Day 14, Friday September 25th (J.W.)

 One last deep inhale of Boston

After riding one last time into the city that we had been discovering over the past two weeks, we grabbed, maybe for the last time, our by now dearly loved morning drinks and headed over to the the park.

We lay there in the sun and let our minds run free. One topic of conversation was what colours certain things had. For example, Thursday, what color is it for you? Orange, brown, green or something else?

On our program today was a special treat: the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. Did you know that even the walls of the museum (or house) themselves are artworks? For instance, one whole wall is covered by leather panels which are decorated with metal leaf and varnish for shine, stamped and embossed for texture, and painted with floral designs. Isabella acquired the panels from many different places. She collected more than 25 different types of leather wall hangings, more than 500 individual pieces—to collage the walls of that room.

When I walked into that building, my jaw literally dropped. First, you walk into probably the most beautiful indoor garden I have ever seen, details which seem to be never ending.
EVERYTHING in that building is so unique and beautiful. In each room I walked, I thought it couldn‘t get any more special, and each time it did!

You can feel she wanted to let people feel the energy and speciality of the place. Although I tried to capture the beauty of that building on picture for you, I have to tell you, it really feels impossible to capture the splendor of this home. You can easily see she was someone who used her money wisely and created something for everybody, until eternity.

The rest of the afternoon, we all tried to fill our lungs one last time with Bostonian air.

Maybe a bit tired, we arrived at the Farewell Party. After we had stuffed our bellies with pizza, pasta and yummy food, we got our spark back and slowly the party dragged itself into the garden, where we jumped on the trampoline, played games and chatted. We watched the sun go down, ate brownies, cookies and muffins. A wonderful last evening together with our American hosts.

A personal, funny highlight was when we pranked Peter by asking him if he had forgotten to prepare the speech he was going to give later, in front of everybody; his reaction was priceless.

When I went into the garden to grab my bag, I looked over to the house and saw a few people chilling in the basement, after some time the party had moved one more floor down and we were caught up playing BS and Impostor. We had some good talks and laughs!

Exhausted but filled with joy, I went home to my host’s house to spend the last night in the United States. When I closed my eyes, I could still see all the little moments of the past two weeks playing through my head. It felt strange to know that this adventure was already coming to an end. But at the same time, I felt incredibly grateful that I got to experience all of it.