Washington DC

With no real plans for the weekend I sent an email on Friday to another friend of a friend who lives in Washington DC to see if I could take up the offer of a visit to DC. The visit was on.

I packed my bag like the intrepid explorer once did and early on Saturday morning I was heading down to the capital. The last time I had taken an Amtrak train was on my round the world trip from New York to Toronto. That journey was 12 hours all in all and at that time I was a travelling novice. I suffered from a distinct lack of entertainment and even water.

This time, I came prepared, I even had an apple.

Three hours later I arrived at Union Station, arguably one of the nicest train stations I have ever been to. Walking outside I could see the domed Capitol where the US Senate and Congress meet, and of course where presidents are inaugurated. I headed straight to the building and even managed to go inside on a free tour!

The weather was really nice for a couple of hours and later I walked all the way to the Washington Monument before heading to the nearby White House. It was pretty amazing to see the actual building after seeing it so many times on the news and in many films.

Later on I caught up with my friend and we headed out to a gig at the 9:30 Club. It’s quite a small but famous venue with Nirvana and others having played there. The music was fantastic and I even came away with a CD of one of the band’s who played. I actually managed to speak to the lead singer afterwards but forgot to get the CD signed... doh!!

Sunday was spent checking out the last of the major sights with a visit to the National Gallery of Art before heading back to New York.

All in all, it was a spontaneously great weekend.