The Washington Affair

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awasome...historic..beautiful..clean..wonderful...monumental...structured..am i running short of adjectives??yes,iam running short of it to describe how amazing Washington DC is!!DC as it is called here is the destination where i spent my last weekend.ie 4th in July,2004.And it was worth all the
cost and efforts that we put in to be there.

Washington DC i.e district of columbia is the capital city of usa.and fortunately just 2 hours drive from our apts.However it took us little longer to reach there as we took Grey Hound Bus service from Wilmington to DC.It has a stopover at Baltimore.And though it was long journey i feel it
was good b'use we were able toget a outside view of Baltimore,a major port on eastern coast of USA.The start was rather in a hurry as we get up half asleep from a previous day party in our apts.The party
was thrown by us for all the Indians in JP morgan office as token of appreciation for all the
help they have extended to us so far for last 2 months.and man...it was fun!!11 people including 4 of us..home made chicken,a special veg menu..i dont think we wud have had anything better than for
our guests!!

it was 12.30 pm that we went to sleep that night.and it was 7.00 am that we have booked a cab for wilmington.so we had very less time to sleep..specially me.I dont know but my sleep has reduced from 8-9 hrs to 6-7 hrs since the time iam away from home.i dont know whether its good or its bad!!May whether here is a crucial factor.U never feel tired.its never been over 25 degrees here since the time we have arrieved.Now compared to mumbai u can imagine how cool this is!!

the cab was on time and we waste no time in boarding onto it and reach wilmington bus station at 7.30.We quickly secured our return tickets for dc.The bus was scheduled at 8.10 am.The bus arrieved
in no time and soon we were on our way to DC.What a comfortable drive.There cud not b a better
place to sleep than greyhound.Thanx to clean roads and state of the art buses of geryhound!i had a nice 1 hour sleep in the bus ;-)

The nap helped me a lot as i got freshen up to see enjoy the beauty of DC.We reached there at around
11.30 am.Our first stop was Union Station.Union station is the premier station in DC.Believe me in last 2 months i have seen some wonderful stations.To name a few,The Grand Central of Newyork,Port Authority of NY,Penn Station,Medison Avenue,Victoria station in London,the grand central of London,30 th Street of Phili..but nothing can match Union.Its fabulous.3 flors station,one of which is underground.and what they have on that floor..just imagine....a thousand by 600 meter area for food court.Its full of all kinds of food
varities from all over the world.this is the place where we can get some nice vada pavs at Aditi's Indian kitchen.It is destination where one can get all major transport service providers of US,namely AMTRAK,GREYHOUND,PETER PAN.No wonder it took us two and hours just to see the station.We had a nice lunch there at the Indian kitchen.some nice matar paneer,rice and roti.and guess what i got there??its one of the most priced possession that i have now..something that i always wanted to have on my wrist..Yes....u guessed it right!! A SWATCH WATCH!!!!!!!Nobody needs to emphasise abt what a swiss watch is ??its the best in the world.and now i have the best..They have only a handful of showrooms in US and one at Union is one amongst them.I got a SWISS CORONA FOR usd 75.that
comes to around 3200 rupees.

We travelled thru yet another wonderful stations on our way..first was Metro central and another was
Federal TriangleAfter that nice little shopping we spent no time in coming out and reach Washington
Monument..Its the tallest constructions in DC and the tallest freehand structure in the whole world.Built in the memry of their 1stPresident George Washington,one can get the best panaromic view of entire DC from its 55th floor.its 550 feet tall and was constructed way back in 1885over a period of 40 yrs.We were told that the constructions took that long b'use of lack of funding in that time.It resembles a needle in
shape.Unfortunately we realised that they distribute some limited free tickets to go on the top of the
monument on first come first serve basis,This starts at 8 am.We decided to join the queue at 8 next
morning.

from thereon we went straight to the President's house yes u r right..the WHITE HOUSE.Its beautiful.132 rooms half of which are underground.Due to security alerts they have now stopped letting visitors in the house but yes,even from outskirts we geta magnificiant view of the most powerful place of the face of this earth.We took our snaps and then turned our attention to The Smithsonian museums in DC.Smithsonian was a noble man born in 18 century who was inherited huge amt of money from his forefathers.All that money he has used to built these wondreful museums.There are around 10 of them.All of which just a stones throw away from each other.the most populer among them are
the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY,THE AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM,NATIONA MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY.We visited all of them.

