Washington D.C.

Hey hey!

Well this post has certainly taken a while to get together! I’ve been so busy with all my 12 hour days of adventuring that I’ve barely had any time to chill out, let alone get anything done. But alas, here we are. Stop number three on this little adventure of mum’s and mine was Washington D.C.! Our trip was short yet enjoyable, despite D.C. being quiet and empty, but nonetheless some must-see sights were ticked off and new things were learned.

Friday 20 December

Our flight took off from Chicago O’Hare around 12:30pm, and the journey to Washington Reagan was only about an hour and a half, but we moved a time zone ahead so lost an extra hour, making our arrival around 3pm. I was sat next to an old lady on the plane who kind of reminded me of Nan, and we chatted a little as she was intrigued about my college experience and travels. Unfortunately my ears have been blocking up again recently so I had the worst aches I’ve ever experienced whilst flying as we were descending – sharp pain shooting right up the right side of my face from my jaw to my temple, and the teeth on the right side of my mouth were in excruciating pain. It was horrible while it lasted – about 20 minutes – but eventually eased up once we landed. Upon arriving at the airport and disembarking the plane, Mum and I grabbed our bags and made our way to the metro system platforms, where we got a view of the outside of the airport which was very old fashioned.

Our train arrived in just a few minutes, and we rode the 5 stops on the blue line to Rosslyn Station. Upon arriving, we were greeted with the steepest and longest train station escalator I have ever seen (I’m talking worse than Parliament Station). The vertigo was reeeeaaaal.

Just outside the station we found a Maccas, and since we hadn’t yet had lunch, we popped in there to get something. After finishing, we walked across the road to the bus terminals and hopped on the one that was going to take us a few blocks away to our hotel (way easier than lugging suitcases along main roads).

After checking into the hotel, we chilled in the room for a little and facetimed Tom, before eventually heading out in search of food around 7pm. Google maps had said our walk to a place we’d found would only take 5-10 minutes, but after turning the corner just after our hotel, we were greeted with a lovely steep hill. After a mini hike up that, we eventually made it to our destination – Pho 75. After a bit of a wait (the queue to be seated was very long), we eventually got seated and served and dug into our Pho which was lovely (and also inexpensive – a win win).

After dinner we walked down the road to a Safeway supermarket (lol) and grabbed a couple of things before making the walk back to the hotel (at least it was downhill this time). The last of the night was spent washing underwear and socks in the bathtub (since we are yet to stay at a place with laundry facilities and ya girl needs to be fresh), watching some trashy American reality TV and catching up on blog writing.

Saturday 21 December

We aimed to be out of the hotel by 9:30am, but I decided to take my sweet time and we didn’t end up leaving until about 11am. We walked 10 minutes to the nearest train station – Rosslyn Station – and caught the metro into McPherson Square Station, where we then strolled down the street to the White House, even passing a game of rollerblade hockey in the middle of the pathway.

To be completely honest, the White House was a little underwhelming! It was a lot smaller than it seems to be in photos, and we couldn’t get up close to the fences due to them being under construction (until 2021! Who’d have thought it would take 1.5-2 years to put up a new fence!).

We walked around the block, passing many other beautiful, grand buildings such as the Treasury Building, and made our way along the fence of the White House’s South Lawn, where the path was also super far away from the gate and the house itself. So overall, photo opportunities and overall vision of much of the house were very limited.

We walked along the Ellipse (a park area behind the White House) and entered what’s called the “National Mall” – the long strip of landscaped park south of the White House, which features many notable memorials and statues. We strolled west along the North side, admiring the frozen lake in Constitution Gardens and how the ducks were having to walk on it rather than swim in it.

We eventually made it to the Lincoln Memorial on the far west side of the National Mall, and climbed the steps to admire the Lincoln statue as well as the view to the other end of the Mall where we could see Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. You might recognise this view from many movies.

After snapping some pics, we walked along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool up to the World War II Memorial, which had a column dedicated to every US state and some territories.

(Had to get a pic with the pole of my second home, of course)

We then walked up past Washington Monument, and then headed out of the National Mall and into the suburb south of it in search for some food.

Walking around the streets was somewhat eerie given that they were so quiet. However, Mum and I realised that this was most likely given that it was a Saturday and the start of many people’s holiday season time off, especially considering this suburb consisted mainly of government buildings and offices. We eventually found a small pizza place and grabbed a large slice each and some garlic knots, and afterwards popped across the road to Starbucks for a hot drink.

