G'Day America
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G'Day America |
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God it's early 3:30 in the morning but our train had been delayed for 1 1/2 hours. Thanked Andrew once again for his family's hospitality and said goodnight to him. Finally the train arrived and we jumped aboard this totally luxurious train. Even in the coach class in this super-liner I had difficulty reaching the seat in front of me with my feet. Both Andrew and I received 2 seats of our own and set about getting some sleep. Awoke around 9am in the morning and we were traveling through Pennsylvania somewhere in the south of that state, great country side and followed a river pretty much all the way into Washington. My realisation here was that Washington DC is a very small state like our ACT only the whole of the state is pretty much chockers with people. Checked into our hostel with our heavy packs on our backs and went out to see what we could find in this city, mainly we were trying to find the white house. We found what looked like a mall but after paying $20 after entry we got to see our first ice-hockey game of Washington Capitols verses Atlanta Thrashers. Score being 3 - 0 with most of the action in the last period, but an alright game none the less.
Well today after waking up a fair bit more refreshed we checked out a map and finally found the Whitehouse, only when we got there we found that our anticipation that the weather was going to be warmer, it wasn't and spent most of the day rushing between places to trap their warmth in our bodies. Most of the day was spent in the huge Space and aeronautical museum, this place was indeed amazing with real planes such as the one which broke the sound barrier first and the Wright bros. plane. All on video with some pics taken too. A quick walk up to Capitol Hill (what the hell is that with that stupid spelling of capital with an o but anyway.) That was all the day light we had for the day so we found our way to Union station for dinner. We found there was a movie theatre here so we got tickets to see Toystory 2 and had dinner while we waited for it to started. We finished dinner early so we decided to head in and actually snuck into the Galaxy Quest which made no sense to us since it was the last 1/2 hour but did look funny. We then moved to our movie and laughed our selves silly, especially with the out takes at the end, truly worth staying for.
Found the Martin Luther King Library and checked our mail. We spent more time waiting for a terminal to become available than we did online. The FBI tour at the J. Edgar Hoover building is over sensationalised and aimed at school children with the only point of interest right at the end with the live round of shooting demonstration by an agent. We proceeded to the National Gallery of Art where they hold some of the best works in the world I'm sure, in the modern art I found some of the same artist work I saw in Cleveland. The night back at the Hostel we met up with an Aussie and a Zimbabwean and went in search of a good cheap bar with them. We found one and had a few warm beers from on tap ( last time I do that I can tell you) and a good meal returning around 1am.
Once again we embarked on travel to the Library to check mail, butters actually finding time on a computer to put in a few replies. This morning was a nice day hence we decided to go to Arlington Cemetery first, not just used as a military burial ground although the thousands of white tombstones is freakishly creepy and sad. Here we saw JFK's grave site and other Kennedys, the Tomb of the unknown soldiers and the changing of the guard. We then caught the subway back to the Mall district, A.k.a. Smithsonian museums. Particularly the National Natural History museum. This place was mostly a passing through the ages from prehistoric to now and also showing native American cultures. For afternoon snack we went to a fast food restaurant called Popeye's which served Cajon food. Returning after this interesting taste to the hostel to pack and then returning to the bar we previously went to during the happy hours which meant everything was a 1/3 of the price and a couple of games of pool, the bigger pockets of the American tables do make it a heck of a lot easier.
Our last day in Washington DC, we did the quick guide tour of the white house and found all the rooms we toured through were also used by the president later in the day as the tour hours were only open for 4 hours a day. Checked out of the hostel and moved to the station where we found our train was once again delayed to our dismay and this time it was 2 hours late. This train was however not as good as the last when it did arrive and was jam packed so no seating luxury. I slept almost all the way and positioned myself so I was bunched up on the seat into a ball so that I was able to lie with my head flat and comfortable.
