This weekend I had a very special surprise visitor! My friend Elly came to visit me all the way from Ithaca for 24 hours only. She arrived bright and early at 10 am on Saturday, and we went to the Wellesley Bakery for breakfast before venturing to Boston. We took the green line to the Government Center (it was my first time ever taking the green line!) and walked towards Faneuil Hall. I was super excited to explore a new part of Boston, but upon getting off the T I realized I had been here before! My dad came to visit me last year and insisted on visiting City Hall, as he is one of the world’s only fans of brutalist architecture. Fun fact: Boston City Hall has been voted one of the ugliest buildings in the world!
City Hall!
We shopped around Faneuil Hall for a while before sitting down to eat our poke. Just as we were heading out, I heard two beautiful words over the loudspeaker: “Penn Badgley.” I thought I must’ve heard wrong, and we joked about how crazy it would be if he were actually here. But then we heard it again! We had no choice but to go check it out, and originally I thought I was seeing some Penn Badgley impersonator (like the Taylor Swift impersonators that do the eras tour shows) but it was him! Penn Badgley plays Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl and Joe Goldberg in You, which is one of my favorite shows ever. He was speaking at the Boston Race Amity Festival, and Ben and Jerry from Ben & Jerry’s were also there!
I have to say that might’ve been the highlight of my whole summer, it was the closest I have ever been to a celebrity. I don’t think I could ever top that experience unless I met another, more famous, celebrity. To wrap up the shopping experience, I spent way too much money on a necklace. When near the North End, one is legally required to get a cannoli, so I took Avery’s recommendation, and we got cannolis at Bova’s Bakery. 10/10 would recommend.
As if the day couldn’t get any better, on our way back to the train we saw a couple get married! It was so beautiful but the great North End vibes really heightened the whole experience. Once we got back to Wellesley we had dinner at a local Italian restaurant called La Toscana’s and caught up with all the Olympic events.