Shortly after leaving Starbucks, we found some scooters that were the same brand as the ones we’ve used in other cities, so naturally we couldn’t resist going for a spin (pun intended, considering the brand was called Spin Scooters). We rode the scooters for a couple of blocks to our next destination – The International Spy Museum. This was an attraction I’d stumbled across online that sounded cool, so we decided to go to fill in some time. Mum wasn’t that keen, but it wasn’t too expensive so she came along. It ended up being fantastic! It was a very immersive experience – right from the start we were each given a badge and assigned an identity that we would use to complete activities throughout the museum to complete an “undercover mission”. The museum itself and the exhibits were so interesting and informative, and we got to see so many artifacts, hear about real-life stories and cases, and learn about how spy work has influenced many important events in history. One of my favourite exhibits was “tools of the trade”, where we looked at and learned about various tools that spies have used over the years relating to five main categories: covert communications, surveillance and counter-surveillance, escape and evasion, disguise, and secret entry. I was also fortunate enough to see a real life enigma machine! If you’ve seen the movie “The Imitation Game” (which I love!), then you’ll know what I’m talking about. For those who haven’t, essentially it was an encryption device used by the Nazi’s in WWII to send messages between themselves. The English – in particular mathematician Alan Turing – created a machine that was able to decipher the encrypted messages, therefore allowing the Allies to anticipate certain attacks or movements and ultimately contributed a great deal to their win. I also enjoyed learning about some famous spies and informants from the past, including the story of Morten Storm, who was a Danish Islamic radical who after 10 years of full dedication to the religion (including living in the Middle East and fraternising with many high-up terrorists) decided he no longer supported their causes, and so called up the Danish Security and Intelligence Service and offered his services as an informant/spy, and lived a double life from 2006-2011. In return for providing key information regarding al-Qaeda and the whereabouts of one of its leaders Anwar al-Awlaki, he was promised very large sums of money by both the Danish Security and Intelligence Service and the CIA. However, when the CIA found and killed Anwar al-Awlaki in 2011 based on information provided to them by Storm, he was not given any credit, nor any of the promised money for his 5 years of work. He now lives without any official recognition or protection, and lives in life in fear of retaliation from al-Qaeda due to his betrayal (since he has made himself publicly known in an effort to receive credit for his intel and in an effort to receive government protection).

(This was my cover identity haha)

(An enigma machine)

After 3 hours in the museum, it was time for it to close at 6pm so we left, found our scooters still outside the museum, and rode them down the road to the US Capitol Building. It was beautiful at night time with the roof all light up and a Christmas tree out the front. We then rode around the side and around the back, where we were able to get a closer look at it.

We then rode to the buildings behind it – the Library of Congress and the US Supreme Court – which were both extremely grand, too.

(Library of Congress)

(U.S. Supreme Court)

After snapping some pics, we rode down the road to Union Station, dropped the scooters off and headed inside to have a look around. We stumbled upon a large food court, and decided to have dinner here (since it was about 7pm). Mum and I both opted for Asian food, where she had beef teriyaki and I had shrimp teriyaki. I also grabbed a Nutella crepe for dessert.

(The front of Union Station)

(The inside of the Union Station main lobby)

We then headed over to the metro platforms at the station and caught two trains to get back to Rosslyn Station, and we then walked back to the hotel from there. The rest of the night was spent watching the Grinch on the TV.

Sunday 22 December

Woke up and got to business this morning, having to leave the hotel around 8:15am to get the airport bus. We got there on time, and I even had time to quickly pop to Maccas across the road for a hot chocolate. The bus journey to the airport took about 40 minutes.

We got into the terminal, found the check in desk for Porter Airlines, checked our bags in, and headed to security. As we were heading there, I realised I’d left my lovely red scarf on the airport bus!!! I just about chucked a childish hissy fit, because I was in one of those overly irritated want-to-burst-into-tears moods, so this did not help at all. We went through security, found our departure lounge, and boarded not long after. I sent in a request to the D.C. public transport authority’s lost and found system, so hopefully I might hear something.

It sucks that D.C. ended on such an unfortunate note, but the city itself was nice! I’m glad we only spent one full day – I think that’s all we really needed as there wasn’t much else to see or do. I definitely recommend going to D.C., though, in particular the spy museum, but you won’t need much time there. But for now it’s off to another cold place for (hopefully) a white Christmas!!!

- Emily xx