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Published: June 26th 2008
As I left my hostel, buoyed for the trek across town on the subway with
all my luggage I allowed myself to relax a little bit, safe in the knowledge that when I alighted in Washington DC (Well, Arlington, VA) to be precise, there would be no treacherous trek across hostile and unknown territory. No, for not only did I know the area, I would also be meeting my Marraine Chantal there. It's strange, and probably says a lot about me, that after a mere 10 days (or maybe 9, I lose count) of hostel accomodation, I was almost salivating at the thought of having my own room, my own bed and not having to share a bathroom with 500 other people.
Once the bus arrived in Arlington and I had met Chantal, who was only a bit worried that I had missed the bus as 2 had arrived almost simultaneously, and mine, even though it left first, was the second to arrive, we heaved my bags into the back of her car and headed back to her house. The house was new to me, as last time I stayed here, it was in her old appartment. As luck would
have it, the house was situated on top of what it commonly referred to as Mount Himalaya... a horridly steep flight of steps... but it was worth it. Once I had dumped my bags in my room and received the tour of the house we sat down for a proper catch up. Talking on the phone and emailing are all well and good, but nothing beats a proper catch-up session face to face. However, of equal importance was the verifying that the TV received ESPN. Now that I had a chance to relax a bit as opposed to non-stop tourism, there was no way that I was going to miss out on any further Euro 2008 games.
I have actually been wondering if I did indeed choose the worst time possible for me to travel around the Americas. As a sports-mad freak of a person, it has been near excrutiating not being able to watch and analyse every minute of the football. I missed the latter parts of the French Open, and am currently only getting snatches of Wimbledon... Whilst I may have achieved a life-long ambition of going to the Canadian Grand Prix... it's been at the sacrifice
of other events. But being in DC made up for it.
So as I was saying, Saturday night we just chilled, I hade home-cooked food which I have been missing something chronic - hostel kitchens just aren't the same as the real thing. Chantal also arranged for us to go on a bike ride the next day. Now my Marraine is a pretty big biker, and last time I was here I went on a ride, as well as meeting all her biking mates in Old Town... and this visit was going to be no different. After a blissful sleep in my comfy double bed, and a phone call to my Dad to wish him Happy Father's Day, we set off to meet up at Mikey's house, who along with Byl, we were going to roam the areas roads. After all the introductions and small talk were over, we waved goodbye to Sarah and Bailey the dog, and set off. I was riding behind Byl on his bike. Don't ask me what kind of bike it was, I'm a car girl, all I know was that it was a cool bike and it was white! Our eventual destination was
Baltimore MD, but we took a little detour to go to an Amish Flea Market. Disappointingly for me, I didn't get to see any proper Amish people, but I guess there's always next time! After lunch in Baltimore, by the harbour, we headed back to Arlington where we went for dinner in Old Town (which is the traditional biker hang out of the area). However, before we made it home, we had one more detour to make. Mikey was needing to meet up with a man about a watch, but said man was currently at a Bike Show in deepest, darkest Maryland... so off we went. After a few wrong turns, we arrived at the show... in the middle of Red-Necks-Ville... or so it seemed to me. I was told that this was a fairly tame show... even so, it was still a lot for me to take in, as perhaps my dumbfounded expression may have expressed. Truth be told, I wasn't all that upset when we were homeward bound!! By the time we arrived back home I was exhausted. I may not have actually been doing much all day... but it was still tiring.
Monday was even more
Nick...
I asked him to recreate some the foto I have of him in the corridor at Patton...fun than the biking, as we headed to the beach. It may have been a 3 hour or so ride to Rehoboth beach in Delaware, but the clear blue skies and searing heat that greeted us more than made it worthwhile. After exhausting ourselves on the beach, we recuperated with a leisurely stroll back to the car, visting all the cute little shops along the way. The drive home was a little more eventful as the thunderstorms that had been threatening the area the last few days arrived with gusto.
The next couple of days were much more sedate. Chantal returned to work and I took up residence in the comfy chair in front of the tv! With the loan of Byl's laptop (thanks Byl!) I was able to faff around on the tinternet whilst watching the football. Italy escaped the group of death in a replay of the 2006 World Cup final, with the red-card, but minus the headbutt! But the game I was waiting for was Spain against Greece. It might have been a null and void game, but it was still the first proper Spanish game that I got to see. Wednesday night I gave up
A homeless guy asked us to buy a rose...
