About the last thing we felt like doing after landing at Logan Airport was scavenging on a hunt through Boston.
But, it felt absolutely wonderful, cozy and safe to return to US soil.
We arrived at the Copley Plaza Hotel around 7:30 PM. Nothing was strucutured for the evening, but one of the travelers made a reservation for all of us at the Palm across the street. Alex was a good sport and checked in for us so I could run into the Copley Plaza mall and buy a pair of ballet slippers to expand my options beyond filthy sneakers, flipflops and clunky comfortable walking shoes.
After dinner, we went right to bed, as we had an 8 AM meeting.
Alex and I both awoke before the alarm, got dressed and found Starbucks.
At the meeting, we were given the Boston scavenges. For those who had never been to Boston, it was yet another exciting day of scavenging. For those of us (there were several) who had lived in Boston or nearby, it was anticlimactic. But, a group of us rallied and planned to take the Duck Tour and do a few other scavenges.
At this point, the competition results appeared to be locked in. The point levels between teams were far enough apart that points earned in Boston were not going to make a difference.
The Duck Tour was great! The driver was smart and very informed about history, sports, pop culture, etc. We peppered her with weird questions. When passing the Parker House, we asked "Who was radicalized in the kitchen?" (Answer: Malcolm X) "What did JFK do here? (Answer: Proposed to Jackie). She said "What? Are you people on a Scavenger Hunt?" Yep-and it's almost over.
We came in fourth (we think). Only the top three teams were crowned as winners with medals. Anyway, at last count, we were fourth.
At the final dinner at the Rustic Kitchen, the teams reported on our collections of various types that we were supposed to be doing along the way.
For global price index (choose an item and find its price in every country we visited), people tracked the price of things like beer, massage,and bottled water. We followed the price of a newspaper. Interestingly, it tracked very closely with the bottled water prices. Our most expensive newspaper was in Tunisia where the guy in the newstand shortchanged me and charged quadruple the price. Here were the prices we recorded:
Taiwan 100 New Taiwan Dollars
Cambodia 12 Riel
Thailand 30 Baht
India 3 Rupees
Turkey 1.5 Turkish Lire
Tunisia 2.000 Dinars (but he shortchanged us and we paid 8.000)
Germany 1.5 Euros
Denmark 20 Kroner
Iceland 65 Kr.
USA 1.50 Dollars
We also recorded the types of transportation we took. Here is what we collected:
Airplane
Taxi
Bus
Car
Elephant
Boat
Tuk-tuk with moped
Tuk-tuk with inboard motor
Train
High Speed Train
Skytrain
Foot
Subway
Golf cart
Ferry
Bicycle
Swimming
Duck Boat
Rickshaw
Funicular
Streetcar
Elevator
Rotating restaurant
And, our team, Operation Show and Tell, won the prize for the tackiest souvenir, over the leading contender of the Chiang Kai-Shek bobblehead. Our souvenir, which we picked up at Quincy Market in Boston, was a pair of black boxer shorts that had two yellow highway warning signs on the back side, which said "Toxic Fumes". That's how we are all feeling about our clothes and our luggage. It's time to go home.