The first in line was Natural history..dinosours,where else can we find 25 feet life size structures of that
giant beast..the African elephant in all its glory...rain forests where one can actully feel how it is to be there.What helps u realise that is the excellant background sounds that goes on continuously..sharks,orang otangs..and of course thet have a tiger stuffing as well.After wondering there
for an hour or so we went on to air and space.There they have past,present and future of aviation from all over the world..the space stations,aircrafts...space craft that was used to land on moon,the mars
missions,pearl horbour ,hiroshima and nagasaki bomber planes..whatever made history in aviation..u name it and they have it there..and its huge!!of course how else can they hang actual aircrafts on the ceiling.It was its time to close at 5.30 pm so we quicky grabbed our tickets for a IMAX theatre movie show at 6.00 pm.Its name was SPACE STATION.A 3D movie on a screen that is atleast 6 times bigger than our cinema screens.It was terrific experience!!I never wanted to come out of that place!!but then we have to,we have a lot to cover.

And whats better than the place where it all happened.The US Senate house-Capitol.the buiulding
that we often see on TV with a big white dome.It is really nice to roam around here..wonderfyl place..we
relaxed there by the small lake till 8.30 overseeing the crowd which has come there from all over the
world.Surprisingly majority of them were indians.We captured Capitol at its best in daylight and by the
monnlight as well.The sky setting was just perfect for the snaps..we can see the washington straight down the down from here.Musical foutains illluminated at night offer one of the best sights to watch here.From thereon we again went back to union whch is just 5 mins walking distance from there.There after a dinner we managed for small motel room for usd 60/night.We need sleep badly,didn't we?I had a bath and soon I deep in my dreams ;-)

Next day morning we got up a little early as we have to secure the tickets for washington monument.We
literally ran for 100 meters from the federal triangle to ensure that we get the tickets.and let me tell u,we
were not the only one to run like that on the streets!And finally all that hard work...rather hard run paid out as we confimred our tickets for 11.30 am ride.Again we went back to union.had a nice omlet
sandwidch at a chinese joint.We also picked tickets for a city tour tocover up the rest of the city.We
boarded the tour bus at 9.50 and stage by stage..from union to white house,from there on to National
Christmas tree,at 11.00 am we reached Washintion monument.the elevator took us to the observatory in 70 secs..and truly it is the best view from up there..Capitol on north side,White house on the
south,Jeffrson memorial on the west side and Lincon memorial on the east..its a view that we see on those city calenders..too good!!After being on top,it was time to pay homage to those who lost their lives in Natzi rein during 2nd world war.We visiited The Holoucost Museum then which stands in the memory of those who were toutured in German Concentration camps all over the world during 40's.Next to Holoucost we have the Federal Mint Building where US govt prints its money.Being a sunday it was closed.So we have to satisfy ourselves from outside view.

We were quiet tired by this time and hence we decided to complete the tour in one go and then visit
whichever places we wish to visit.I was sure as to what i wanted to see.After the Capitol and The White
House and the museums it was the turn of All presidents Memorials they have there..namely Washington,Jeffrson and Lincon memorial..three of their most famous personalities who have been the
residents of White House.We have already been to Washingon Memorial..so next in line was Jefferson
Memorial.its really nice the way these people cherish their history.this was evident from the fact that even a small apts where lincon died has been kept in the most wonderful conditions along with all his
belongings..we share the same feelings at lincon memorial too...All 3 of them have their own
beauty..but i lked the lincon and the Jefferson memorial the best specially b'use of its scenic surroundings..Jefferson memorial has a tidal lake along its side and lincon memorial has a wonderful
lane of water that resembles the one we have in front of tajmahal.lot of fountains around add to the charm of this place.

Near to lincon memorial they have Vietnam war memorial in memory of those who sacrificed their lives in the vietnam war in 1970's.From there we boarded the tour bus again and been to museum of women in American army.This is devoted to all women army offcers of the US arm forces.How wonderful!!We took a few rounds of the city in the tour bus before we reached union station for the last time at 5.30 pm.The last museum to visit was The Post museum that takes us thru the long jourey of post deliverirs right from 18th century till date..I remember dad very much here.He wud have certainly liked this one.

We had a return bus at 7.10 pm.Before a 2 hrs journey we wanted to have our stomocks full.so we had a
bharpet dinner again at indian kitcen at union and reached greyhound terminal well i time at 6.30.the bus
was sharp on time.We got ourselves a nice wiondow seats and from thereon it was a nice aram till
wilmington.It was at 9.40 that we reached wilmington.we quickly hired a cab from there and got
to the apts at 10 pm..

that was it!!the WONDERFUL DC!!It is surely one of the cleanest city that i have seen so far..Lodon comes very close second.museums,federal buildings,memorials,white house,capitol..we visited all...its like been there and seen it all..the trip went on well for a 200 usd budget.All things fell in place.It was good.Now i have 4 wekends still..one of it will surely be NYC again.the other three are still in the planning stage...every weekend so far has been amazing..wonderful cities,wonderful sites..i wonder sometimes have i ever thought that i will come so far in my life??across the atlantic...here in united states of amrica!!thank you god for all ur blessings and all of u all for being there always with me...miss
u a lot...

Sachin

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