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| THE WHITE HOUSE |
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| JFK'S GRAVE |
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| EINSTEIN MEMORIAL |
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| THE U.S. CAPITOL |
My four and a half hour journey on the MegaBus from New York to Washington D.C. was fairly dull. I might have considered striking up a conversation with the rather large lady sitting next to me, but she spent most of the time gabbing into the mobile phone stuck to her ear and the rest of the time playing games on it (the phone, that is). I was concerned that if the battery went flat I might have to witness her 'cold turkey', but the provision of power outlets on the bus spared me this.
The most interesting part of the journey was crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which actually comprises two huge, identical, parallel suspension bridges, one carrying traffic in each direction.
When I stepped out of Union Station in D.C. (used for both buses and trains) the sun was so hot I could have been in Egypt. Beggars by the exit extended the similarity further. I had heard there was quite a bit of vagrancy in D.C. Whilst I didn't give them money, I did share my food.
Washington is a complete contrast to New York as the streets are wide and the buildings low, making it light and open. It is also very clean. Central Washington essentially comprises the huge National Mall which extends from the U.S. Capitol (sort of equivalent to our Houses of Parliament) to the Lincoln Memorial and is filled with monuments and museums. The White House is to the north side of The Mall facing the Washington Memorial. Beyond the Lincoln Memorial, on the other side of the Potomac River, are Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon.
Over my 3-day stay I visited all of these places, and many more besides. I saw the Watergate Complex, the U.S. Marine Corps (Iwo Jima) Memorial, JFK's grave and the place where the aircraft was flown into the Pentagon on 9/11. I saw the Thomas Jefferson, FDR, Martin Luther King, Einstein, and various war Memorials. Of the many museums I could have visited, I chose the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and the American Indian Museum. With regard to the later, there was no attempt to deny how badly the Native American people had been treated in the past. What I hadn't realised was that we Europeans managed to wipe out around 90% of the indigenous population by bringing across our nasty virulent diseases with us, for which they had no immunity. A bit like War of the Worlds in reverse.
Visiting all these places involved lots of walking in the heat, but my Hostel provided a good breakfast to start the day and a great place to relax and socialise in the evenings. I met some interesting people from all four corners of the globe, clearly proving that the world is flat after all.
