Washington DC

My first visit outside New York City was to Washington DC. On Saturday morning at 7.00 am caught a bus from China Town for DC and paid a small sum of $35 (with return) for the journey.

Touched DC around 11ish, which wasn’t that bad considering that I still had most of the day left. The weather wasn’t that hot as it had been in NYC, so it was a welcome change since I am not that fond of summer (after all I am a December born). The hotel was just couple of blocks away from where the bus dropped us off, which was another good thing as it saved the time and money to-and-fro hotel transfer. After checking in our bags, I and my best friend set off to explore the Capitol city.

National Gallery Of Art

Walking from the hotel to the Capitol Building (about 20 minutes) was in many ways like strolling thru some big production movie set. I mean everything was placed where it was meant to be, nothing seemed even a wee-bit off its place or out of proportion. Cleanliness was the key-word here; it felt as if even your shadow was shinning on the spanking DC surface. Our first stop on the way to the Capitol Building was the National Gallery of Art. Now even if you are not an arty fan this place is still worth a visit. Amazing abstract and contemporary paintings, sculptures as well as some really cool vintage movies. Also they have a real good cafeteria at the bottom of the gallery with a variety of fast food, not too expensive either - paid $10.00 for a pizza slice, couple of chicken nuggets and a mug of Lemonade.

After filling myself with my daily intake of Junk Food, we headed towards to the Capitol Building to give a big ‘Hey Ya Asshole’ kind-da shout out from my friends back home for Mr. Bush. It took us about 10 minutes and on the way also got to see Harley Davidson bike stunts performed by some local cops, pretty neat stuff there. Sadly, once we reached Capitol Building we were informed the Bushy baba was out to Texas for his dose of “quality” time with his family and dogs. Now, come on cut the guy some slack after all it does take bucket loads of energy to wage war against any and everyone who doesn’t agree with your philosophy of world domination.

National Air & Space Museum

Anyways after couple of poses at the Capitol Building we headed towards the National Air and Space Museum. Now the best bit I thought was that visitors don’t have to pay a dime to checkout any of the Museums and Memorials here. But you need to organize your time well in order to incorporate most of the stuff plus the extra time it takes to go thru stringent security checks at each of the entry points. Here we did the Aero-Space ride ($15 for two), Infinity Express at the Albert Einstein Planetarium ($15 for two) plus some of the world war aircrafts and early aviation displays.

Around 6ish we headed back to the hotel for some resting time and freshing up business for the night. This time joining us was a Desi-DC blogger, Mitesh who was sweet enough to come over to meet us. Spent the evening at George Town (10 minutes by taxi from DC) walked along the waterfront area being a weekend the place was buzzed up with life. It sort off reminded me of Sydney North Shore side; variety of restaurants, expensive boutiques and really sexy looking people walking about.

Had finger-licking delicious Thai food at Bangkok Joe’s and for dessert we walked over to Dolcezza cafe for some ice-cream; me hogged on Dutch Chocolate. And that was it for the first night.

The next day, we checked out early in the morning but left our bags at the hotel; which is a good thing since we have to take the bus in the evening back for NYC. This time round we headed towards the Memorials. Checked out the big pencil aka Washington Monument (tickets for checking it from the inside were sold off, always book them in advance), then we walked thru the greenery passage for the Lincoln Memorial.

War Memorial

But the most astounding sight was at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; the granite walls with all the dead soldier’s names on it could be a bit daunting but its simplicity takes over in no time. In some ways the whole Spirit of Freedom is absorbed by you and can’t help but imagine yourself in their place. Some folks mourning on reading their dear ones name on the black wall, some smiling with pride and some simply posing for snaps with shiny marble wall; the place is just mixed with various emotions.

Then we headed towards the World War II. Once done with the memorials we again went on to check out some of the popular museums; The Natural History Museum and The Holocaust Museum. I preferred the latter one; the first one is just perfect for the kids.

Finally at 5.00 pm we caught the bus back for NYC. The seats we got were bang opposite the toilet, so I would this was the only stinking bit in the two days in Washington Dc.

Overall a pretty good touristy city, easy on the pocket and above all loads of stuff to see and enjoy.

Some more snaps from the trip…