The home of Barack Obama, but unfortunately he doesn't leave the White House - no morning walk for him, no trips down to the Capital - just in and out of the house to airport in a beefed up escalade! Super sad times for America. But likely for Washington there are a few more attractions for us to explore except stalking Barack.
The Washington Monument - apparently it cracked during the 'hurricane' aka few drops of rain but we couldn't see any crack though there is a fence around the base of the flags with a few Secret Service cops guarding it.
The Lincoln Memorial. There's only a few people Americans really really love and they consist of Lincoln, Martin Luther King, General Lafayette and George Washington. Everyone else gets fuck all. But anyway the Lincoln Memorial stands opposite the Monument looking out over the reflecting pool, but unfortunately they have ripped but the reflecting pool because it was leaking - so we got a muddy mess...
The extremely large 'godlike' Lincoln - no talking in the memorial its a place of worship.
The back of the White House. At first we didn't realise we were at the back because there was this massive protest going on. It was quite confusing because I was freaking out thinking that in every single movie the White House was faked it looks completely well shittier. But we thought it must me it there is all these protesters and a media bit off to the side where Barack gives his speeches. More on this one later... But there was something else we were totes confused about was what the protesters were actually protesting there were signs for: global warming everywhere, the war in The Middle East, etc. But we asked an official turns out they were protesting about a Pipeline. Seriously people pick one topic and work that out first! Yeah also the official told us the people protesting were being arrested because they were on the footpath 'blocking pedestrians' but if they were on the road it would be perfectly legal - HAHAHA Americans. So one by one they were arrested and put in Secret Service vans.
The National Archives - we saw the Bill of Rights, Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They were huge and so old you couldn't even read them, but they hand writing was super super neat. You couldn't take photos and had to go through 2 security checks to get near them. Washington is super scared of a terrorist attack - too bad Americans haven't figured it out yet - the reason the Middle East is attacking you is because you won't leave them alone, you've been meddling with their shit for the last 50 years and they are kinda sick of it.
The Capitol.
Looking Down from the Back of the Capitol towards the Monument. One side of the National Mall.
Here is a Map of the National Mall - because it confused the fuck out of us and we were there!
Us in front of the Capitol - other tourists are so shit a photos. He totes cut off the statue of Freedom on the top.
The Front of the Capitol
Got my Senate and Lower House Tickets. Yeaaaah Bitch. No photos in those bad boys and about 3 security checks to get in.
This is the roof of the dome, its super super beautiful.
The Roof of the originial Lower House, but then they got to many states and built the new one.
Library of Congress.
Sexualised fountain at the Library.
The Smithsonian Castle - the visitors centre of the Smithsonian Museums. So guy donated like 4.1million to the Capitol to build these museums in the 1800's so literally like a billion dollars! Crazy Shit! Anyways to continue his legacy they keep them completely free, amazing, but its costing the Government a ridiculous amount of money and considering they don't have any its quite stupid really.
The Art Museum.
A Coney Island Dog. Featuring - cheese, onions, chilli, mustard and ketchup. It was actually tasting going against my better judgement.
Air and Space Museum.
OMG it's the Apollo 11 Command Module!!!!!!!
The First Plane to break the sound barrier.
Boeing 747 Nose.
Spirit of St. Louis - first plane to fly from NY to Paris.
THE WRIGHT BROTHERS FLYER. Seriously, these Museums have everything.
Some bombs.
Space Lab 2 - the actual back up for Space Lab one and an exact replica.
The Saturn Launch System for Apollo 11, this is just one of the 5 Thrusters - note how small our guide's head is.
The Luna Lander the Original! This is the one they used for all of the testing and practising before leaving the actual one on the moon. Literally looks fake with all its al-foil hahaha.
Hubble Space Telescope!! Replica Obvs.
From the Middle of the National Mall..
The FRONT of the White House - just like the Movies!!
A aquarium bar opposite our hostel..
Our Hostel - is the 2 rows of windows to the right on top of the bars/cafes. It was pretty much the best location ever, you could actually stumble straight into your bed! Its only let down was the extremely creepy 50-something-and-single manager.
But we also went to the Holocaust Museum - which was fucked. Possibly the most disturbing place short of Auschwitz. They had heaps of things from concentration camps all over Europe - photos, videos and the worst thing (I personally thought) a room filled with shoes that of actual people which the Nazi's had removed from people before gassing them. It was the most horrible experience to walk through that museum and we couldn't even image how the few people lived through that feel and felt. We knew what happened was bad but when you read survivors stories and see people clothes, belongings and photos/videos of mass graves it becomes real as to how fucked up this shit was and how the fuck did the allies let it go on for as long as it did.
Well thats all of Washington. We spent 2 days sleeping and doing nothing:
1. because of the stupid 'tropical storm/hurricane Irene' which was just a day of rain (weak) and everything was closed! Such a joke.
2. because I was too hungover to move. Woops.
Anyways we are now in NYC,
Til Next Time x
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