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Published: November 10th 2008
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Me standing in the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. Gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”
President Elect Barack Obama
Well, I arrived in Washington on Thursday October 30th. I arrived around 2pm. I unloaded the car and then tried to find somewhere to park the car while I was in town. It took literally and hour of driving around before I found a spot. The parking lots in the area of the hostel do not offer overnight parking. I found one guy willing to keep my car for $15 a day, including the weekend. I just didn’t have access to it after 7pm and the weekend. I was good with that.
The next day it was off to see the monuments. The one I wanted to see the most was the Lincoln Memorial. One because it was Lincoln (the man who ended slavery), but I think more than that it was because I wanted to be in the spot that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a
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The White House Dream” speech. I saw all the typical monuments, White House and went up the Washington Monument to see views of the city. I really like the city of Washington. There are no tall buildings, it is clean and all the museums are free.
Saturday Nov 1st I went to see the Jefferson and FDR memorials. I loved the FDR one. It was just simple stone walls and waterfalls with quotes from him during his 4 terms. It was very simple, but very effective. After the memorials, I walked to the engraving and printing museum. While I was reading the sign that said it was closed (as it was Saturday), a police officer (Curtis) started chatting with me. After I told him I was from Canada, he asked me if we had the “Euro” … that one should have been caught on the Rick Mercer show. Anyway, not 2 minutes later he was saying that it was too bad he had to work tonight or he would give me a tour around to see the lights. He was cute and all, but by this time (after the incident with my dear friend Joe), I was not interested in going on
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Washington monument with helicopter that landed at the White House any tours. I just smiled and said “yes, that is too bad, take care, have a good day” and got out of there.
In the afternoon I went to the Holocaust museum. I didn’t know what to expect with this museum, but by the end of it I was emotionally drained. I spent the entire afternoon in there. As much as we all know the stories and what happened, this museum goes through history year by year with details that almost have you living the experience. Throughout the museum I would pass people who would be crying. There were times I was using everything I had to hold back my tears.
This museum was a major turning point for me. Whenever most of us think about the holocaust we can’t help but think “How can anyone do this?” but today I found myself thinking instead, “How can everyone around let this happen? Why was it not stopped sooner?” I then looked deep inside and realized I am no different. I have been living my happy life up to this point shutting out the rest of the world. I don’t listen to news for a couple reasons; one, I
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Jefferson Memorial don’t want all the negativity in my life, and two, I don’t understand what they are talking about. I don’t understand why there are wars, why there is killing, or why people are starving.
After this personal realization, I also realized I am not alone. I am by far just an average person. I think the majority of people would not know much about the current issues as well. This is by no means a judgement. It is hard to understand the current issues that face us today. There seems to be so many and the issues are so complicated that we can sometimes get overwhelmed. We feel like there is nothing we can do about them so we ignore them. I don’t want to ignore the issues anymore. I want to learn all about them. And you know what, after I learn about them, I want to write about them to let the rest of my average citizens know about them as well. That is all I will say about this now, but I have some good ideas.
Ok … enough of that serious stuff, it is now Saturday night and there was a pub crawl so
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Me in front of Capitol Hill it was time I went out and had a good time. And boy did I ever. I think we went to at least 4 or 5 pubs … and wherever there was music, you couldn’t get me off the dance floor. I didn’t get in until 3am (which was 4am because the clocks just went back one hour). Let’s just say when I woke up the next morning every joint in my body was killing me. I met some great people that night like Tanish (from India but studying in Norway), Toti (from Spain but teaching Spanish in Iowa) and Steve (my dear Aussie friend here on vacation). Oh, I guess I should also mention Marc, our cute tour guide from Virginia.
Sunday I headed out with Toti and we saw the Museum of Natural History. She was leaving town today so we parted afterwards and she went to see the Holocaust Museum and I went over to the Archives to see the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Afterwards, I had to be home for 5pm as Steve was cooking me dinner (as a thank you for paying the cab fare home last night). After the dinner, we went
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I Have a Dream! out on an organized hostel tour for a classical concert at the Art Gallery. This is where I met my dear friends Ben and David. Ben is from Toronto and is touring for a few weeks and David is a spray paint artist from New York touring around trying to make money with his paintings. The concert was fun (I would go into details but it was one of those things where you had to be there to appreciate it). Let’s just say that those of us there will always smile if you say the words “45 beds”.
