The wake up is tragic, we load our two backpacks with food and things necessary to spend the night in Washington and take a taxi.
This is also an experience to do, I did not know what the metro would be like at 3 and a half in the morning; I didn’t feel like risking going on an adventure.
It’s still too few days that I’m in a new city and I need more time to take security and go to the brink.
The journey with Megabus (4h)
At the stop we find a foodtruck, incredible view of the time; and two people waiting: a black lady with a nice look and a weird guy who asks me if I have to turn on.
The weird guy warned us to stay away from the foodtruck because: “There are a lot of rats!” (there are a lot of mice) hahaha it was hilarious for me even the tone in which he said it.
So we begin to chat about rats with the nice lady who was infinitely useful to us; talking about the fact that we want to go to Baltimore (an extremely dangerous city according to her, although she is also going there to visit her family) she tells us that we would not have had time to go to the Hard Rock since it would have opened at 11.
Our bus to Washington would be after a while and so we wouldn’t have had time, I still wonder how he knew what time it opened.
However, in the end we decide not to go there; it would not have been worth it since we would have had to do everything in a hurry also risking not reaching the main destination for which we will make the trip.
So I had a good night’s sleep since we would only have two stops: Philadelphia and Baltimore, and then get to Washington.
Now a problem arises, we have the ticket to Baltimore and then another to Washington but not for that ride; so what to do? Tell the driver?
We are again rescued by the new known (from Jamaica) who simply tells us to shut up and stay on the bus; if we had to change the ticket we would have had to pay and for nothing.
So we did, shut up we arrived unharmed in Washington and honestly it was a comfortable trip; there is the bathroom, the thing that I wanted most, and the seats are comfortable.
Let’s say I would have no problem traveling around America on those buses.
Brachi’s Tip: the most convenient way to get around America is by bus, for this trip to Washington we spent 16$ in two round trip!
Good morning Washington!
Arrived at the capital they unload us at the mega bus stop; walking we went out again in the sunlight, not without admiring the large station with a vault at the entrance that makes you feel as small as a flea; like a bit of everything in this country.
After taking some pictures we go to our first stop in the new city, the National Library; passing in front of the Court of Justice and taking a first look at the Capitol, which would have been our beacon throughout the day in the city.
But before arriving at the bookstore I was caught by a very tender squirrel looking for his peanut;
scared of my arrival he dropped it but I recovered it and I managed to get it back from my hand, too tender!
The library is magical, a truly beautiful palace; perhaps more beautiful than that of New York, inside it is very decorated with continuous references to the classical world and therefore to our home.
Almost all the buildings at the National Mall wink a lot at our friend Palladio, first of all the Capitol and its Rotunda.
The library also has a very high dome in its reading room; I’m sorry I couldn’t walk between the desks of the hall freely (entry is not allowed for tourists).
Inside is the Gutenberg Bible and there are always exhibitions.
This time one is on the invasion of the Americas by the Spaniards and one on the suffragette movement that brought women to the vote in America as well.
In the exhibition on suffragettes a volunteer woman who was there to offer explanations to those interested asks us what we think and it was nice to talk to her; she pointed out to me that all the most significant buildings are of Palladian inspiration.
She is a lover of style since her trip to Italy was spent right among the various villas that Palladio left us especially in northern Italy.
We also discussed the colors of the suffragette flag: purple, white and gold; but we were not sure of the reasons except that initially they had only white and gold, then they added purple.
It would have been nice to establish a deeper contact and maybe meet her again outside the library but I have yet to learn on this front; I can attack button abbiastanza easily but then I do not take the opportunity to grow something more, I need training.
National Air and Space Museum
Let’s call it the Space Museum, unfortunately also in half renovation; or fortunately since we do not have much time to wander between modules, rockets and space suits.
At three and a half we have the ticket for the guided tour of the Capitol and we can not risk arriving late, and we went very close anyway; our second
adventure after that of rats and staying “illegally” on the bus.
The museum is beautiful, although having already seen that of Cosmonautics in Moscow is not a complete surprise.
An interesting thing is that America and Russia have exchanged a lot of space memorabilia, in a climate that I like; that of the scientific community rather than the space race for national pride.
Inside the museum you will find Armstrong’s spacesuit, Gagarin’s and the reconstruction of the Wright brothers’ plane, as well as some remains of the original.
The room dedicated to Wright struck me a lot because it is really rich in information on the whole evolution of the project; there are the stories of all the people involved in the great dream of freely sailing the skies.
