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Published: August 19th 2007
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Outside the U.S Capital
Us outside the U.S Capital Wow what another crazy bus ride, Greyhound as usual is an adverture itself! Sitting on the bus and the smell of piss was overpowering.... and this was to be another 24 hr bus journey! A woman with 5 kids was on the bus not 1 of them with a pair of shoes on there feet and completely covered in dirt. One of them had wet themselves and wasnt changed and by now it had dryed in. This black woman started slagging her off for about an hour. We could do nothing but laugh, although all we thought to ourselves was "I hope she's not on for the full journey" We were about to be sick with the smell. Lucky enough she got off 5 hours later but that was the longest five hours of our life!! We finally got a few hours sleep and only had to make 1 bus change in the morning which is good for the Greyhound.
About 11am we got off the bus at Union Station and had no idea were we were staying as we hadn't booked anywhere. We decided that food was more important as we were starving as usual, so we went into the
The White House
Carrie outside "The White House" food court in the station and got something to eat. Never a day goes by that you dont get asked for food, money or cigs and today was no different. We turned the first guy away but we felt bad and gave the second some bread sticks, he sat down and started eating them next to us, still feeling bad we ended up giving him 2 dollars as he was obviously starving. Smoking time next and outside the station and this old guy was straight over and was asking for a cigarette, then a woman starting going through the ashtray and starting picking out butts, SHAMELESS!! so after ten minutes we were down 2 bread sticks, 2 dollars and a cigarette!!!
We rang the H.I Hostel but they were booked and ended up having to stay in a shit hole in Adams Morgan which was over priced and everyone was squashed in like sardines. Although we met some really nice people from New Zealand and a guy from Poland. One of the girls in our room was a full dirty bitch, she had her stuff everywhere including knickers and every1 had to walk over it to get to bed.
First
The Lincoln Memorial
Colin At the Abraham Lincoln Memorial stop on our travels was The White House, it was really easy to get to, the number 42 bus took us 2 blocks from it which was really handy. It was a lot smaller than we expected but still a mansion, the security around it was unreal but we still managed to get a few good snaps. A short walk later and we were at the Washington Monument we got more photos there, crossed the road and spent some time at the WWII Memorial. A lovely walk up the Lincoln gardens (Its in the Forest Gump movie, where she runs up through the water shouting "Forest") took us to the Lincoln Memorial we climbed the steps and came to the hugh statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting in a chair just inside the building. On the walls was the carved inscriptions of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and his Gettysburg Address it was really class.
After what felt like hours of walking we headed back to the hostel and got ourselves a chinese and had an early night, there was a long day head the following morning, we had so much to do in 1 day.
Tuesday 14th after a shitty nights
sleep we headed back into the centre, first stop was the National Museum of Natural History- bones found from Dinasours and Gems worth thousands given to the Museum and on loan.
Food as usual comes next for us and we had lunch sitting in the National Mall Gardens. Next stop was the National Archives, we got in the queue to see the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the Constitution. A funny security man then gave us his speech firstly it was all about make sure ur photos arent takin with flashes on and then he told us a story which started with "No" That film wasnt filmed here, he was speaking about National Treasure......funny me and Colin were just saying before hand the surroundings looked really different.
Feet already blistered from walking what felt like miles we started another long trek towards the U.S Capitol building, we stopped at the hugh pond in front of it and asked a guy to take our picture with the Capitol in the background, as my battery was nearly done i didnt look at the picture until later and the stupid dick only took us and it was really crap at that!.
We walked up to the front of the building and round the side heading towards Shakespeares Library, We ended up at the Supreme Court first and of course i got into a full argument with a man who was protesting outside about abortions, it was a full war of words on the street, Colin had to pull me away!! lol Minutes later we arrived at the Library, that was another hassle. On the way in the Security woman said " you have to be a reader to come in" Colin then said but we do read books, she then said that you needed a PHD and did we have 1?? Colin said no we're from Ireland.....OMG i have never laughed so hard, we had to get outta there quickly as we were killing ourselves laughing as she wasnt 2 impressed. Another long walk later in the 100f heat and the humidity was unreal we made our way to the Air and Space Museum. Once inside we checked out the Appollo space equipment including the real shuttle that was first to come back from space and also the Lunar Roving Vehicle which was used to drive 15.7 miles across the moon.
Lunar Roving Vehicle
This was the Car used to drive on the moon We also got on a simulator ride that done 360 turns, Colin was the Pilot and i was the Gunner. It was a rough ride, when we done the full turns our legs where flapping everywhere and we couldnt see a thing, Money must have fell out from someone elses pocket and it was flying around smacking us everywhere. Anyway i managed to shoot 4 planes (whoop whoop!!) and that was our fun for the day. After over 9 hours of walking our next stop was the hostel, we were shattered but we had a really good day.
The next morning that was us away on the Greyhound for another 5 hours (ye ha a short 1) to NewYork..............
Pure madness from the minute we got off the bus, we had booked 1 night in a hostel on 103rd street and had to get the underground to there, we of course got on the train going in the wrong direction and had to buy new passes to get back on, finally arriving at the hostel we were pleased to see that it was spotless!
Good news.. We rang the Hotel that we are staying in from the 21st until 25th
Washington Monument
Carrie at the Monument August and the 2 packages for us had arrived from home, in 1 parcel was my laptop and the other toothpowder and Tetley teabags (thanks Mum, Aunt Kath and Julieanne xx) The hotel is Gorgeous and we are gonna look like 2 tramps staying there..but bring on the luxury!!
We tried to get bookings in NewYork for the next 4 days but everything was booked up, so we booked the same hostel for the 20th (only date we could get) and headed to Buffalo the next morning for 4 days instead.
Carrie and Colin
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