Heroes, Horrors, Hope.

One of the busiest days began at 630am. The tickets to the African American History museum was tough to get due to it’s popularity. So i had to get the tickets online when the daily tickets were made available at 630am every morning. I was lucky enough to get tickets but it is worth noting that the tickets were all gone by 635am, so even in the off season it was tough to get tickets! Such is the popularity of the Museum.

After breakfast, i headed to Arlington National Cemetery.  Arlington Cemetery is the resting place of all US Military personnel. It was a solemn honour to pay my respects to such brave people. It also showcased the sheer magnitude of lives that had been lost in order to keep the peace in the free world.  Within the cemetery,  there were many monuments to the various heroes and events in the history of the United States. Due to my lack of time, i could only visit a few (Arlington is huge). First i visited the grave site of JFK (hero).  From there it was to the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier memorial and various others along the way that honoured various battles (like Battle of the Bulge) and various Units (like the 3rd Infantry (Old Guard)). The Tomb of The Unknown soldier was of a different design from the one in Moscow but had the same message as a tribute to the thousands who died in war. Arlington itself was quite magnificent and i did not realise the huge amount of time it would take to see it in it’s entirety. However, i was pretty happy with what i had the chance to see 🙂

Next up was the African American History Museum! I barely made it in time for my timed entrance at 12pm and i had to run half a mile to make it! Luckily, i did make it and i was in! The museum had 6 floors, there were 3 floors that went underground and 3 floors that went above ground. After taking short rest, i headed down to the bottom 3 levels first. Beginning at the lowest level, i would make my way up, back to the main floor. The museum was so detailed and really brought one through the entirety of slavery. It were so detailed in the history it was depicting. I spent about 1.5 hours just on the bottom level alone. I thought i had a good understanding of the barbarianism of Slavery but this museum showed me the vast amount of things that i was ignorant off.  The part where the bottom 3 levels of museum ended was an exhibition about the first African American President, Barack Obama and that was a pretty emotional exhibit (it is hard not to get emotional at the symbol of hope after so much suffering). It was sincerely a spectacular museum. I normally get tired after 2.5 hours at a museum but i was fully engaged for a good 5 hours at this one. Fantastic Museum.

After i was done, i rushed back to the hostel to shower and change as i was heading for a movie with my sisters at 7.30pm. We watched “Get Out” and i had absolutely no clue what i was going in for but i was completely sucked into the film throughout. It was a pretty brilliant one and it really had me thinking even after the movie was over. The story was so well-written! After the movie we had ice-cream, hung out for awhile and i eventually headed back to the hostel. Rest was crucial for the Climate March! (the next day).