Washington DC 30th August to 2nd of september

after arriving safely in washington on the chinatown bus, i was able to walk to the hostel from where it stopped. this was my first hostel (hostel international washington DC) in america and it was fine. 10 females to a room, but what else do you expect! the bathrooms were clean and modern. there was free wifi and breakfast for $!. they also had free walking tours run by volunteers. i went on tow night ones, one of the washington monuments at night, white house, world war 2 memorial, korean memorial, reflection pool in front of the lincoln memorial, Lincoln memorial, vietnam memorial. they are all light up at night. the lincoln memorial is especially nice. during that day was went to two museums, the air and space and the native americans. most of the museums in washington are free, great for the backpacker! the air and space museum was really good, it had many examples of aeroplanes and space shuttles, great for kids and kids at heart :) the native american museum covers all tribes from canada to south america. it's a new museum in a very nice building. it was very interesting to see all the examples of native americas.

the following day i visited the holocaust memorial, again free. it is also a new memorial,very extensive. unfortunately you can't leave this place in a good mood. makes you think about what is happening around the world at the moment. from there i wandered around the tidal basin to the jefferson memorial, then franklin Roosevelt and lincoln again. i then got lazy and jumped on the metro to capitol hill, to get a close up of the capitol (parliament house), the place with the big dome in washington. this building is very detailed close up and grand. washington reminds me of canberra, because it is a tailor made capital city, the streets are wide and the modern mixed with older styles, there is also extensive green spaces, however there is also many homeless people. you don't feel unsafe, but noticed them a lot more then in other cities. after NY it felt a bit empty but i think it was because the building are not tall at all, maybe 10 storeys compared to NY which are a minimum of 10! that night was another walking tour, but it was more of pub tour, it was saturday night. we ended up at a very cheesy place called rumours, but it was good value for money and a laugh, it was nice to have a dance and a laugh.

the next day was back on the bus again to NY, i wanted to go straight to boston, but it was labour day weekend so i couldn't find any hostel accommodation until monday. so i stayed the night in NY at paresh's and then another china town bus to boston on monday.