Hello everyone from Washington, D.C.!
This morning I somehow managed to not wake up the Russian guy in my dorm and left at 5.30am. You know your hostel sucks when you wake at 5 and your first thought is "yay I'm awake at 5am!" Glad to be out of there.
I got the subway to 30th Street Station. Unfortunately Amtrak delays were at it again and we were held up by 40 minutes, but at least there were announcements this time. I lifted my 20kg case up onto shelf inside the train and my back started to hurt again, but I guess I can't complain as it's behaved itself pretty well so far!!
The two hour journey passed fairly quickly and I enjoyed a pretty sunrise and went through Baltimore whilst listening to the 'Hairspray' soundtrack on my iPod.
I got to Union Station in Washington and my friend Maria was waiting for me with a big hug! We met in South America nearly two years ago when she was my roommate on the third leg of my tour. She's an amazing, bubbly and kind person. I'm so happy to see her!!
We stored my luggage at the left luggage and hot footed it over to the Capitol Building for our 10am tour.
The original Capitol building partially burnt down during the war of 1812. In 1814, the English invaded Washington and burned certain parts of the building. It was rebuilt during the civil war, and despite the war the workers kept building. Congress meets here, and congress is split into two branches; the senate and the house of reps. The Supreme Court was also in this building for 100 or so years, but they've now moved over the road to their own building.
Our guide was hilarious and took us through five rooms. She said this is the quiet time of year but in spring when it's busy due to the cherry blossom season they get about five times as many as they would today! As a result we were able to see five rooms instead of the three that people in spring see. There were lots of beautiful statues of notable people as well. I loved the murals and decorative ceilings.
We got to see the interior of the famous dome which was beautiful, as well as the old Supreme Court area, the old senate, the old house of reps and a couple of other areas. The dome is 153 years old and apparently the colour it is painted is actually called "Capitol Building White".
Washington laid the cornerstone in 1793 but died in 1799 so didn't see its completion. It's kind of ironic too because a lot of slaves helped to build the building that was seen as a symbol of freedom.
After the tour we went into the current chamber for the house of reps. It was beautiful and I recognised it off TV. But no phones or cameras allowed!
We walked through an underground tunnel to the Library of Congress. Its ceiling was beautiful! We had a quick look at an exhibition about 'Books That Shaped America' (there was a copy of Thomas Paine's 'Common Sense'!) and then at Thomas Jefferson's rare book collection.
Afterwards, we went and got my bag and caught the metro to Maria and her boyfriend Eric's place, three stops out of the city. It's such a lovely apartment and I already feel so welcome. It's so great to see Maria again!
We had Chipotle for lunch, which is a Mexican chain that make yummy bowls with rice and salad. It was delish!! Today is the first day I've been properly hungry for a while so that was exciting.
We caught the train back in and then hit up all the monuments. The National Mall was set up as public land and has been used at various points to set up different memorials for wars and specific individuals of national importance. At the moment, due to Trump being inaugurated next week, a lot of seating, portable toilets and stages are being set up. It's all happening and I'm really glad I won't be here on the actual day. Everything is going to be closed!
We started off at the Washington Monument, the tall obelisk. Then we went to the World War II monument which was opened in 2004. WWII saw the second most Americans killed in a war (450,000) after only the civil war (620,000).
Then we saw the Vietnam War Memorial and continued on to the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately it seems Trump is already trying to ruin things, stages for the inauguration have been set up covering the steps. Never mind! The sculpture of Lincoln was huge, I stood for a while and just took it all in. It was really impressive. He looked serious but welcoming at the same time. It was also interesting reading the words by him on other sides of the complex both at the start of and during the civil war. He really wanted to spur the country on and inspire them to stay unified despite the civil war, which they did.
We then went to a small exhibition underneath the monument. It was at this very monument's steps that Martin Luther King Junior made his 'I have a dream' speech on August 28th 1963 and we saw photos of this and various other events that happened on the steps of the memorial. Construction started in 1914 and was finished nine years later. The Piccirilli brothers of New York took a year to carve the sculpture of Lincoln out of 28 blocks of Georgia marble. They wanted to reflect the president humanitarian/preserver of the union as well as showing the burdens of war reflected in his rugged features. I think they did a great job.
After taking in the Lincoln memorial, we then went to the Korean War memorial and then on up the Martin Luther King Junior memorial. Then we went to the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial and a lot of the quotes we read there about accepting people of different backgrounds and freedoms completely contradicted what is going on here at the moment.
Our last stop was the ginormous Thomas Jefferson memorial built under the command of Franklin D Roosevelt in 1939. It was a bit out of the way so I don't think as many people go there, but we did! It was getting cold by this point but we persevered. Maria said this area is crazy packed especially in spring.
We caught the metro back to Maria's apartment and I met her boyfriend Eric who seems really lovely. We chilled out and watched some TV and then went to 'Shake Shack' to have burgers for a late dinner. We watched part of Obama's last speech live from Chicago. It made me feel like crying, scary times ahead.
I've had a fantastic day and I'm looking forward to another one tomorrow!!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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