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Published: September 13th 2007
Me and the Capitol Building
Me in the Mall area with the Capital building in the background.Hey all
Another blog entry. Since I got a request today for a new blog entry, I take it your not bored of these by now?
So I have decide on whether I give full disclosure of my travels....coz it to could be a bit racy and embrassing for me. Ah well, I guess the saying is 'make 'em laugh' so enjoy.
Before I went to Washington, I had some additional days in Orlando. As I may have said in my last blog I was supposed to be down that way for awhile, I was supposed to go to Washington but couldn't find accommodation. Well while I was in Orlando I found accommodation for Washington but not until the 7th, so I extended by stay by a couple of days so I could get a flight to Washington. The days in Orlando were largely uneventful, I decided not to go to the theme parks as they were very expensive and I was finding I was going through money rather quickly. I explored the area around my hostel and largely relaxed out back for most of the time. There was a large lake with a jetty that I often
The White House - The West Wing 2
A much closer view of the West Wing sat on, watching water ski'ers and seeing if I could see any alligators. I could see shapes in the water, splashes and bubbles but no alligators came out to say hello, though I am sure there was some. A rather nice colored bird did pop by tho, which you can see in the pics.
So where is the racy embrassing part I hear you cry? Well that came on the last night. I had planned on not spending much for dinner, basically seeing if I could spend only a few dollars but then I was invited to do a bbq with some people from the hostel, I knew one of them as I had gone on a night out with one of them and another guy who was part of the group I had spoken to a couple of times. So we went to Target, me, 2 guys and 2 girls to get supplies. My cut was $9 which wasn't cheap for me but not so bad for steak and salad and chicken which I didn't have to prepare. So I had a bbq with them, talking and drinking. Later on just before the meal we was joined by
another girl, an american was in the same room as one of the girls, we were also later joined by a german guy who was staying in my room. We all talked and drank and I was talking to the american girl for most of the night. She was quite strange, from West Virginia, did a lot of improve dance and so forth but she was different and ok looking. Later on in the evening they decide to go to the pool thats at the hostel and do some naked swimming...I hold back for my own reasons, while the american girl got naked and jumped right in, so did the other guys. The other 2 girls were a bit more shy but eventually 1 went in nude and the other was being persuaded to by the bf. As I said, I held back and then as I did the american girl pretty much launched herself at the german guy...so you had 2 couples and now them 2, I don't need to tell you 7 does not make and even number so I left. Its not good seeing that kind of thing when your missing some1 you got close to yourself
The Washington Monument
The Washington Monument - a big Obelisk. and have had a pretty rough time. Later on that night my constant cough got so bad I actually threw up with the force of coughing, so I had to go out to get myself a drink as you can't drink american tap water. When I did I ran into another guy staying at the hostel who generally did wandering around a bit. He said as he saw me there was a full on orgy going on in the pool, I said I figured as much. He said I didn't want the american girl tho as she was with another guy 2 nights ago so it seems she was a the 'lose' girl of the hostel. Though if I can't pull the loose girl of a place, I wander just how much luck I will have out here.
Anyway, I flew to washington dc the next morning with no real incident. Not much of note at the Orlando airport other then they have a tube style method of getting you around the gate areas of the airport which I found interesting. You can also get huge thick 1 slices of pizza here that are as filling as a meal.
I got my plane, journey was ok except for it really effected my ears, which hadn't happened on any other flight this trip. I got in, got my bag, took metro to downtown and then walked to hostel (worng way first I might ad). I didn't really do much that night, mainly rested. I did see a little bit of dc tho, surprisingly a lot of bums around, and when I say bums I mean homelss people. It was more then new york for sure.
Next day I do the free walking tour of the Monuments. That started at 9am and didn't finish until 1:3opm, 2pm by the time we got to the lunch place. I was really good tho was a very hot day so i was boiling a lot of the time. I saw the treasury, white house (smaller in real life), old executive where Cheny and Rice are based, the Jefferson memorial, the Smithsonian museum, the Washington Monument (which you can go up - I didn't), the FDR memorial, the reflection pool which you may remember from Forrest Gump when he ran to his love over the water or where the Blainites drowned themselves if you
watch South Park. Then there was the Lincon memorial, the Korean and Vietnam memorials, and the WW2 memorial. Those were the highlights with a few other statues and sights on the way.
Bush wasn't in when I went by, apparently you can only tell if he is in is if you see a marine guarding the entrance to an annex on the whitehouse - no marine = no bush. I found out that the design of washington dc was by a french man - which explains how easily you can get lost in the city. The guide told us various things on the trip, most of which are hard to remember now. I had lunch and then went back to the hostel to rest up as I had signed on to do another tour and bar crawl that night.
At night I went out to the Dulles Point area and saw the famous circle there along with old buildings and the story of an irishman who came to america broke, discovered gold and became a billionaire in todays money. We went to a bar which had these shuffle board things that your did b hand and then the
Capitol Hill - Closer up
A better shot of the famous building. group split to go to a club (with cover) or an irish bar (no cover). I went to the irish bar which was pretty packed and not irish. Highlight here was seeing and american hen party and congratulating the bride to be. She took my number and a photo of me with her (part of a a game) which was cool. Some went back to the first bar, I stayed at this place and then went back to hostel with others. I went out again later tha night out of boredom, couldn't find any decent bars tho. Got looks of death from some american girl who was on here own and I asked if she was ok - I guess they ain't used to gentlemen over there.
