I am a visitor here: I am not permanent.

The next day it was time to sample the wonderful museums D.C. has to offer. I started with the National Archives as I was early enough to avoid any real queue. It turns out most of the hold-up is airport style security just inside the entrance, which is rapidly becoming a theme in American museums. Although not strictly a museum, it certainly has some interesting exhibits, including a letter from a young Fidel Castro to the president asking for a $10 bill as he had never seen one, and a letter to the president from a young boy asking for federal aid after his mother declared his room a disaster area, complete with a very humorous reply.

Of course, the main reason for visiting the archives has to be the ‘big three’: the Bill of Rights, the US Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. Sadly there’s no photography allowed because of light exposure, and even though I could have done it without a flash I wasn’t allowed. The rotunda they are held in is fairly grand, with two great paintings of the signings adorning the walls. The artist invented likenesses of some of the people present due to a lack of available reference material, and he also managed to include a ghostly Lincoln in the clouds.

I should think that this room would be of more importance to Americans than it was to me as a foreigner. In a way it holds the foundation of their entire country. That said, it was still very interesting to see the original documents and to read the accompanying information. Perhaps of more relevance to me was the Magna Carta which is held just outside the rotunda.

The original plan was to see two or three more museums after the National Archives, but I soon realised how futile this would be when, after a couple of hours in the Museum of Natural History, I was still on the first floor. I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow account because that would be silly, so here’s a (very small) cross section of things I saw.

The first section is aquarium related. I must have been the only person there who didn’t make some sort of reference to having found Nemo.

Further on, there’s a piece about African migration. Apparently they’ve moved to every continent. I think the Australasians may have a thing or two to say.

Some of the stuffed animals are very cool.

As are some of the skulls from the various ages of man.

By the time I finished in the museum it was pretty much time to eat my tea. I walked back past the hostel to a nearby convenience store and bought some healthy food to cook. After I’d eaten I realised I hadn’t left a lot of time to get down to the Mall in time for sunset, and it didn’t help that just as I was about to leave I bumped into a bunch of people who’d been on the pub crawl the night before. We talked for a little while and I learned that I was basically the only one who wasn’t still horribly hungover, which was nice. After some more talking we all went our separate ways, and I hurried off hoping for some luck. It had been very much overcast all day with no visible sky so I wasn’t holding out much hope for a good sunset.

When I got down to the monument the clouds started to break up a little and a wonderful orange glow surrounded the sun. I got set up, wished I had a tripod, and waited a little while longer. I noticed a man to my left who was clearly doing exactly the same thing. He had a camera with touch-screen live view on a tripod. I was jealous.

After a little while we got talking. He convinced me that I needed a tripod, and after observing him I decided that a few graduated ND filters probably wouldn’t go amiss. He lives a little while out of D.C. and often comes in to take photos. As the light changed more I was increasingly surprised at how beautiful it was beginning to look, and his exclamations of delight hinted that this was really something special. He gave me some tips if I make it to Arizona and advocated hiring a car to get to some particular places. If you want to see some of his photos they’re here: www.flickr.com/photos/79546474@N00/ Well worth a look.

As for mine of the sunset? I’ve not had a proper look yet because this screen is tiny, but I’ll let you see a preview.

Before long the light disappeared and we went our separate ways. I took a few more photos along the Mall before I went back to the hostel. Bonnie had texted to let me know she was leaving the next day so I went to say a quick goodbye and went to sleep.

The next morning I went down to breakfast and overheard some girls talking about the confusing sugar dispenser. Basically, it looks like it should hold milk, which has hilarious consequences if someone doesn’t realise. We got talking and I learned that they’ve done almost the reverse of what I’m doing, travelling from California across to New York on a trek. One of them is at Exeter reading history so I’m debating doing the old Mark from Peep Show/Keyser Soze trick.

With breakfast eaten it was time for more museums, via a camera shop where I bought a Gorillapod, which has already come in very handy. I started with the Spy Museum, one of the few in the city which requires an entrance fee. The way I see it, with all the others being free it doesn’t matter if I have to pay for one or two because it’s still incredible value for money. The museum has some seriously interesting bits of kit, but sadly they don’t allow photography so you’ll have to come here and see them for yourself. Again my intention was to see quite a few museums, but by the time I was finished in there it was lunch time.

I nipped back to the hostel for some lunch and then made my way to the Museum of American History. No, dad, it wasn’t empty. But I was greeted by one of the few characters to appear in all six Star Wars films.

I want one.

