An illustration of Aiden's profile. He has light skin, short brown hair and is wearing a blue shirt.

A Witch Stabbed Me 🧹🗡️ by Aiden H. '28

I went to Salem!

This past week, we were graced with an amazing/beautiful/astounding/radiant/etc. three-day weekend. Naturally, given an extra day without nothing I have to do, there was no better answer than doing something that I wouldn’t normally have time for! In this instance, that meant visiting Salem, MA in the peak of October.⁠01 Peak here meaning both for Salem and MIT midterms

After my friend Fatimeh A.G. ’27 floated the idea in our floor group chat, I jumped at the opportunity to spend a day frolicking around Halloween-ville. Here’s some pictures and stories from that day:

9:00 AM

The group of us going met in the floor lounge at the very-early hour of 9-AM-on-a-weekend-*gasp*. Salem is accessible by a ~30 minute ride on the commuter rail, so to be able to get there early enough to spend most of the day there, we had to leave at 9 and perform the following maneuver:

  • Walk to the MIT T ⁠02 Short for the MBTA, or Boston's public transit/subway system. stop.
  • Take two stops on the Ashmont/Braintree line until Park Street
  • Transfer to the Green Line
  • Take three stops on the Union St. line until North Station
  • Transfer to the commuter rail station inside North Station

This is honestly not that bad of a T experience, but in order to get on the 10:00 train to Salem and teach the freshman how to navigate the T, we had to take our time. While waiting for the train, we were bombarded with Halloween capitalist Dunkin’ before finally getting aboard:

A Dunkin Donuts walk-up stop with Boston Celtics logo and Halloween orange and purple decor
A train with purples seats and rows of people.

After some light gossiping, day planning, and psetting on the ride, we finally emerged from the commuter rail into Salem! We didn’t have any plans for the day, so we started by following the mass of tourists out of the station to what is apparently the town square/downtown, where most of the festivities were:

The Salem Town Hall tower from a lower angle coming out of the train station
City street lined with tress and a brick building on the left side.
City street lined with tress and a brick building on the left side.
City street festival with a crowd of people, trees lining on the street, and shops on the right side.

Pushing through the crowds of people and noticing that the lines for anything Halloween-related would be at least and hour, we quickly settled on exploring the bookstore to our right instead. I was finally able to find Theo of Golden, which is having a big moment and my grandma volun-told me to buy.

Interior of a bookstore
Kat E. '30 and Ava A. '30 in the bookstore!
Photo of a book held outside a bookstore in the sun.

Starting at this point I was lethally hungry, so I passive-aggressively redirected everyone through the town out of the city center to a random cafe for me to fuel up or whatever. On this walk, we were able to pass through the Salem Common, which had Halloween vendors and decorations set up!

City street festival with a large crowd or people in the street during the day.
Blue sky and clouds over a sidewalk with a medieval-style building in the background.
A photo of a large brick church in the daylight.
A photo of a town park, with festival tents set up with vendors and a large, Halloween-decorated gazebo off to the left in the distance.
A matcha and two foil-wrapped sandwiched on an outdoor table in the sunlight, with someone else in the background on the other side of the table.
matcha and two egg and cheese, tyvm
A paper pamphlet stapled to the wall reading
this cafe was crazy
An collage of photos of a man eating pasta in the woods.

We took a look at Google Maps and noticed that we were caddy-corner to the House of Seven Gables, aka the subject of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book (he is from Salem). We took the detour, and naturally because nature knows when I need amazing vibes and a good photo, the weather became the perfect 70 degrees and sunny at this time:

The House of Seven Gables, from behind, in the distance behind a large yard on a sunny day.
A zoomed in photo of the back of the House of Seven Gables, with people in the yard behind the house.

Down the street from the house is a path into the middle-ish of the water and a lighthouse, so we decided to take a group break, sit around the water, and gossip and breathe in the ocean air. (this was the best part I love the ocean I am moana/aquaman/waterboy)

A wideshot of the Salem, MA bay with grey buildings in the background, taken from a grassy walkway in the middle of the water.
A wideshot of the Salem, MA bay, taken from a grassy walkway in the middle of the water.
Emma H. and Meg H. '29 walking to the water with me!
A wideshot of the Salem, MA bay with brick residential buildings in the background.
A vast body of water during the day.
Vast ocean photographed during the day with the photographer's blue Converse peeking through the bottom of the lens on concrete.

We had no other plans for the rest of day, so we commenced a random walk⁠03 6.100B is ruining me around the city before stumbling upon a bakery/cafe and you KNOW my ass got an apple cider donut (it was perfect):

A large brick two-story building in the day.
A display case of pastries.
A town street intersection in the shade
A town street intersection on a sunny day, with a curved brick building on the right corner and a small blue car driving through the middle.
A busy street intersection with a group of people crossing the sidewalk on a sunny day.

Now for the fun part: noticing we had time and having floated around the idea of getting our ears pierced as a floor, Fatimeh, Meg and I went to a local piercer. ‘Twas a super cute store, despite being ridiculously expensive, and we got the coolest helix piercings:

A densely decorated interior of a store with a glass case covered in vines, warm lighting, a dark, highly-patterend rug, class table, and people sitting around.
A man with a backpack winces at the sunlight with his ear directly litand in the frame.
A profile of a man in a backpack showing his ear, with a sidewalk lined with trees in the background.
A p
Meg's helix! It's a lightning bolt

To end the day, we just walked around random shops, and I was able to find a thank you card for a professor and a cute bird postcard for my girlfriend:

A photo of a parking lines with American flags and green trees in the distance on a sunny day.
The interior of a gift store during the day with casual shoppers looking around.
The interior of a goods store with white shelves of assorted oils, lotions, and soaps.
The interior of a goods store with white shelves of assorted oils, lotions, and soaps and a central wood display of other similar goods.
A photo of paper packaging, a post card of assorted birds, and a bird-themed thank you card in sunlight from inside a store.

Honestly, I don’t have any intense/philosophical thoughts on the day. Above all, it was just really good vibes to be able to leave campus for a little bit, be with a bunch of friends, and walk around somewhere new where we have nothing to do.

Def recommend!

  1. Peak here meaning both for Salem and MIT midterms⁠ ↑
  2. Short for the MBTA, or Boston's public transit/subway system.⁠ ↑
  3. 6.100B is ruining me⁠ ↑