Days 49, 50 & 51 - Atlantic City and arriving in Washington DC!

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So we went to Atlantic City and found that we couldn't connect to any wifi there at all, therefore, we haven't been able to update our blog for a few days now! Thankfully, we really didn't do much in Atlantic City over the couple of days that we were there, so even though this entry will cover three days, it should be relatively short! There are also not many pictures, as there was really not much to take pictures of!

On Tuesday, we woke to our last morning in Philadelphia, which happened to also be Craig's birthday! Emma gave him his card, which she had been hiding in her bag (trying her best to keep it flat!) since the beginning of the trip. He didn't have any other cards or presents to open (Emma had paid for his dolphin swim which we do next week in Orlando), so celebrations were pretty short and sweet! We had booked a couple of nights in Atlantic City (said to be the East coast's version of Las Vegas), so we checked the train times, finding that there was one leaving from 30th Street Station at 11:25am.

We got showered and dressed before going down for some breakfast at around 9am. We came back to the room to pack up the rest of our stuff into our bags and cases, and sat around watching TV for a little while. At around 10:30am, we checked out of the hotel and dragged our cases back across the road to the train station, catching the Airport line to 30th Street Station. We bought our tickets on a machine and waited for the boards to change to show us which gate to go to. Eventually, it told us to go to gate 2, so we walked over, went down some steps and arrived on the platform, where the train then pulled forward for us to board shortly after.

We found a seat and settled down for our 2 hour journey to Atlantic City, which was fairly uneventful! We arrived at the station and found a street map on the wall to check the direction that we needed to go to reach our hotel. The walk was quite long (around a mile, which seems like ten when you're pulling a heavy case and carrying a heavy bag!), but we eventually made it to the Days Inn near the boardwalk, where we would be staying for two nights. We quickly checked in (we were a little early, but they had plenty of rooms - the place seemed pretty empty!) and were told that we had a room on the top (4th) floor, with an ocean view.

We caught the elevator up to our room and were pleasantly surprised by the size of it - compared to some of the hostel rooms that we have been staying in, it seemed huge! It seems that even though we had one king bed, all of the rooms are large enough to accommodate two double beds, so there was a massive empty space next to the bed, which made the room seem even bigger. We also had a TV, our own bathroom, a fridge and plenty of storage space, which we didn't really use as we were there for such a short amount of time! We also had an ocean view, although it was above the row of shops that line the boardwalk, which were separated from our hotel by a large car park! Nonetheless, we could still see the waves of the Atlantic Ocean and the people strolling along the boardwalk!

We were pretty hungry by this point (it was around 2pm), so we decided to go and have a look what was available along the boardwalk. We walked along the shops, most of which were your usual seaside shops, selling souvenirs, postcards, clothes, towels, fudge, donuts, etc. We checked out the different food places along there; most of them selling similar items such as burgers, gyros and hot dogs. We eventually settled on a place that seemed the best value for money as they did combos which included drinks, with Emma having a burger and fries and Craig having a Philly Cheesesteak and fries.

Once we had eaten, we walked around for a little longer, before going back to the room, as we had arranged to talk to our families on Skype. However, as our netbook was unable to connect to the wifi, we had to use the wired connection from the computer in the lobby instead, although this was much faster than we were used to! Once we were done talking, we walked down the road to a Rite Aid (another pharmacy/foodmart place!), where we bought some pop and some crisps to eat for our tea, knowing that we wouldn't really be very hungry later. We then went back to the room for a while, watching TV and playing games on the DS. At about 8pm, we once again set off to the boardwalk to check out the casinos. We went into the first one that we came to, which was 'Bally's', and spent a little while (and a little money) in there, but not really winning much! We came back to the room about an hour later and spent the rest of the night watching TV (mainly comedy shows such as 'Family Guy', 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'The Office US', before falling asleep at around 12am.

The next morning, we had set an alarm for 8am, as we weren't too sure what time breakfast opened/closed, so we went for a fairly neutral time. Unfortunately, when we looked out the window, we realised that the weather today was AWFUL! It was absolutely throwing it down (apparently it had been for most of the night, which kept waking Craig up), and it was really windy too - so much for having a nice day on the boardwalk! We decided, as we have spent the last few weeks doing something every day, today we would just do nothing instead - we would just have a nice lazy day in and give our feet a bit of a break!

