D.C. # 3

(At this point I’m currently on my exchange in Pittsburgh)

Due to the crazy prices to fly to Toronto in January, travel plans to Canada were sady forced to be put on ice. However, this opened up an opportunity to take a trip to somewhere nearby for the weekend (last weekend of January). Thankfully, buses ran from Pittsburgh to Washington D.C. for relatively inexpensive prices (FLIX bus is starting to become very useful in the US). Rather than going on an organised tour with the University and the other exchangers, I had decided to do a solo-trip for a more specific itinerary (as I had been to D.C. twice before).  One pretty empty ride later I had arrived in D.C. for a much needed weekend out of Pittsburgh. The initial evening consisted of a night walking tour of the national mall monuments. I’ve always wanted to see the sights of the national mall at the night and I’ve never done a walking tour for the mall so it was a good opportunity to get both of them done at the same time. It added so much more gravitas and weight to learn the history as well as deep meaning of the monuments from our guide as we walked through them. Time after time, Freetoursbyfoot gives such great tours at affordable prices (essential for one travelling on a college student budget!). Be it in the US or Europe, their guides are usually quite exceptional. Another highlight of the evening was trying the popeye’s chicken sandwich that made the headlines all those months again. Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble but the McDonalds’s double mcspicy in Singapore still reigns as king.

The next day began with the American History Museum. A warm morning at 10 degrees (considering it was winter) made the long walk from the hostel to the museum quite a lovely experience. Would never even dream of doing such a long walk back to a museum in Singapore but the weather made such things possible. A packed museum but fantastic nonetheless. Having not planned 4 hours for it seemed like prudent planning as I ended spending close to 4.5 hours there. There is so much detail and history in there, that for a museum nut like myself I just got completely lost in it. A great museum to finish the D.C. Smithsonian museum circuit! Following the museum, I moved to link up with the other exchange students from Pittsburgh (who were here on the university led trip). The afternoon was mainly spent exploring the national mall before they had to carry on with their tour. Dinner with my new mate Brian came next. We had met in London during the NYE’s party with aunt and kept in touch ever since. It worked out really well that he was in D.C. that weekend as he travels out quite extensively. Met his lovely partner, they showed my some trendy neighbourhoods and a great catch-up and dinner to round of an eventful day.

I had reserved the entire last day on Sunday to meet my cousin-sister living in the city. Having been awhile since seeing her, it seemed only prudent to allocate sufficient time :D. Had some much needed dim-sum (I missed Asian food so much) and caught the pretty spectacular film “Just Mercy” (a great take on how flawed criminal justice can be) on what turned out to be a pretty chill day. It was just loads of fun to hang out again 😀

The ride back to Pittsburgh at midnight was no fun at all. There was just something about that greyhound bus that made sleeping impossible which as not fortuitous at all (had a 11am lesson the next morning). To make matters worse, there was an incident with state troopers stopping the vehicle due to a detain a passenger. It out to be based on a false accusation by a strange lady sitting right behind me which allowed the man to be released back onto the bus (although I could not be sure on the exact details of the situation). It was just a weird 6 hours as a whole but after a short & sweet trip to D.C., it was good to be back in the 412.