Monday came around and the word spread that Barack Obama was going to have his last rally in Manassas Virginia tonight at 9pm. We started looking at options. It was only a 40 minute drive there. Some of us really wanted to be there. A couple people who were around the lunch room joined in and soon I had a car load going. It was Ben, David, Birgetta (my new Swedish friend) and Dave (from Montreal). We arrived at the rally about 5pm and it was scheduled to start at 9pm. It actually didn’t get started until about 10:30pm so needless
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Laura, Ben and Myself (all Canadians!) at the Lincoln Memorial to say it was a long day. The energy and atmosphere at the rally was so incredible. There were close to 100,000 people there. Virginia is a state that has been republican for over 40 years so Obama was trying real hard to turn it around (which he did BTW) Once Obama came on, we couldn’t actually see his face because it was in front of the teleprompter but we heard him. He is such a great speaker. I am so inspired by him. He is just what this country and world need. He is definitely the next JFK if not better. I pray nothing bad happens to him. I pray real hard!
Tuesday November 4th. To most of you reading this, it doesn’t mean too much, but it was election day here in the USA. Being in the heart of Washington for this day was something else. A group of us at the hostel decided to go out to a pub to watch the election. The energy was contagious. Each time a state was declared for Obama everyone would cheer. When they announced Virginia the place irrupted. A lot of people in Washington actually live in Virginia (which
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Pub Crawl - A bunch of us is 5 mins away). One minute after that, the poles on the east coast closed and they declared Obama the winner. Soon afterwards we took to the streets. It was like it was new years eve or the eve of a big sports win. Cars were honking, people screaming … I couldn’t help but get swept up in it. As we were walking a black man came up to us and shook our hands and said “Thank You, it is all because of you.” Of course we didn’t have the heart to tell him none of us were American.
The group of us decided to head down to the White House as we were sure there would be people there. And we were right. There were tons of people, cameras, movie cameras etc. Everyone was chanting, singing, hugging and dancing. I couldn’t help but get caught up in it. I found myself chanting “Yes We Did” and singing the American national anthem. We stayed for about an hour and then headed back to the hostel. I wanted to be sure I heard his speech before heading to bed so that the day would be complete. I got to bed
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Pub Crawl - Marc our tour guide and me about 3am after an extraordinary day that will always be remembered as one of the best days for me and for this world.
Wednesday I went on a tour of Capitol Hill. I actually went in the House of Representatives which is the place the state of the union is given. It looks so much smaller in real life. The mood all around the city was one of joy. People smiling, you could just feel it. I stopped at the Newseum where they post headlines from newspapers from all the states and around the world. I stayed there for about an hour reading all the front pages of the newspapers and watching everyone else read them. It was at this point I couldn’t hold back the tears. I was so happy. If I had to describe in one word what Obama brings to us all that would be “Hope”. In the evening, Ben, Laura and myself headed down to the monuments to see them all lit up at night. It was a nice walk and it was great to see these monuments one last time.
Thursday I spent the day in the Newseum (it is a museum for
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Pub Crawl - Steve, Tanish and Toti the News) and then went out on a tour of Georgetown in the evening. It was with our friendly guide Marc again and it ended with a drink at a pub. A few of us ended up staying out quite late. It was a good time for my last night in Washington.
The next morning, I was feeling the effects of my alcohol. Ben and I left the hostel and went to touring Arlington cemetery. Not a great place to be with a hangover but it was still good none-the-less. Afterwards, I dropped Ben off at the train station and I started to drive out of the city. I didn’t know where I was going, I just knew it was time to leave, the party was over. The party may be over, but the celebrating has just begun.
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Tara W
non-member comment
Awesome!
Enjoy reading your travel blog Julie -awesome trip to date. Loved reading the Washington segment. Very inspiring!