In comparison to the many of the other cities that I visited during this trip, Washington DC was one of the cities that I had heard a lot about (who has not heard of DC!?). However, it is also a city that I never really felt the urge to visit. I always thought it looked extremely boring from the pictures with governmental buildings and nothing else. I was wrong about this city. From the early beginning, from the time I left the subway station, I thought to myself, wow, what a beautiful city! I remember calling my mom several times and to tell her how beautiful all the buildings were. Everything looked so modern and neat, but there were also plenty of historic landmarks.
The reason why I came here in the first place was because my very good friend, Catalina lived here. She was another classmate of mine in the Netherlands and had just moved to DC for a fellowship. I arrived quite early during the day, so I decided to do some sightseeing before meeting her. First, I was a bit worried that I would not be able to store my luggage anywhere close to the main attractions, but I quickly found this very practical website which is kind of like Airbnb (it is called Vertoe), but then for luggage! So I left my luggage in a restaurant that was listed on this website. What a great idea someone had! After leaving my luggage, I could finally go for a long walk around the city.
Most of the main attractions were walking distance from one another. Well, at least to me it was walking distance. But even for those of you who do not like walking; there are free busses taking you around the centre! Otherwise, there are electric scooters for rent, and in comparison to the other cities, It actually felt safe driving the electric scooters here. Everything is so well prepared and thought through, for example the fact that there were separate lanes on which electric scooters can drive. I also felt very safe at all times, even after it got dark.
The White House was closed off from all the sides, so I could not really see it well from the outside. Therefore, I came up with this great idea: to (traditionally) go to the W Hotel and have a drink at the rooftop bar while overlooking the White House! I think I sat there for 2 hours, if not more. I know, some of you would call it waste of time. But I could not stop looking at the beautiful views. Besides I had to charge my phone anyway. No phone = no GPS, No GPS = not knowing where to go next! Yes, I am super addicted to my phone. The rooftop bar was full of people, not only tourists but also locals having lunch. I loved how everyone was so formally dressed here! I could definitely live with that. Despite spending 2 hours at the W, I was able to visit so many places in this one day! Catalina was not ready to meet until around 8pm so I had plenty of time for sightseeing! I did not go inside any museums, but to me, exploring the city from the outside was more than enough! I took a lot of pictures of beautiful, historical buildings. I just wish I remembered what all these buildings are. Later, I took the free bus to District Wharf. I found this area by coincidence, only because the bus stopped there. And I loved it! There were so many cool restaurants and bars here! It is a very cool waterfront neighbourhood. There was even a really nice seafood market at the end of it. I seriously don’t think I have every seen that much seafood before! I was surprised they even had that in DC.
Washington DC is another example of an American city which has a completely different architecture than other cities that I visited! The scenes from House of Cards came back to me! My friend, Catalina, lived in one of those traditional Washington DC houses so it was quite nice that I could get the chance to stay in such a house during my stay.
In the evening, me and Catalina went bar and club hopping. We started with a small dinner somewhere at the Shaw (a nice district with loads of bars and restaurants). Then we had some drinks at El Techo, a Latin bar/nightclub in the same area. In the end, we ended up going to a nightclub called 18th Street Lounge. The 18th Street Lounge is a really cool nightclub with a very special vibe. To better explain it, the whole place makes you feel like you are at somebody’s house, because of the old-fashioned furniture! And at the same time, the nightclub has several different rooms, and in all of these rooms there is different type of music played! So basically, this place have something for everyone. After this day (and night), I definitely received a different view of DC!
The next day, we had some nice breakfast at a restaurant with a beer, to cure the hangover! Once we felt a little better, we went to a street festival: H street festival. I was lucky to be in DC during the time of the year when this festival is organised. In fact, it is supposed to be the biggest street festival in DC. We stayed most of the day at this festival. There was extremely much people on the streets, and there were lots of food stalls, tents with people selling things and some really great live music performers everywhere! After walking through a big part of the street, we decided to find a bar where we could have some drinks and to look at the street from the rooftop. It was quite a challenge because the lines to all the bars were enormous! Somehow we managed to sneak in, and we had a very nice time with beer, nachos and jello shots!
Once we got a bit tired from all the noise and the crowd, we decided to go to Chinatown for dinner. It definitely was not the biggest Chinatown that I have every seen, but the Ramen and the Sushi were quite good. Maybe we should have tried a Chinese restaurant when in Chinatown, but there was nothing wrong with the Japanese one!
After Chinatown, we went for a walk around the Tidal Basin to see all the most famous landmarks during nighttime. All the buildings were lighten up so it all looked extremely beautiful and the whole area was so peaceful. It also felt very safe to walk around there, even though it was dark.
As we already had a very busy and tiresome day, we decided not to go clubbing this night. Instead, we decided to just go for a nice cocktail somewhere at the Wharf. We went to a place called La Vie and really enjoyed our last evening together. I hope it won’t be too long until next time!
The next day, I was on the bus, off to Philadelphia for the CBT course. Now it was time to get back to the serious Anyah. I hated this thought so much, especially after having such an amazing month all around the US with both my old and new friends and all the other great people that I had met. However, in the end, the course was the main reason why I came to the US in the first place!
Anyah Mroz 