Another surprising area is the one dedicated to scientific evidence; it is designed for children but actually very useful and fun for adults; it is full of small experiments to be reproduced independently trying to predict the results and understand why.
When we are about to leave for a short time I do not miss the capsule of Friendship 7!
It is the capsule protagonist of the film “The right to count” that really excited me and that I often look at when I need a little charge.
Before returning to the Capitol we stop at the Museum of the American Indians, also this
it would have been interesting to explore but unfortunately we don’t have enough time!
In addition, there have been extremely scrupulous security checks, more than in other places; so we could only take a quick walk in the lobby and we had to run away to return to the Capitol.
I have to remember that here in Washington the distance between one museum and another is huge so we had to take into account the time it would take to go back.
Despite everything, beautiful triumphants and with even 15 minutes in advance we arrive at the entrance of the building, where they tell us: “Have you any kind of food in yours bags?” (do you have food in your bags?)
Well of course we have, we have to stay out two days!
“Here then you can not enter”… Are you fu**ing kidding me????
The adventure of the Capitol
Here the third adventure begins in a single day, we can not enter with food and water and there is no place to leave our backpacks, a crazy thing.
We therefore ask where to leave the backpack since we could not reach our hotel and return in time; they advise us to try at the library.
Okay, we leave running for the library and arrived there we explain the problem to the pompous and slap the manager; who calls a guy at the Capitol to know what to do and concluding that no, not having to visit the library we can not leave our backpack there.
What an asshole I could have beaten him with taste.
So we said, it; we return to the Capitol from the tunnel that connects it to the Library and explain that all this is absurd.
But, passing through the tunnel after deliberately ignoring the NO FOOD signs before the security check, we pass the backpacks of the detector and no one tells us anything … strange, but good for us.
We go ahead and find ourselves magically inside the Capitol.
All this makes no sense and I feel slightly uncomfortable to go around breaking rules so I think you can go to jail; so I convince Matteo to ask a guy with a nice look placed behind a huge counter if we can participate in the tour.
He begins a conversation that I will not easily forget in which we explain that it is forbidden to bring food and water into the building but we are there in front of him with food and water in the backpack.
And he asks us, “So what are you asking of me?”
But he does it with a nice tone that puts me at ease; in the end it tells us that if we do not show food and do not say anything to anyone we can go; aware that these rules are stupid and absurd for tourists who always carry something to eat and it is not that they can binge running out of their supplies before entering there.
And then, again outlawed, we enter a cinema room that will entertain us for a quarter of an hour.
They show us a really well done video, in full Motivating American patriotic style to explain in broad terms the history of the foundation of the American government and that building.
After the video we started our tour arriving at the Rotunda, the center of power in Washington; it seems to have returned to Italy between Palladian architecture and eyes heavily to Roman art.
The vault is completely frescoed by the Apotheosis of George Washington, made by the Italian Costantino Brumidi.
The thing that strikes me most in finding myself here, is that I immediately thought of the severed finger left in the center of the room in Dan Brown’s novel, the lost symbol; I think that somehow, with the mind, I have already been there.
I remember little of the explanation but I really appreciated that this room was made symbolizing a sort of free zone between the two chambers of the American government.
Inside the room there are many statues on display, which are only a small part of all those that exist.
In addition to the important historical figures for America, each state can commission the creation of statues even of characters who are not parliamentarians or senators; simply important people and who have contributed substantially to the history and growth of the country.
In fact, we find Rosa Parks and with her many other “non-politicians”.
Also in the Rotunda is a black and white frieze that illustrates the history of the United States, from the arrival of Columbus to the flight of the Wright brothers.
There are also beautiful paintings including: The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull.
As I listen to the guide my gaze wanders, trying to imagine what it must be like to be able to walk in this room without any visitor; maybe in the evening, in the silence and surrounded by those stones so important, in the midst of the marble looks of such important people … exciting.
After the explanation, and a child who reminds me of me as a child because he often asks questions and listens very carefully (he made me smile a lot); we moved to the next room to find other statues: some marble, others bronze, all very beautiful, I would like to stay longer.
We then go down to the lower floor, to the foundations of the rotunda, surrounded by a double crown of columns on a very shiny floor that begs me to ask what it is; a particular wax given on those stones that would otherwise be too crumbly and would quickly spoil.
The last stop of our journey is the room where the three fundamental documents for the USA are kept: Bill of rights, the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.
