The final thrilling installment of my exciting North America trip
So finally I went to the capital of the USA, Washington DC. This involved taking the Chinatown bus, which is very cheap and often for a good reason. I'd heard about breakdowns and buses going missing, but was still surprised when, fifteen minutes after the bus should have turned up, this woman who'd been on a phone told us we had to get on a random passing minibus, which took us through the Lincoln tunnel to Union City, New Jersey, where we had to wait another half hour for our proper bus to collect us. Apparently it was quicker than waiting in the original location on 8th Ave, midtown Manhattan, and she turned out to be the bus company ticket lady. After that it was ok; bus was quite empty and as usual overly air conditioned, but the roads in New Jersey were shockingly bumpy.
Arriving in Washington I was collected by George in his car, who was accompanied by his friend Brian, who he was taking home after staying with him the previous night. Brian lives in suburbs in Virginia, just outside of DC, so I got my only experience of The South. It looked pretty southern and the crickets were loud, also at Brian's house there were the skeletons of negroes hanging from a strange twisty tree. Then we went east to Maryland, on the other side of DC, which is officially The North. George lives in a big basement apartment under his parents' house and it was clean and not too posh. In this suburb I got a real example of the most striking aspect of American suburbia: there are no pavements and even if you wanted to walk somewhere it's miles to the nearest shop.
Later than I would have liked, after putting clothes in the washing machine and George helping his dad with his computer, he finally gave me a lift to the end of the subway line (back in Virginia actually) and I went into DC for some late afternoon/early evening touristing. First I looked at the Capitol building, visible for miles around, then went down the Mall and came to the Washington monument, the thirteen storey obelisk which dominates the skyline (especially as no building in town may be higher, so DC has no skyscrapers). Then I went sideways for a quick look at the Whitehouse, before back to the Mall, where I saw the impressive World War II monument, then up past the Pool of Reflection to the Lincoln monument, which seemed a little excessive (arguably typical of what countries without monarchies or very long histories get up to when trying to show off). Also caught the small, dark Vietnam monument, with its tens of thousands of names, and then back up to the Whitehouse. (On a map further away I saw there was a German-American Friendship garden nearby and i just so happened I had my Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft t-shirt on, which would have made an ace photo, but alas, I couldn't find it).
After this I walked to Chinatown, which was the smallest of the many Chinatowns I had seen on my trip, and ate Thai food alone, before George and Kate came to get me for evening drinking. First we went to the Capital Brewing Co brewpub, where we drank some kind of coffee stout and a special lager, then out to the Atlas (I think) neighbourhood, where we went to this semi-private pub called Whiskey Ladies, or something odd, where George and Kate awarded their friend Mark, who co-owns the place, with a mixed box of Québecois beers from their recent trip there. He shared a few with us as well as full pints from the bar's interesting selection, and then the four of us ended up in a similar bar, called Johnny Valentino's or something, where we drank more and became drunk.
Tuesday we got up much later than hoped for and so Hardcore Museum Day was somewhat compromised. Kate drove me to the subway, but got lost on the way, and then we were further delayed when I had to go down a whole line of taxis to get change for the ticket machine. Finally we got in town at 3:30pm, when most museums close at 5:30! Luckily, the Smithsonian museums (the free ones) are all near to each other on either side of the Mall. First we went to the Hirschorn museum, small and round and full of exciting modern art. Half was closed so it didn't take too long, but I saw some great small abstract sculptures and some more fine abstract expressionist paintings from the last 60 years or so. Then we nipped into the Air and Space museum, which had very heavy security, and marvelled at some very important planes and spaceships (or fragments thereof), including the actual Apollo 11 moon landing module. Then we decided to ditch the Native American museum and spent our last 40 minutes in the Natural History museum, where we enjoyed dinosaurs, whales and other exciting skeletons and stuffings. Then, a few blocks up from the Mall, we went to the museum of American art and portrait gallery, which closes at 7pm, and I enjoyed some modern art there and was a bit bored by older stuff, and ignored most of the portraits.
On the way back Kate got lost again (she's only lived in Maryland a couple of months) and I fell asleep in the car. After some small dinner we got out for a last evening, first taking a quick walk around Georgetown, a quite scenic old part of Washington with 200 year old brick buildings which are mostly full of yuppy shops. Then to a different area where we had a few drinks at the Pharmacy bar and played a horrible video game where you have to shoot wildebeasts. Finally I enjoyed my last proper meal of the trip at the Amsterdam Falafel house, where they give you just falafel and bread and you add your own toppings, and also serve proper Dutch frites.
Return journey was ok; got to the bus in time and did some sleeping on the way back, apart from the bumpy roads. But I worked out I'd booked a far too early bus, as I'd thought my flight was 19:40, not 9:40pm, and even then had booked extra early to be on the safe side. So I decided I'd put my bag in a locker and have four hours or so extra touristing in Manhattan, but it was not to be. Bus station had no lockers, then seven blocks down Penn Station only let holders of train tickets use theirs. An info man gave me a leaflet about a private luggage place but it was ten dollars when I got there, so I dragged my bag around some shops (I did buy a pair of sneakers) and then sat in a pub for a bit, which had a great beer menu, but was very expensive. Got to airport early, did some reading, flight was on time and ok, except for stupid Aer Lingus not bringing enough veg meals. Then Dublin was cold, wait was quite long, but slept the whole 45 minutes to Manchester, got train to Bolton just fine and my dad picked me up, end of trip.
In summary, I had a really good time and if the worst things which happen are getting your jacket stolen and missing out on staying with two of your main friends you were visiting, then it must be quite good all round. The big surprise was how unsurprising it all was: with so many American films and TV shows, plus UK travel programmes and documentaries focusing on North America so often, it all looks very familiar. There were many small surprises, the biggest and most pleasing of which was the easy availability of really good beer (from my beer books I thought you'd have to go to special pubs). Americans should stop whining about how expensive Britain is, especially if they've only been to London; I did not find things especially cheap there, only a bit lower than UK, and the annoying habits of adding tax on the stated price and expecting tips all over the show knocks costs up (also museums are expensive). I don't think my opinions of the US changed much; maybe I respect Americans more now, but anything I slagged them off about before as a group are things that the individuals I met there would also criticise. I liked San Francisco and Montréal best as expected, enjoyed New York but really need more time, was a little disappointed with Vancouver, and found LA maybe slightly less irritating than I thought and had a very good start to my trip there. The end.