The city holding the history of a nation, and knowledge for generations.
Captains Log Day 8 – 12/12/14 11:53pm. United Airways
Its a very unpleasant sensation to wake up with a pool of saliva on your chest. I wake up from my comatose like state and start to piece together the events of the last 4 days, hoping that the innocent couple sitting next to me on this flight have not realised the salivated lake which had formed on my chest or the deafening snoring going on for the last 2 hours…
A combination of events had contributed to this unconscious state, a result of our adventures in the nations capital Washington DC.
Yes we had landed, we had finally made it on to US soil! Our adventure till now with Iceland and Amsterdam were a mere distant memory compared to what lay ahead. Land of the Free.
Wing Commander and I took no time to leave the airport, to make our way to our accommodation which lay in the central part of Washington DC – the only issue was that we had landed in the ‘other airport’. Which meant our US journey had to start with a bus ride, a train ride and then a 30 minute walk. Taking about 2 hours to check in to our hotel room – which was the size a closet.
A thing worth mentioning and in the nature of the randomness of this log as we walked to our hotel room we crossed an african american guy sitting on the side of a window sill with a large amount of smoke coming from him. Thinking that he is probably smoking some medicinal stuff we dismissed it. As we walked closer the fragrance was amazing.. it smelt like Incense. Confused both of us looked at each other. We approached closer with the smell of incense even more distinct. We were right this dizzy pirate had a handful of burning incense in his hand. Still confused and not sure of why we continued to walk past him. Any ideas?
Despite being 11pm when we arrived both Wing Commander and I were keen and ready to explore the Presidential City. Dropping off our bags and rugging up (it was freezing) we headed off to town, our bellies hungry for food and our eyes hungry to see the landmarks we had all grown up seeing. Walking around the first thing we noticed was the lack of people, the place had massive roads, large buildings but… no people, i mean i know it was 11pm and a Tuesday night, however we just expected a barrage of people walking around. What we did see however on our little exploratory walk was a stack of homeless people, there were some at every corner of every street. Sleeping outside in the freezing cold, coming over to ask for change, singing, doing some pretty crazy things. In our 3 hour walk i think my wing commander and I had spotted at least 30 homeless people. A good drinking game – spot the Bum have a shot! However as well as the large number of Bums on the streets we also noticed a large number of police cars and patrols going on, with one police car on every second block. At this point i realised my drinking game would not be too practical.
Hunger won the Game and we decided that it would be better to grab some food before we went for some midnight landmark exploration. We walked around the deserted streets looking and hoping that something was open, block after block being confronted by closed restaurants and take-away shops. Giving up hope we went to a police officer and asked if something was open around us, he replied “Nope – the only thing open is McDonalds 5 blocks down in china town”. With Great reluctance both of us accepted our fates and decided this was the only option if we wanted some sustenance. We got to McDonalds only to find a heap of shady characters – african americans, scary looking guys, arguing, and sitting inside, listening to music on the phones. The place looked like something out of a movie, I was waiting for a drive-by shooting any second. The place was like the Flinders Street station Maccers at 2 am on a weeknight, on steroids. We ordered our food and since it was so cold outside decided to sit inside and eat, with the knowledge that this could be a bad idea. We ate fast, but not fast enough for my wing commander to start getting a death stare from one of distinguished patrons in the establishment. Scared and like mice we escaped and thanked our stars that there were no puncture wounds on us.
The Washington Monument was the first landmark our night time route. As we approached the structure we could start to comprehend the massive size of this thing. it was big. It felt like a towering skyscraper overlooking the city. The sheer size of this structure was overwhelming and despite all the cold weather both of us just stood and stared at it. A realisation sunk in – We had Made it to AMERICA! A hug and a selfie later we started walking to Barrack’s Crib, hoping to see the white house lit up in the night backdrop. Walking over we struggled to see it. We walked around tempted to go over a small barricaded area, at which point we saw a police officer and we went over to him. He advised that the white house lights turn off at 11pm and that if we had entered the area which we were heading we would have gotten arrested. He said at this time we could of over to the back of the building and take a photo, although it would be dark. A few snaps later we decided surviving a mugging, a bashing and being arrested was enough for one night and it was time to call it a night arriving at our hotel room and sleeping by 4am.