We went down to have some breakfast, both opting for cereal at first, but quickly throwing that away once we realised that the milk tasted a bit strange (we assume it must have been powdered milk, but it was horrible!), so we both had some toast and jam instead. We then came back up to the room and went back to sleep for a while, waking up again at around 11:30am. It was still raining loads outside, so we spent the next few hours just watching TV and playing games on the DS and the netbook. By around 3pm, we were getting hungry and realised that we would have to venture outside to get some food! Thankfully, the rain had seemed to stop by this point, so we walked down the boardwalk and found a 'Johnny Rockets' (one of the only burger places that we haven't eaten in now), and were entertained by the dancing waiters/waitresses as we sat down - we think that they are obliged to do this every time someone pays for a request on the jukebox! Emma had a chilli burger whist Craig went for a double bacon cheeseburger (see picture!!). Apparently, they always give service with a smile, with our waitress drawing a smily face with ketchup onto a plate to show this!

Once we had finished, we then went into the casino next door and spent a little money (like in Vegas, we had budgeted some money just for gambling) before stepping back onto the boardwalk, where it had once again started to rain. We walked back to our room, taking some pictures on the way of the boardwalk (although it looks a bit rubbish in the crap weather - we're sure it would be lovely on a warm, sunny day), including a giant 'Monopoly' board, which was some sort of promotion from one of the casinos. We then stayed in our room for the rest of the day/night, again just watching TV, playing games and just generally relaxing while we had the chance! We eventually went to bed at around 1am, knowing that we wouldn't have to get up too early the following day for our Greyhound bus to Washington DC.

Today, we woke up at around 8am, looking outside to find that the rain seemed to have stopped, but it looked verrryyy windy out there (the ocean looked mega-rough!). We got showered and dressed before having some toast for breakfast again. Our Greyhound bus didn't leave until 1pm, so we knew that we had plenty of time to get packed, check out and make our way over to the Greyhound station. We had time to watch some more TV once we were all packed, then we left our hotel at around 11:30am, knowing that you are required to be at the station at least one hour prior to your departure time. We had to walk around half a mile to reach the station, but when we got there, the woman behind the desk told us that we should go over to the station by the Bally's casino, as the bus departs from there first, and that if it gets full there, then it wouldn't stop at that station at all! We decided not to risk it, and walked down the road to reach the other bus station, where we had been told to wait at gate 3 for our bus, which would instead leave at 12:45pm.

Realising that we wouldn't be able to get any dinner once on the coach (and knowing that the journey was around four hours, arriving at 5:15pm), Craig waited with the cases while Emma walked around the corner to a convenience store, where she bought some crisps, chocolate and water to keep us going until we could get some tea once we were in Washington. Our bus turned up and set off right on time. Once again, the journey was fairly uneventful (apart from one guy who snored VERY loudly for most of the ride!), and we arrived on schedule at 5:15pm at the Greyhound station in Washington - although the bus driver did tell us that he didn't think that we would be allowed across one of the large bridges that we crossed due to strong winds, but he didn't want to tell us at the time and had just hoped that we would be allowed across - thankfully we were and we didn't have to take the hour and half detour!

We saw a sign in the station, pointing in the direction of 'Union Station' - from where we needed to catch the metro to our hostel, so we walked down the street in that direction, eventually reaching the metro station. We walked over to the ticket machine, where we only had to buy one ticket as a nice lady gave us her day ticket that she didn't need anymore, which saved us a bit of money! We caught the Red Line to 'Metro Center' station, where we then transferred to the Orange Line to the station by our hostel - 'Foggy Bottom' station! Apparently the name was given to the area due to the fog that the factories around there used to create, but we find the name pretty funny! From the station, it was only a ten minute walk to our next destination - 'The Allen Lee', which we are calling a hostel, although it's probably a mix between a hostel and hotel really.

We checked in, paid our remaining balance for the room and received the key to our room on the fourth floor. Our room is quite spacious, with a bed, TV, fridge, microwave, sink (there is a shared bathroom right outside our door), a closet and a large chest of drawers. We also have what remains of a fireplace, which is a first for us on this trip! We checked out the internet, which again doesn't seem to work in our room, but we went downstairs to try it in the lobby, where it thankfully does work! We had a check online for the nearest foodmart, finding that there was a CVS just around the corner, so we decided to just get a microwave meal from there for our tea. Once we had eaten, we spent a while watching TV and writing this! We will probably have a relatively early night as we will have a long day of sightseeing tomorrow - after a weekend of doing nothing in Atlantic City, we are now itching to go and see the sights of the Capital of the United States!

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