Worcester (Massachusetts)

From World travel guide

Worcester is located in central Massachusetts approximately 45 miles west of Boston.

Contents 1 Understand 2 Get in 2.1 Fly 2.2 From Boston 2.3 From New York 2.4 From the North and West 2.5 From Providence, RI 3 Get around 4 See 5 Do 6 Learn 7 Buy 8 Eat 8.1 Americana 8.2 Breakfast 8.3 Fancy 8.4 Pizza 8.5 Ethnic Restaurants 8.5.1 Jamaican 8.5.2 Vietnamese 8.5.3 Latino 8.6 Middle Easten 8.7 Vegetarian / Vegan 8.8 Late Night 9 Drink 10 Sleep 11 Get out 12 External links

Understand

Worcester was established as a town on June 14, 1722 and as a city on February 29, 1848. It has a population of 172,648 and is the third largest city in New England, behind Boston and Providence. Worcester, MA is the home of nine colleges and universities, the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and the Massachusetts Bio-Technology Research Park, and the American Antiquarian Society. Despite their large number, Worcester's colleges and universities have not left much of an imprint on the overall feel of the city-- for better and for worse, it is not the least bit a college town. Worcester has a very low rate of violent crime compared to the comparably sized city Providence, RI. It also has lots of parks, greenspace, small bodies of water, and tree-lined streets. On the whole it is a surprisingly livable place, even though it often frustrates college students and other visitors who aren't in-the-know.

Many people from Worcester share an odd defensiveness that leads them to rattle off (at the slighteset prompting) a long list of everything notable that was ever invented in, or remarkable about, Worcester. You may learn that Worcester area residents or companies invented or popularized:

• The smiley face
• The diner
• Barbed wire
• The birth control pill
• The rickshaw (as absurd as it sounds, this is 100% confirmed)
• The modern Valentine's Day card
• The liquid fuel rocket (and therefore modern rocketry from the V2 to the ICBM to the Space Shuttle)
• The term "postmodern"

See Worcester History in wikipedia for a more complete list of Worcester firsts.

Get in

Fly

Worcester's rather large airport is currently unused by passenger airlines, however passenger service will continue on December 22, 2005 four days a week between Worcester and Orlando, Florida.

From Boston

The MBTA's Framingham Worcester Line: $6 one way. Often takes an hour to an hour and a half, depending on if you are on a local or express train.

Greyhound has far more frequent service and (sometimes) faster service. In theory this should take 50 minutes, however, Greyhound uses the Mass Pike where traffic is often miserable and significantly longer than the train. Prices generally around $9-$10.

From New York

Ramon's Transportation (508) 754-2207. $30 one way, and they will drive you directly to your destination in Worcester. They pickup in Washington Heights, near the 1/9. Call for directions to the pickup. Expect a fast ride and reggaeton.

Amtrak. The train only leaves once a day, but is quite affordable and runs from Penn Station directly to Worcester's beautiful Union station. The ride is long, not crowded, and very relaxing.

Greyhound. Overpriced and miserable, use Ramon's or Amtrak.

From the North and West

Greyhound and hitchhiking. Sorry.

From Providence, RI

The most efficient way to make this trip without a car is to hitchhike. If you are in good shape, going north on route 122 from Providence on a bike will probably get you there sooner than the bus, many of which go via Boston.

Get around

Public transit in Worcester is only practical for commuters, really. Cabs are cheap, and if you're there for more than just a visit, bicycles are available from many used stores and are the best way to get around and explore.

See

Worcester has it's fair share of odd roadside attractions, such as the American Sanitary Plumbing Museum. The museum is closed for the summer, and re-opens in September. Visiting hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Higgins Armory Museum, which prides itself on being "The only Museum in the Western Hemisphere solely dedicated to the collection of arms, armor and art." Visiting hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m then Sunday from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Sorry, but it's closed Mondays.

The Burnside Fountain, located on the south side of the Worcester Common, is known to locals as "The Turtle-Boy Love Statue". The fountain features a boy and a turtle engaged in what many observers believe to be an obscene act. Not many people know what it truly represents, so judge for yourself.

Worcester Union Station, Worcester's pride and joy. This amazing work of art dates back to the glory days of rail roads, tycoons, and Worcester's position as the home to Pullman's Dining Car Company. Abandoned in the 1970's, it was revived to it's origional glory in 2000 after a $32 million dollar campaign to save the station. Notice the turn of the century relics as you walk in (such as marble walls and thirty foot celings).

Do

Worcester Tornadoes, the newest thing in Worcester. They're an independent baseball team (Canadian American League, don't worry if you haven't heard of it, there are only eight teams in the league). They began playing in Worcester in 2005 and won the Canadian American Championship against Quebec in just three games. People seem to love the Tornadoes, and with tickets at about $6.00 and winning most games they've played, it's hard not to.

The Tornadoes are located at Holy Cross' Fitton Field and play from May to September. You can get there by an unreliable bus from the train station or just spend $5 on a cab, or listen at home, they're on Worcester's only radio station that can be heard outside of Worcester (AM-830).

