Downtown Driving and "British" Pubs

Tonight I ventured into downtown Boston to meet up with a friend from London newly (and temporarily) relocated to the US. As she is a Boston native I left the location up to her and she promptly suggest a British pub, Elephant and Castle, appropriately located on Devonshire Road. Equipped with my Acura's GPS system, I was confident that I could make it to said pub without any difficulties. Wrong!

Mr. GPS voice-man is confusing as hell. He tells you to stay right and then you are suddenly off the route. He tells you to take the second left, there is no second left! The screen shows you the names of the streets, but there ain't no way you are reading street names in downtown Boston at night, during the end of rush hour. I'm concentrating on staying alive and keeping my car from being hit, not on trying to read non-existant street names. However, after about half an hour of driving around the same square mile of one way streets, I finally found myself on Devonshire Road.

Helen was already at the bar when I arrived, a pint of London Pride in hand. A good start. Suspending reality for a few minutes, I felt like I was home again. But then it struck me, it just wasn't right. There wasn't a cloud of smoke covering every table, Justin Timberlake was pumping over the sound system, everyone was American, the menu offered bangers and mash with baked beans (I know, what??) and the carpet was far too clean. But...some of my favorite beers were on tap and I left not smelling like an ashtray. Despite the inaccuracies, the overall feel was right, my pint of Hoegaarden was huge and my fish and chips was just as good as any I've had in London (See, I can find the positive side of things). Sure, it could have been better, but probably only if it was in London, so I guess it was as good as it could get.