I wrote few requests for couchsurfing and got a positive answer. The trip was planed! I had a bus ticket for 12th afternoon from NYC to DC and a return ticket for 14th overnight to NYC and then straight to Toronto.
Because of bad time management when going to the airport with my friends I missed my bus to DC by 15 mins. A little panic came to me :) But everything worked well and I could take another one and I arrived to DC in the evening. I took a metro to Alexandria, a city in Virginia, connected by metro system to DC. It was where Katlyn, my host, was living and where I met other couchsurfers Aaron and Tarn. Aaron was on his 2-mounts way from Mexico and around USA, amazing journey :) Tarn was a Thai girl studying in northern USA. Together we went to an Irish bar that evening and I again realized that going to a bar without a passport is not a good idea here :D They are ridiculously strict in following the stupid age restriction and even if you evidently look older you still need to prove it. Finally the waitress (after consulting my ID and a driving licence with bar manager) agreed to give me my Guinness :)
The day after we made a city tour with Tarn, seeing almost all monuments and important buildings, which you may find on my pictures. White House was not so magnificent as I expected. All the attractions were surrounded by countless tourists. We were walking along the whole Mall with Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, National WWII monument, museum buildings and Capitol dominating the east side. The day was finished in China Town and by meeting Aaron. At home we bought some food, cooked delicious pasta and finally were interviewed about our couchsurfing experiences by Kathlyn for her intended documentary.
On Friday we planned to visit Capitol. At the entrance I found a long list with prohibited items to carry in. No food, no water, etc. Ridiculous is that there is no place to store it! No lockers, no left luggage room. If you've got any of it, you have either to throw it away or forget about the visit. I tried to eat all my sandwiches I'd prepared for a lunch, but I couldn't. My attempt to smuggle one inside was disclosed and I was forced to trash it and undergo again the degrading scanner check in :D I found all this reasonless later when I saw the loooong queue for tickets, so I left Capitol (sandwichless and pissed off) and ratter went to see Smithsonian Museums. They are all for free, which is amazing! I visited National Gallery of Art and National Air and Space Museum. Both were fantastic, I think more worthy than to wait for Capitol. BTW Museums are the only place where left luggage room exists in whole DC! (Unfortunately they close at 5pm).
Then I returned home, met with the others, packed my stuff and then we went clubbing to the centre. At midnight I was leaving to New York, there changed to another bus and headed towards north and Toronto!
My observations from Washington:
- I haven't seen more policemen at one place then in DC (in a normal ordinary day)
- Taken out museums (which are open only between 9-17) there are absolutely no lockers in the whole city! What poor travellers should do?! All because of insane "security" reasons.
- Everything looks very new and arranged for a good image.
- Very nice modern metro, ticket price depending on your destination and a daytime (peak, off-peak)
- No grocery stores in the centre! No place to buy food or drink. Where working ppl shop???
- Everything is very precisely explained (better more times and with pictures) that even a brainless person should understand what he is supposed to do and what not.
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