4th Aug-7th Aug, Washington, USA.

4th Aug-7th Aug, Washington, USA.

I was sad to leave the dugan lifestyle, their carefree, laidback lives suited me! We were making our way up the east coast of the states to Washington DC! I was really excited to do the tourist thing and go site seeing! Id almost convinced myself Id get to do the tour inside the white huse and meet Obama, but I wasnt on the waiting list!

We took another Greyhound coach (oh the joy!) which would take about 6 hours from Raleigh, North Carolina to DC. This time I dont know what happened but we ended up right at the back next to the toilets, where the constant smell of urine, and heat from the engine made me want to pass out! It was really uncomfortable, and with the lack of legroom, I sat with my knees practically tucked under my chin for the trip!

We arrived in the afternoon, about 3pm, and as the coach drove in, I spotted the empire state building in the distance and also caught a glimpse of the statue of libery! I was so excited, it reminded me of the second Home Alone film which I had watched repeatedly when I was younger!

The coach dropped us off at the station not far from Union subway station, which is Washington's main station. There was a high police presence which makes you feel secure and also the place is so clean! Not quite like England, no grafitti on the walls, no rubbish on the ground and the weather was fantastic! We had already arranged with a friend of ours off the TEFL course, that we would stay at her friends place, which was great as it saved us accomadation money which would be put towards site seeing! We got to Heathers friends place at dinner time, which was about an hour outside the centre. We went out for dinner and it was nice to see the residential side to DC, as the media is usually focused around the White House. You seem to think there is nothing else to Washington!

The next day we had put aside for site seeing! Our first stop, was the bagel shop! For breakfast with creme cheese is fantastic! I knew I would walk it off before the end of the day anyway! After this, we took a bus which had far too many automated announcements, and got dropped off in the centre. We made our way to The National Museum of Natural History! In other words, dinosaurs!! I was pretty sure the film A night at the Museum with Ben Stiller was filmed here (I was later told it was in New York!). It was brilliant, as usual the hoards of noisy kids irritated me and kept getting in the way of the pictures. Why cant museums designate a time in the day where children can visit, maybe for an hour or two, then leave the rest of the day for us! Inside, you saw all types of dinosaur bones hanging from the ceilings. It was impressive.

After an hour or so, we were done and next stop was the capital building. The walk from the musuem to here was nice as you can walk on what they call 'the mall' which is actually not any form of shopping centre, but a wide stretch of grass. Along this stretch of road, are all the main museums.
Most of them have loads of steps leading up to them which is what got me thinking about the famous steps in the Rocky film which Stallone runs up! So, I began my mission to find them! We asked a street vendor if he knew the film Rocky, and he said 'No, no idea..!' 'Rocky Balboa I said to him in a louder and clearer tone of voice! I assumed he didnt know because he was foreign as his English was broken! But then came the embarrassing bit, he left us stood at his stand, and made his way across the road to some policemen to ask if they knew. He started pointing over at us, which is when they just looked at eachother and shook their heads. I was beginning to thinkthese steps werent actually in Washington at all!

The Capital Building was definitely impressive! Security is very tight, with FBI type of people standing in every corner of the place. They certainly have a hard job, as the crowds of tourists cover the place getting pictures from all angles! We queued up for a tour inside the capital building.. You are not allowed to take in any sprays, or fluids. People were being made to bin these, however I was not about to bin my Armani perfume which I had on me, so I was kicking up abit of a fuss, which Im aware made me look like a diva, but i didnt want to bin it, so one security guard suggested tying it up in a latex glove which they wear and leaving it next to the bin, I was satisfied with this, much to Jakes relief! Inside, it was crawling with tourists, mostly Americans though. We were shown a very bias video about how the USA is great..blah blah blah.. After this we were shown around a very impressive room with statues of American Presidents surrounding us. There was also a spot in a particular room which allows the speaker to just whisper something across the room, and even with lots of noise, if you stand in a certain part of the room, you can hear clearly what was said!

The following day Heather wanted us to see another part of Washington, not just the tourist attractions. So she drove us to an old neighbour she used to live in, where restaurants of every typr of food from most countries in the world lined the street. We chose an Ethiopian one, which was obviously hugely popular with the locals, as the only seats available were right next to the loud speakers! We couldnt hear most of what we were saying to eachother, but the atmosphere was electric! There was a live act, with 2 Ethiopian dancers showing us all how its done! Id never seen dancing like it. We shared a dish which came with 6 different type sauces which you eat with bread. I was pleasantly surprised!

On the 7th of August, we got up early and headed to the Old Post Office Building which we were told was a fantastic way to see views over Washington. Downstairs there are some restaurants, but we just got in the lift to the top. Views were beautiful, you can see the Washington Monument and all the surrounding government buildings, it's free to go up, so worth a visit!

We went to see the Washington monument, which is impressive. We didnt have tickets to go inside, but we got some great pictures from outside! From the Monument, you can see the Lincoln Memorial at the other end, with the famous reflecting pool and the 2nd World War Memorial in between. The memorials really are fascinating and oviously attract huge numbers of tourists. From the Lincoln memorial you can see the famous reflection of the Washington Monument in the pool. Its beautiful, although I got my feet throdden on quite a few times, by eager American families wrestling to get there pictures. We spent the whole day visiting all the memorials. The Vietnamese and the Korean memorials are very sad, as rows and rows of names are listed on the walls, its unbelievable how many names there were. We visited the JFK memorial too. Each was extremely impressive and you can understand why they attract so many visits everyday.

On our last night we went to Ben's Chilli Bowl for dinner! The place is chaos inside, but famous with the starts too. Framed pictures lined the walls, most impressive was the one of Obama sat where I was actually sitting holding up a chilli dog with the staff! It doesnt look like much on the outside, but definitely worth a visit, although all four of us (Heathers boyfriend joined us) would probably have tummy aches later!

Washington is beautiful, really clean and a fantastic place for sightseeing. I honestly felt like I would be pulled up for spitting chewing up on the ground! Visiting all the memorials is very tiring though, so I would strongly suggest wearing flat shoes! Even my flip flops left me with blisters though! Also, there arent many places to buy water near the memorials, so definitely bring a few litres with you as I was literally faint by the end, and Jake found me sprawled over JFK's memorial. Ooops!

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