Washington D.C.
We arrived late at night, and after a bit of driving around and we spotted a cheap motel on the outskirts of the city. We had this move already planned... The prices were based on room's, and not per person, so we sent in two girls to book 3 rooms, while the rest of, all 13 of us waited, out of view round the back of the car park. With the keys in hand, they would return, and 15 of us would traipse through their foyer with bags in hand. The girls behind the desk were shocked at our cheek, but it saved us a lot of money. The rooms were like any other motel room, two double beds, a telly, and a bathroom. Me, Geth, Biggles, Nez and Choco pilled into a room, the first mission was to acquire a towel from the bathroom, this usually involved the 5 of us dropping our bags and fighting our way to the bathroom to claim a towel for the morning, one person always ended up with the face flannel to use as a towel, this time it wasn't me, I had been lucky. I'd share a bed with Biggles tonight, I was a driver, so I claimed that I had a right to a bed, it worked!
We woke bright and early and all met downstairs for breakfast and to plan our day. We would drive a bit closer into the city, then find a park and ride and leave the bus, with all out bags in. Back in the room packing our bags, we all had a laugh at Nez who had been left with the tiny flannel to dry himself after a shower. He would have to be quicker next time!
A few miles down the road we found a park and ride, but strangely it was called “kiss and ride”, it sounded a bit twisted to me, but it would do. The car park was empty, probably a good thing as it stated “compact cars only”, and we had just parked up our 28ft prison bus. The bus arrived to take us into the city, but we were mistaken, we had to change once, then the next bus would drop us off outside a metro station, seemed like a right pain in the arse, and it was a boiling hot day, but we didn't have a choice. About an hour of faffing about, we arrived at the metro station, and caught the next train into the city centre. My first impressions of Washington D.C. were that it was a clean and crisp city, kinda like a well dressed businessman. Looks like the politicians were looking after their office. Walking round the streets, we spotted the FBI headquarters, a few snaps later we moved on and spotted some fancy coloured elephants in the streets, not live ones, but some sort of sculptures. I spotted an opportunity to take a dodgy picture.
A few mins later, karma decided it didn't like my photo, and a bolt appeared out of the pavement and caught my toe slicing down the side – ouch. Someone had some sticky tape in their bag, so I taped it up and moved on, didn't have time to mess about.
We found the Whitehouse, and out came the camera's again. We wanted a few group pics, and Biggles had the bright idea of climbing up onto the fence, something the local police didn't like, but rather than say in English “get off”, they just stood their blowing whistles at us, as if we were bloody dogs and could work out what they meant, idiots. This bugged me, arrogant assholes, so we waited for their backs to turn, and did it again. Screw the cops, we got our pics. Our long walk in the midday sun took us all over the park by the Whitehouse, taking in the sights, the Lincoln Memorial, which reminded me of Planet of the Apes. It was here we took the opportunity to take a where's wally picture...
Overall, I found Washington DC clean, but thats about it. Once you have seen the Whitehouse, and a few other memorials, there isn't much left to do. I don't think I will ever go back there in my life, but glad I had seen it. As we left, I thought about some of the other places I wanted to see, one of them being the Pentagon, but this was a little way out of town, and I didn't have a clue how to find it, oh well. We got a little lost leaving D.C, our map wasn't the best scaled map around, and the signposts on the roads could have been better.
Written by Richard Smith