Around the Constitution there are always two guards who observe very carefully that no photos or any other act that could ruin them are taken.
I felt proud when there was the changing of the guard and all four were women.
In the same room there are two large paintings always representing important moments of state construction.
Sunset at the obelisk
I think we didn’t really see everything there is to see, maybe we could have explored more even without the guide; but in the end we took a walk in the gift shop and then we went to see the sunset from the parts of the obelisk.
In fact, we have to walk a little bit to get to the hostel and I also want to go from the White House to see the First Lady tree.
Unfortunately, the body of water in front of the Capitol has been drained, I do not know if for the works or for the ice that can be formed; a pity because some nice photos would come at sunset.
Along the way we pass by the outdoor sculpture park; I always enjoy trying to guess the artists of the sculptures, and Rodin always comes easy to me!
We saw Yayoi Kusama’s black dot yellow pumpkin that is on museum advertising posters and I must say I like it.
I discovered Yayoi Kusama by chance on the internet and he intrigued me, he does everything with these bright colors and dots; she is very eccentric and her works are exciting even if I don’t know exactly the philosophy behind it.
The National Mall is a huge tree-lined avenue, 3km long!
The idea of creating this beautiful place came to the architect French Pierre Charles l’Enfant in 1791, but the project remained in a drawer until the early 1900s.
Among the most important buildings stands out the Smithsonian Castle, a large red brick building that clearly detaches from the other museums; inside it does not contain anything interesting but it is a bit the heart of the Museum complex of the Mall.
The Smithsonian is a research institute that is administered and funded by the U.S. government and operates about 19 museums.
It was founded by the British scientist James Smithson (1765-1829) to promote knowledge in the United States; Curiously, Smithson never visited America.
As we walk the sun goes down more and more until we arrive at the river, the Potomak, on whose calm waters we see reflected the memorial of Thomas Jefferson.
Here there is an atmosphere of true peace and calm, there is no one around, had we not been tired dead from the day I would have gladly stopped for longer.
Now: towards the White House, we peek at the Lincoln Memorial from afar all lit up.
This imposing obelisk, which dominates the entire National Mall, was erected in 1848 precisely to commemorate the founding father and first president of the United States.
It is 169 meters high and is formed by imposing blocks of marble, granite and sandstone.
Passing through a meadow with tall grass, I do not know if it is really the right way, we arrive at the Christmas tree of the presidential family; let’s say the one for the people since I read that inside the White House there are hundreds.
It’s extremely simple and elegant, but the thing that surprises us is the music we hear as we approach.
In front of the tree a pretty choir of kids sings Christmas songs accompanied by a piano.
After taking a picture with a park guard, with his wide and straight brimmed hat, in full Ranger Lord of Yogi style, we sat down to listen to some songs in relaxation.
I tried to take some pictures at the back of the White House, from where you should see the oval room, but it’s so far away that my poor lens doesn’t get there!
We go to the Hard Rock, which is on the street and then get to the hostel.
Washington is very different from New York, at least the center we saw; it is very quiet, people do not run through the streets and there are no tall skyscrapers of the Big Apple, it looks more like a big city but not really a metropolis, it is wrapped in a different aura.
With hindsight going to Philadelphia I can say that every great American city has its soul, its flavors, its sounds and colors; they are all different even if looking at the photos on the internet they may all seem similar, chaotic and soulless, nothing could be more false.
The Hard Rock is nice, upstairs there are these beautiful stained glass windows made with the technique of those of the churches; only that the subjects are not Mary and the saints but Elvis, I believe Elton John, and a black man that I did not recognize.
The atmosphere is hectic, there are very noisy guys who look at me with a strange look, I don’t understand if they are making fun of me or not, but I can’t care less, stupid chubby guys!
Visit to the bathroom, as usual, t-shirt and off, this time towards the final destination, the bed.
Along the way we find another square with some nice decorations, it would be interesting to return to Washington one day because I think it has a lot to give.
A day and a half are too few to really appreciate it, unlike Philadelphia which I liked and left me satisfied even with the one-day visit.
At the entrance of the hostel (the Duo Housing) we had to take off our shoes and after checking in the girl put us in a 6-bed room in which, however, only we were left; it is located in another building that she defined as welcoming, it is in fact, pity only for the bathroom of our floor that has the door that does not close.
Matteo unfortunately got cold because of an annoying draught that came close to him.
After brushing my teeth I collapsed, practically dressed, I’m really tired.
If you do not know where we started and where we will end, click below!