The next day I signed on to go to the Adams-Morgan festival, a street deal in an area of DC. I saw some dancing and music of various kinds tho the majority of the stalls were food!! I saw every type of cuisine there except british - the sods. I didn't have anything fancy, chicken on a stick to be precise. After awhile there, headed back to hostel. I wondered what I
Me at the Korean Memorial
Me at the Korean Memorial would do at night, not wanting to spend loads but not wanting to be boring either, some people I had met on the tours said they was going to see the monuments at night so I decided to do that with them. Come the night and not all wanted to do that and had gone drinking so the remainder had decided to go see a film, so I joined them. Went to a bar first, I got free refrills of coke which was sweet and then went to see "3:10 to Yuma" - a western with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe. It was a pretty good film actually, not sure if it ranks with Quick and the Dead but I liked it. although there was a british girl in this group and I had spoken to her at the bar and she had told me how she was single but not looking for anyone or fun or owt like that and if she was ever to go with some1 it would be a relationship and so on etc, so during the film I am sat next to her on one said and an australian guy is sat next to her
on the other - sure enough into the film they are holiding hands and kissing afterwards etc. Moral is, don't believe what girls tell you. I got back to the hostel that night and low and behold the lift wasn't working - so I had to walk up to the 8th floor where my room was, that means 8 flights if not more of stairs.
A brief note on the hostel now. It was pretty crap. The room was reasonable clean and spacious I guess, tho it had 10 beds. There was one working toilet in the mens for the floor and 3 showers, showers which didn't spray out like a normal shower but poured like a tap. The lift which I mentioned earlier took half an hour to show up usually and thats if it was working. Breakfast was a dollar - great, tho no milk for ceral and even when they had stocks of muffins and pastries, if they had run out on the table they did not not restock. The net machines were pretty poor, always not working and the area wasn't as close to places at it said, staff weren't that great tho I did
Reflection pool & monument
The reflection pool and monument from the Lincon memorial steps. get the occasional kindness.
The next day I went out to Arlington Cemetery and saw the graves of JFK and Robert Kennedy etc. Its a really big place and they weren't selling any bottles of water or anything so I didn't explore all of it. I headed back into DC and went to the bar I was at the other night, I asked if they still did free refills because I thought I may have only got free refills the night before because one of our party tried to order beer and they didn't accept his ID. So I ask one of the staff at the front, mentioning I was there last night and he said no but it wasn't until I walked away I realised he thought I meant could I go in and get free drinks coz I had ordered the night before! Dumbass. I then to museums and saw the Smithsonian (small), the natural history and the air and space museum. They were ok, the air and space and a lot of space stuff and after being at the Kennedy Space centre I wasn't so impressed. I walked around Washington as well and saw the FBI
Lincoln
Lincoln - inside the memorial building which was under construction a bit. A point of note here, I didn't to right up to the Capitol building or the Pentagon as you cannot get close to them now so pictures wouldn't be great, technically your not supposed to take pics of the FBI building either but they didn't catch me so I got pics of that. I didn't do much at night, had a walk around and then stayed up till after 3 chatting with some people, couldn't sleep well due to coughing so got up and bought some disgusting fruit drink and M&M's.
The next day was my checking out day so didn't wanna go out too far. I got a bus to Georgetown and saw the Exorcist stairs - the ones where the priest goes flying down at the end? I walked down them and took some pics, they are quite sight. I walked through georgetown which was a nice little area out of the main city. Walked in the rain, must have been the 3rd time that happened to me in DC and then got a cab to the greyhound to get a bus to nashville.
The greyhound station was interesting,
Arlington Cemetery
A hsot of the graves in Arlington some random old woman with a sign on her saying "jesus loves you" blessed me, I over heared some other guy just start talking to this guy for ages about religion and history - he and the old woman had a brief debate. It seems I am gradually finding the more religious USA, a truck had passed me that day with biblical quotes saying how we are all sinners and so on. Also on the bus we passed a lot of churches. Also my bus was at 5:30 at gate 6, I was there well early (before 4pm) and I saw people queuing at gate 6, so I asked one of the staff and he said they were for the 4:30 and I don't queue. So anyway it gets to havfter 5pm and all these people are still there and the queue is massive so I ask one of the staff if my gate is still gate 6 and he said yes and I should have been queuing with them, I point out I was told otherwise and how confusing it is and he won't accept it. I tell you the american service industry is terrible! They are all rude
Eternal Flame
of John F Kennedy and non of them have been teenagers like you see in the sitcoms and movies. Anyway, they created a seperate line for the 5:30 bus so managed to duck in quick.
The bus trip was long, 16 hours or more, transferring in Richmond and layovers in various places. I am in nashville now, quite tired and in a place thats a fair way out of the city but in the country area which is cool. Nearby are a lot of big houses where country stars, rock stars and actors live apparently so I wonder if I will bump into anyone famous.
I will update you all on what Nashville holds when I have explored it more.
take care.
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