...Nick then proceeded to attempt a Tango on the streets of Chinatown my coveted seat to meet up with Nick. Nick and I had studied and lived together once upon a time in France (2004 to be precise), but hadn't managed to meet up since, as we always managed to miss eachother whilst on our respective travels. We had arranged to meet at Pentagon City, where Nick worked, before heading into DC. Having got our hellos out of the way, Nick immediately started berating me about my relatively recent decision to lay off the alcohol. He wasn't impressed to put it lightly! However, I was still able to get him to recreate some of his retarded photo poses from France. Dinner in Chinatown followed whilst we tried to smuggle Nick into some bars using someone elses expired ID as he had left his behind...
Thursday began pretty much like Tuesday and Wednesday: in front of the TV for the football. This time it was the first of the Quarter Finals - Portugal v Germany. My support for Portugal was to no avail as they crashed out of the tournament. However, I was unable to wallow in what little grief I had as we had invited Byl and Maria, a work colleague
Native American Indian Museum
Some of the dresses on display of Chantal's over to dinner and I had a Thai Feast to prepare (well Phad Thai, but still, it needed to be prepared!)
On Friday, having decided that I couldn't use the fact that I had already seen the major sites of DC as an excuse to spend the whole week in front of the TV, I braved the VA public transport to head into town. I swung by Pentagon City to have a coffee with Nick before visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of the Native American Indian. Now I don't know if it's because I may have OD'd on museums in New York, but I wasn't all that impressed with this museum. To put it bluntly, I'm glad that admission is free, because if I had paid, then I would have wanted my money back. It's not that the subject matter wasn't interesting, more that I just found the whole layout of the museum confusing and not conducive to enjoying it properly. But then other people didn't seem to be find it that way, so maybe it was just me! I still managed to spend a couple of hours in there (and I would recommend the cafe there,
Native American Indian Museum
Some of the dresses on display where the Native American food is really good). I then decided to wander down the National Mall, from the Capitol to the Washington Memorial before popping by the White House to say hi. I then headed to the World Bank to meet Chantal after she finished work and we spent the evening in Georgetown on the waterfront.
Saturday we went on another bike ride. This time it was just Chantal, Me and Byl. Once again I rode behind Byl as we headed off in the direction of Middleburg. This ride I enjoyed a lot more than the previous one as we tended to stick to minor(ish) roads and had no real plan, just driving around looking at the scenery and stuff. It was a really nice way to spend the day, tho by the end of it my bum was as numb as anything (for the second time this trip I found myself wishing for extra padding in that area!) We once again ended up in Old Town where we met up with some more bikers.
Sunday started bright and early(ish) with a drive down to Georgetown, to the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. Whilst Chantal went for a
run I curled up under a tree with my book. We headed back home for lunch, where I educated Chantal on the finer points of motor racing as we watched the replay of the French Grand Prix before settling down to watch the Spain-Italy quarter final. Nearly 3 hours later, and my nerves all over the place I was barely able to watch as Iker Casillas saved Di Natale's penalty and Cesc Fabregas netted the crucial penalty. I had been talking this game up all week and I was estatic - bring on Russia!! In attempt to calm my nerves, we just had a quiet sunday night in. Byl came over for dinner, and we attempted to make gateau piment whilst watching movies on cable.
Monday was my last full day in DC, and I headed into DC to meet Chantal for lunch with some of her colleagues. Afterwards I made my way on foot to Arlington Cemetary. It was quite a pleasant walk, tho in the midday heat it might not have been wholly recommended! The cemetary itself, I'm not too sure what to make of it. I visited the eternal flame on the Kennedy graves and saw
the Changing of the Guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. But to me, it didn't have any of the peacefullness that I usually find at cemetaries. I guess it being a national cemetary may have had something to do with it, but I think also the fact that it had tour buses bussing people from one site to another kinda took away some of the serenity. From the cemetary I took the metro to Chinatown, but soon got bored of wandering around, so decided to walk to the World Bank as opposed to the Metro. This did mean battling the rain with my half broken umbrella, which soon ended up in a dustbin on Pennslyvania Ave. I also got to see some random sites of DC, such as the FBI building and the back entrance to the White House. Monday night Byl invited us to dinner where I had my first taste of a Jambalaya - something I've been fascinated by ever since hearing the Carpenters sing about it!!
And so for Tuesday. I met Nick one last time for lunch, and tried to persuade him to come to Columbus this weekend. For that is where I'm
headed to next - Columbus Ohio.
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