9am our alarm went off. Wing Commander and i got prepared, our second day in America had begun and boy did we have a heap to do.
Firstly we needed some food, it was our day to experience Fast Food in America – so using urban spoon found our fast food chain Popeye’s Chicken and biscuit. A very random fried chicken chain. When in Rome – Fried Chicken. It was and a heap of it. The captain was feeling sick after having it, although this did not stop him from grabbing Spiced Pumpkin Latte. I was surprised at how good it was!
We rushed off to the Capitol Building only to find it was shut for the day for a special function and we would have to return the next day for the tour. Getting some advise from the tour guide we headed firstly to the National Library of Congress – Classified as the most beautiful building in the United States in the inside, it did not fail to impress. The renaissance design and architecture was like something you would find in an art gallery in Italy or France. Home to objects like one of the oldest Koran in the world, as well as some of the first printed bibles and the Magna Carter, this place was a page our of history at every corner. After a guided tour of the building we ducked off to the botanical Gardens to view the sculptures and the model train exhibition, ensuring that we had taken our hay fever tablets for this, the gardens were exquisite with fauna from around the world.
The next on the list was one of the things i had personally looked forward to the most. The National Air and Space Museum. Home to revolutionary items such as the actual Apollo 11 command shuttle, replicas of the Curiosity Rover, the Apollo Moon lander and the Actual Wright brothers plane (the first plane ever take successful flight). Spending over an hour we were eventually hunted down by museum security and asked to leave at closing time. Exhausted and our legs like Jelly the next part of our walk made us forget the aching feet and just feel overwhelmed. We visited Lincoln Memorial, (a giant Abe Lincoln on a chair looking over Washington) followed by Martin Luther King Jnr, Roosevelt and finally Jefferson Memorial. All of these were an amazing experience, we learned about history and got absorbed by the greatness of each of these men.
The Second day was continuing when we decided to take an Uber and head to Georgetown where our Noob hotel concierge had told us we could buy our santa costume for Santa Con. Georgetown was an upper market area with boutique shops and defiantly no santa costumes. We then took another Uber to Walmart unfortunately and to our surprise they did not stock any. disappointed we just walked around Walmart to absorb the superstore – i wanted to go buy a gun, just because i could. Finally we reached back to the hotel, had a bit of a nap and went for dinner to an establishment that had a bookshop and a restaurant attached to it. A very funky place where both wing commander and I ate and then headed home.
The last day of our Washington visit dawned. Our bodies aching we headed back into the museum district, first up the Capitol building. The landmark that everyone visions to be the white house – The first image i personally thought of when i thought of Washington – the Capitol building is the parliament of the country. We made it on time and were able to do a tour. Spectacular.
We then went to the National Archives and were able to see the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, I was figuring out how I could steal any one of these documents. as time was slipping away we headed to our last museum – The museum of Natural History. This place much like the Air and Space museum was mind boggling – Giant wales, Animals from around the world, Dinosaurs, Mummies, this place would be a wonderland for anyone. We strolled around and in the fastest way possible took some photos and absorbed some information. We had to leave as we had to go see do a tour of the Washington Monument – rushing we got to the ticket office to find the tours for the day had been sold out 🙁 disappointed we headed towards the Whitehouse to see if we could get some photos of it from the front. This was a successful mission with no one being arrested. Win.
Bodies battered we had completed our Washington exploration, realising we had only scratched the surface, we would need to return in order to cover all the landmarks with detail.
Dad had advised that his colleague was in Washington and we had to visit his bar/ restaurant so after the Whitehouse we decided to head there for dinner. The issue is that we never made it to Dinner. This uncle was extremely hospitable, too much so serving beer after beer. The captains ship was sinking. Extremely intoxicated we left the restaurant. Stumbling to our hotel room. The captain engaged in some shenanigans along the way, which included stealing a pumpkin off someones doorstep and smashing it on the floor, as well as painting the sidewalk 3 times with his recent half digested dinner. Reaching the bed it was time to pass-out. our flight was scheduled for 6am – the alarm set for 4am we had to get some sleep before our 6 hour journey to San Fran. Who had known hangover to follow would be painful.
Washington: The city holding the history of a nation, and knowledge for generations.