Learn

Worcester boasts a fair number of colleges and universities in it's region.

• Assumption College - 500 Salisbury St, Worcester, MA 01609
• Becker College - 61 Sever St., Worcester, MA 01609
• Clark University - 950 Main St., Worcester, MA 01610
• College of the Holy Cross - 1 College Street Worcester, MA 01610-2395
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) - 100 Institute Road - Worcester, MA 01609-2280
• Worcester State College - 486 Chandler Street, Worcester, MA 01602
• Quinsigamond Community College - 670 West Boylston Street, Worcester, MA 01606

Buy

The coolest shopping center in Worcester is the Mid Town Mall, located directly across from the Worcester Common, to the north (the one that doesn't look like a mall from the outside) The decor is from the 70s, and there's a broken escalator leading down to a nearly abandoned lower level. Good food too.

Eat

Americana

• Coney Island Hot Dogs, 158 Southbridge Street, 753-4362, Open W-M. (best hot dogs, best sign)
• Long Island Hot Dogs, 68 Stafford Street, 753-9223. (best burger)

Breakfast

For breakfast the wealth of diners opens up and it is near impossible to choose. Here are some of the most cool and comfy:

• Parkway Diner, 148 Shrewsbury Street, 753-9968.
• Jeans Place, 136 Cambridge Street, 753-9466.
• Gold Star Diner
• Wendy's Clark Brunch (also referred to as Annie's. Regulars are allowed a tab.)

Fancy

• 111 Chop House
• Beechwood Inn
• Sole Proprietor
• Tiano's

Pizza

Classic central MA style:

• Tech Pizza
• Fantastic (also has fallafel)

Thinner crust:

• Blue Jeans

Gourmet:

• Corner Grill
• Dino's
• Wonderbar

Stoner:

• 420 Pizza (defunct. Last 3 digits of phone number were 420).

Ethnic Restaurants

You could spend a lifetime going to the following restaurants in rotation:

Jamaican

• One Love. Delicious Roti, Ackee, and Curry of all types imaginable. Most dishes come with an excellent side of plantains.

Vietnamese

• Saigon. 976 Main St Most of the entres are delicious. The #92 is a favorite. Also make sure to get the tofu mushroom rolls appetizer and an avocado milkshake.

Latino

• Pupuseria Elsavadorena, 82 Pleasant Street. This place makes pupusas, has a great burrito, and has the best nachos in the city, if you ask them to hold the meat: homemade guacamole, homemade tortilla chips, and plenty of salad and sour cream. It also has no sign.

• Sabanas. Sabanas is conveniently located downtown in the mindblowing midtown mall (directly opposite the Common on its north side.

Middle Easten

• Sahara. Classy, comfortable, and at night the bar is a good scene.
• Emilia's, (Open for lunch only). Consider by some to have the best fallafel in Worcester.

Vegetarian / Vegan

• Quan Yin. An all vegan fake meat restaurant by run by followers of Suma Ching Hai (the "Suma" is a contraction for "Supreme Master"). The fake cheeseburger is a secret item: not on the menu but always deliciously available.

The Vietnamese restaurant Saigon has exciting vegetarian offerings. Don't even look at the menu and order the #92 (warning: spicy).

Also see "Middle Eastern" for more delicious vegetarian meals.

Late Night

Worcester is the birthplace of the diner, because the railroad dining cars that constituted the original diners were manufactured at a Pullman factory in Worcester. So there's still lots of "third shift" places to eat, including:

• Kenmore Diner.
• Boulevard Diner. (best of the two)

• George's. One of the most interesting cheap late-night eats is a pita bakery on Grafton St. It opens each night around 2 am to start making pita, and you can buy fresh pitas that look like footballs. The pita bakery is about 5 storefronts up the hill from their daytime, public-facing deli.

Drink

Worcester has a very large number of bars. If you're looking for raucus 20-something bars, go to Shrewsbury St or Park Ave, south of Elm Park. If you're looking for very cheap, strange, divey bars, go to Canterbury St and its cross streets.

The following are interesting and comfortable places to drink:

• Vincent, 49 Suffolk Street.
• Sahara, 143 Highland Street.
• Ding Ho, 38 Southbridge Street.

• El Coqui. Considered to be the best liquor store.

The preferred beer in Worcester is a 40 ounce bottle of Golden Anniversary. It has been referred to by drinkers as "Our Golden Adversary".

The preferred cheap hard alcholol is a vodka called "Mr Boston".

Sleep

• Beechwood Hotel, 363 Plantation Street, [1]. Downtown hotel, near all major business centers and universities, ideal for business and leisure travelers, meetings and weddings.

Get out

External links

• Worcester Public Library
• City of Worcester
• Worcester Telegram & Gazette
• Worcester Art Museum

This is a usable article. It has information for getting in as well as some complete entries for restaurants and hotels. An adventurous person could use this article, but please plunge forward and help it grow!