Roadtrip - Onto the nations capital
Trip Start
Jan 18, 2006
1
49
100
Trip End
Dec 2006
Washington DC, United States
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Our good mood didn't last long and I was huffing a puffing whilst trying to navigate the nightmarish one way system, that I believe is in operation specifically to annoy the crap out of me!
Finally we managed to make it to our hostel, that after spending a great deal of time driving round the one ways and seeing where we wanted to go, without actually being able to get there.
Illegally parked, but not caring if we did get "towed" we checked in and after dropping off our stuff, we headed to the airport to drop our car off
Washington DC II
.It was on the way back that we met Louis, a friendly Brazillian bloke that we helped when he was clearly lost and spoke good, but hard to understand English.
After talking to Louis, it turned out that he was headed to the same hostel to us, so we parted with our newly acquired map and sent him on the right path. We could have let him tag along with us, but Lynsey wanted to head to the Pentagon... in search of military knowledge you may ask...? Not likely!! Lynsey was going shopping to the giant Pentagon Mall!!
On our first few days in Washington DC, we did the usual touristy thing and wandered around in the blistering head, drinking bottle after bottle of water as we took in the sights in the "Federal Triangle". We stuck our heads through the railings at the White House and then found out that to get a tour we needed a background check... B*&%#@*s to that!!
Instead we rounded the day off with Southern-Style Ribs and unlimited Sodas!... come on dudes... like... get in with the... like... lingo! Alright!
Washington DC I
! (finished off with stupid clapping!)So a quick few days in Washington and Lynsey was off home, she has written her blog on that, while I was alone!
Well actually not completely alone if I am honest... after all the World Cup is getting into full swing and I have a new gang that hangs out watching the football... er Soccer... well whatever... the crappy commentators on ESPN make a hash of the coverage anyway, its all... "that was a great play!" and "he's a real soccer-super-star in the London Premeeership" (spelt like it sounds!)
Anyway the gang is made up of: me, Louis (you guessed it, he ended up in our room!), two Swedish Trainee-Doctors, Three other Brits who are all avid Championship Manager fans (a computer game for those not in the know!) and lastly a ten year old lad called Ryan who gives his dopey old man the slip to watch football and stay up late playing poker!
My freedom in Washington has been great, its not been all football and card playing... I have managed to fit in some exploration of this fantastic city. The list of sights that I managed to see took much wandering to achieve and so I earned my lounging time in front of the TV!
The sights began with the memorials including Lincoln, Jefferson, WWI & WWII and the Korean War. Then it was onto the Washinton Monument and Arlington Cemetary, where JFK is buried along with over 225,000 military personnel, the graves are a staggering sight.
Later in my itenary came the museums and the Smithsonian... boy do the Americans love museums!! I am just waiting to see the museum dedicated to the history of doughnuts!!
So it was the American History museum where I was bored to death, but the museum of Natural History was superb and answered a few questions as to why the museum of the same name was so short on exhibits in Santiago... they had made their way from South America to here!
A particular highlight was the holocaust museum, which was superb and really got to grips with what is a tragic subject. One slight annoyance that I felt as a non-American was that the story of WWII was very Americanised... that is edited for the American public. When Britain and the rest of the Allies were mentioned, it was as if we were janitors assisting the superior American army on their quest against the Nazis... didn't like that, but aside from the slant of the storytelling the exhibit was very moving.
So my time was really great; England's 2-2 draw against Sweden meant that I didn't lose my two poker buddies and both nations were through to (as the Americans put it) "The Round of 16"!
Our shocking display against Ecuador made me restless and looking forward to Lynsey coming back, I chilled out on the last day playing hide and seek with Ryan... well he hid at least, while I played cards for an hour with the Swedes!! Hope everyone is well.... Come on England!!