Finding this is a lot easier when the building isn’t dark, derelict, and full of glowing ones.

There are a lot of interesting and light-hearted pieces in the museum, but they don’t shy away from some fairly harrowing things either. The Civil Rights and Native American sections have some particularly poignant parts.

This is one expensive lava lamp.

 

 

 

 

 

There’s also the Star Spangled Banner which was flying at Fort McHenry the morning after the bombardment. Once again no photography is allowed and it’s in a very dark room. I don’t think it would have mattered if I’d been allowed to take a photo though, because that thing is absolutely huge. After some cuttings were given away as gifts after the battle, it’s left at an incredible 30×34 feet, and I’m not convinced it would even have fit in the frame because the display is so close. It must have been quite an experience to see it flying at its original size of 30×42 feet.

The woman who made it had to move it across the street to finish it because it was large enough to fill her living space. Speaking of living space, one of the exhibits in the museum is a whole house along with information on some of the people who have lived in it across the years.

When I was finished at the museum I was quite hungry and it wasn’t far off getting dark. I went back to the hostel to eat and talked with a few other people in the room, one of whom works for a senator from Ohio. I’m now convinced they care more about the Royal Wedding over here than almost anyone in England. After they’d gone, another guy who had joined in the conversation expressed his vehement dislike for republicans. He’d seemed like a cool guy up until this point, although it had been fairly clear he’d disagreed with a lot of what she’d been saying. I was at a crossroads.

My three rules for America had been as follows:

1. Avoid religious debate.
2. Avoid political debate.
3. Don’t get caught doing anything illegal.

I basically told him I was trying to avoid political debate and he was fine with that, so we got to talking about other things. His name is Sean and he works in the Library of Congress. He was going to go and get a beer with a Chinese guy called Jing who is also staying here and invited me along. As we were walking down to the Mall we bumped into Sarah, an Australian who was on her way to meet a friend near the Capitol Building. As we were going in roughly that direction we all walked together and she spent almost the entire walk berating the Chinese and Americans.

We left her at her meeting place a little unsure whether or not they’d find each other as they had agreed on the reflective water in front of the Capitol, and while there is some water in front of the Capitol, and I’m sure it has reflective properties, the Reflective Pool is the other side of the Washington Monument a fair way away. Still, it wasn’t our problem and we carried on taking some photos and talking. On our way down the Mall towards the White House we bumped into Sarah again. She still hadn’t found her friend and Jing suggested shouting out her name. I’d been assuming she’d have already tried that, but sure enough there was an almost instant reply. We left them to it and continued on.

It’s impossible to generalise about an entire country’s inhabitants based purely on the people you meet, but Sean did a lot to dispel the idea of an ignorant American in a very short space of time. He’s well traveled and very knowledgeable about other countries’ economies, governments and policies. I was a bit lost when he and Jing started discussing China in a fairly minute amount of detail.

We arrived at the White House just after they turned off the lights and were told by the Secret Service that we couldn’t use tripods on the pavement. Luckily for me, mine doesn’t really resemble a tripod so I was able to set it up and take some shots right in front of their eyes.

We finally made it to the end of our walk and went to order a drink. Disaster almost struck when the barman pointed out that the last digit of the year was obscured on Sean’s ID and in theory he shouldn’t serve him. As it was, he said it was late and he wanted to leave and didn’t really care so he served us anyway. We only had time for one before they closed and we returned to the hostel. I grabbed the communal guitar I’d spotted earlier and we went out to the patio. Sean plays piano so he gave me some chords to play while he sang along and then it was time for bed.

This brings me to today, which has, unfortunately, been a bit shit. I woke up with a sore throat, cough and a bit of a headache but was prepared to deal with it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the worst of it. I was bitten by an insect a couple of days ago and everything seemed fine until I noticed a familiar sensation in my leg. For those who don’t know, I’ve had Cellulitis a few times. It requires rest, which is a little bit at odds with what I was planning on doing today. I started on the antibiotics but sadly I’ve decided that the sensible thing to do is to take a day off and hopefully the symptoms will subside quite rapidly. I’ll have to come back to Washington when the Reflective Pool is properly refurbished anyway, so if I do have to miss things I can always do them then. I just hope it’s improved in time for my impending 17 hour bus journey.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and it’s better now than during the trek. I’m taking the opportunity to check out some of the music people have recommended to me since I’ve arrived here, probably playing some more guitar, and starting to read a book I acquired from the ‘free books’ section in the hostel in Baltimore.