and we certainly made the most of it. This is also the only day we weren’t in Salem. First we drove to Providence, RI and saw Lovecraft’s grave. Then we went to see a 50 foot termite and finally to Providence’s Natural History Museum. From there, we decided to go to Cape Cod, which was a bit of a drive, but who cares right? We drove all around, went to the beach at night and finally went to an amazing Itallian place called Amani that has won a lot of local awards. I had an amazing Fra Diavlo with six kinds of seafood (Squid, Clams, Mussels, Scallops, Shrimp, and Oysters) and a wonder seafood appetizer selection. SO GOOD. From there we drove home and got into our hotel quite late.
Sunday
Packing for home time! We drove into Salem for an hour for last minute shopping and then it was off to the Airport. Dan and Trinity’s flight left at 1pm and I managed to get on a 3pm flight, so I ended up playing Star Ocean in the airport for 2.5 hours before flying home and getting a ride from Vlad. Then I unpacked, opened a ton of packages and relaxed for the rest of the night.
This was an amazing vacation and the best Hallowe’en party I’ve ever seen. Again, once I get pics from Dan I’ll post some in here. I hope everyone else had an awesome Halloween as well!
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