Memorials, Museums and the Metro in Washington, District of Columbia

---

Tuesday 20 - Thursday 22 May 2008

Looking back, our arrival into Washington DC seems pretty funny, however, at the time it was anything but. We were pretty tired after an overnight 17 hour bus journey from Toronto, it was cold, raining and our backpacks were getting heavier and heavier by the minute (mine has gained 5kg since departure from Sydney).

We decided to head to our hotel to drop off our bags and managed to find the closest train station. After finding the metro (we had to ask for directions even once we were inside the building) and buying tickets (which took us about 10 minutes to figure out) we squeezed ourselves into a busy commuter train. The keyword in the last sentence is 'squeezed' because Sean's backpack actually caught in the automatic doors, which meant he wasn't able to move. I managed to pull it out after the first three stops and from there things started to look up. We found the free shuttle bus to our hotel and were there before 8am and, despite the 3pm check-in, the guy said a room was ready and checked us in straight away ('because you are from Australia'). After that bus journey, I couldn't imagine anything better than a hot shower and comfy bed and I was so, so happy.

By afternoon, the weather had cleared up and we spent the next couple of days wandering around the 'Mall' section of DC, popping in and out of Museums and checking out nearby buildings and memorials. We spent a couple of hours at the Smithosonian National Museum of Natural History, checking out the dinosaurs and the spectacular jewellery and crystals in the gem section, and Sean's highlight was our visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We only had two hours in the museum before closing time and Sean was on a serious mission to see all things space. The best exhibit was at the entrance and showed the Command Modules for the spacecraft: Mercury (1st American man in space), Gemini (2nd American manned space craft) and Apollo (the moon). There was also a good section on the universe, but it made me realise that I really should have paid more attention at Uni.

We also walked around the Washington Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool, the White House and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The whole time we were walking around, I couldn't stop thinking about all the American movies and tv shows based around DC (West Wing, Forrest Gump etc).

One of the highlights was catching up with Admiral Gates and Alison, who have been posted to DC for the last four years. We had a great lunch and got to see the beautiful streets lined with all the Embassies.

Our departure from Washington DC was surprisingly smooth, as we found a bus company (Vamoose) that ran direct from Arlington to New York City for $25 on Thursday morning. Once again, we were thinking that it would've been nice to spend another couple of days in DC. It reminded us of Canberra and the whole place was so green and beautiful and very, very clean.

---