A good bachelor party is defined by the quality of the food, women, and company. Clearly, my best man was well aware of this when he took me down to NYC this weekend to hit the town with some of my oldest and closest friends. Our evening began literally right out of work, as I tossed my white coat into my locker and hopped into his car. Traffic was dismal as usual, and we didn’t get into the city until almost 10pm. One of the guys was actually post-call, another had been working all afternoon, and the third.. well, he had been drinking since 4pm. Nevertheless, we resisted our weariness, and satisfied ourselves with large slabs of beef at the Strip House. After my superbly-textured rib-eye, creamed spinach with truffles, and potatoes in goat fat, (which continues to haunt my taste buds to this moment) we went to the Hustler Club, where supposed third-hand accounts claimed to be a mecca of attractive women. We were not disappointed, and enjoyed a few titillating performances for ourselves. We left the club around 3:30am to head back to our hotel suite for our poker marathon. Surrounded by bags of chips and diet coke, we spent nearly 6 hours playing Texas Hold’em, which for me really amounted to a painfully slow way of handing my money to my more-experienced compatriots. By next morning, one of the guys had to run to proctor an SAT exam, and the rest of us tested our spice tolerance with authentic Korean food. With no sleep the previous night, the car ride back to Boston was pretty much a blur. Though steak houses, strip clubs, and poker marathons will no doubt find their ways back into my life in the future, I was happy to be reminded again of genuine friends and good times.

If asked to describe London in one word, I’d probably say “expensive.” A week-long trip to the world’s 2nd most expensive city (after Tokyo) was probably not the best idea given the cost of a certain upcoming event. But it at least gave us a break from thinking about it. We arrived on Sunday and spent the afternoon at the British Museum, which featured not so much British stuff as stuff that Britain took from other countries, including parts of the Parthenon. On Monday, we climbed the winding stairs of St. Paul’s Cathedral, inspected the Crown Jewels at the infamous Tower of London, crossed Tower Bridge, squeezed passed rowdy kids in the HMS Belfast, and toured the authentically-replicated Shakespeare Globe Theater. For dinner, we treated ourselves at Zaika, where the 6-course Indian tasting menu showed our tastebuds a whole new dimension to the use of saffron. On Tuesday, we took a train from Paddington Station (yes, and bought a bear) for the city of Bath, where we sampled foul-tasting spring water from ancient Roman baths. Unfortunately, the Jane Austen Centre was closed and tours to Stonehenge were fully booked, so we returned to the city for the Sherlock Holmes Museum and the London Aquarium. On Wednesday, we awoke early to visit Windsor Castle and watch the changing of the guards. For lunch, we stuffed our faces with delicious fish and chips, and spent the afternoon holding our wobbly bellies as we toured the history of medicine exhibit at the Science Museum, and the endless corridors of the Victoria & Albert Museum. We finished the evening with Agatha Christie’s play, the Mousetrap, and more English pub food for dinner. On Thursday, we walked over famous people buried at Westminster Abbey, struggled past hoards of tourists at Buckingham Palace, watched horses training at the Royal Mews, and got a lesson in English history at the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. Friday’s weather was wet and dreary, but was redeemed by a most satisfying full English breakfast (with blood pudding, yum!). We started by touring the Cabinet War Rooms / Churchill Museum, which were surprisingly well done. Afterwards, we took a short cruise down the Thames, checked out Princess Diana’s wardrobe at Kensington Palace, and had afternoon tea at the Orangery. In the evening, we browsed through the eccentric exhibits at the Tate Modern and took a chilly stroll along the river. By the time we got on the plane Saturday, we were both exhausted and I has half-limping on my left knee, which I probably twisted walking to all the places we visited. Looking back, I’m still amazed at how much we covered in one week. I guess we really wanted to get the most out of our London Pass. Now back home, the prospect of leaving the patient-free haven of radiology for my sub-internship at MGH tomorrow is sending chills down my spine.