This morning my fellow guests tried to convince me to stay longer on the island. I think that if I were here with a family, or if I wanted to laze on a beach every day, it would be very easy to stay for a while. However, I have seen dozens of beaches, have spent two+ weeks in the Four Corners regions looking at far prettier rocks, and have been on the New England coast for a week.... I felt there was no reason to lounge around.
There is also the effect of the traveling becoming increasingly tiresome. I`ve been on the road for over 3 months and sometimes I feel like I`m just going through the motions, rather than actually enjoying a destination. My enthusiasm has waned a little and I do not think that, despite desperately wanting one, an entire day`s sleep would help.
I took the bus to Edgartown, a much larger town than the two-bit village where I had stayed. It`s very picturesque, with brown houses and white houses on the water, red cobbled pavements (sidewalks) and delightful shops.
I took the ferry back to the mainland and drove to Newport, in the state of and on the island of Rhode Island. This is another nice old town, and I would have loved to have stayed here. Sadly I could not arrange any surfing there so my visiting was just fleeting, and I continued up to the capital Providence.
I was a little sad to leave Massachusetts. It`s a really cool land, clearly heavily inspired by England, and is very civilised. It reminded me of home because not only is every town named after an English one (Bristol, Weymouth, Falmouth, Truro, Plymouth...), but each town obviously grew "organically". I hate that word when used in this context but it`s very vogue right now. The streets in every Massachusetts town are narrow and have these amazing things called curves, they do not have arbitrary names (Washington, Jefferson, First, Second, Third.... [can you tell I despise this convention?!]) but useful names. The road in Tisbury that leads to Edgartown is called Edgartown Road, not Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard. Amazing. There are no strip malls and few gas stations. There are independent shops and few chains, even in Boston. The buildings have character and are neither cookie-cutter (i.e. all from the same cheap mould) nor are they all grossly different to somehow reflect a perceived individuality of the owner. The freeways are free and of reasonable quality. The road signs are better than in Maine. The weather is good and not too humid.
I could live in Massachusetts.
Now I am in Rhode Island, in a "loft". These are studio flats/apartments in the upstairs of a warehouse. This one is 3500 square feet (my ATL apartment was 850), and is so large and isolated that the resident`s band can practise here and then leave the equipment in-situ. Very cool.
Rhode Island is the setting for TV`s Family Guy. In it, they always make fun of Portuguese immigrants, and it is these who do the menial jobs that in The Simpsons Mexicans do. I finally understand the reference. Rhode Island clearly has a large Portuguese population, as there is even a radio station in Portuguese. Note, it`s not for Brazilians: having studied Brazilian Portuguese and dated a Portuguese girl I am able to tell the difference, this is defo for the Europeans. On the cape there were several references to Portugal too: in Provincetown I saw Portuguese Square (a road), a Portuguese bakery, a Portuguese flag and even a poster for a Portuguese festival. Very odd. Xhau.