NYC-WDC-NYC

Part 1

Our trip to the capital was HOT and long!!! We took the train...3.5hrs and the train was freezing in comparison to the outside air temp! Apparently the aircon was stuck on -5. We started early and as we had been out the night before (and I had perhaps had one too many margaritas) was feeling ordinary to begin with. Ali was sick as a dog and slept all the way..

We arrived in the capital to searing heat, like so hot it was impossible to be in the sun for more than 2 minutes without burning to a crisp!

Our tour guide, who shall remain nameless, told us upon arrival that we should just get the hop on hop off bus - some tour guide. So we all got on the bus, and went to sit on the top deck. Big mistake, 42 degrees is not a good temperature to sit on a hop on hop off top deck. Needless to say we promptly hopped off 2 stops later for lunch...

After refreshments we headed for the Arlington cemetery. We wanted to see where JFK was resting, as morbid as thought sounds. We stayed on the lower deck of the bus this time to avoid heat stroke and enjoyed our trip to Virginia. As we approached the cemetery we noticed some ominous black clouds forming to our right. Ali and I voted not to get off the bus, but were overruled by our tour guide who is still remaining nameless as he didn’t fly halfway around the world to miss JFK's grave. Morbid bastard. So we hopped off..

The clouds got darker and the wind started picking up, us 3 girls all chorused "its going to piss down" the tour guide assures us that it will pass and in fact miss us as it was going the other way. He was wrong. The moment we stepped out of the visitors centre it pissed down. We had no choice but to make a run for the bus shelter 15 meters in front. By the time we got there we were drenched. The rain was so heavy we could see nothing, and it lasted forever. The 1000 scouts that were at the cemetery all got wet, as did most others. During our wait we started hearing sirens and other sounds usually associated with natural disasters. I was a little worried.

We finally made our way up to JFK's grave site - which really moved me, literally. But that’s another story.  Arlington cemetery is actually very beautiful and we visited all the dead Kennedys. No pun intended.

We then hopped back on our bus and headed for the monument where I photographed some suspicious behavior - I was very FBI/ASIO like, I’m sure the secret service  will want the pictures at some stage-  and then we went to the white house  - not as big as imagined and the security was ridiculous. The Obama's must have been in residence.

We then headed back to union station for our return trip. We hurriedly decided to eat something and headed to Johnny Rockets. After scoffing some crap food our tour guide realized that his new camera was missing. After accusing us all of having it, he realized that indeed it was gone. Luckily he was insured with Allianz.

We then headed upstairs to see what platform our train was leaving from - and promptly realized they all said - delayed. It was 7pm at this point and we were over it, we had boarded the train that morning in NYC at 8am. We asked staff what was wrong. That small storm we had had knocked out all power and signals between DC and Baltimore - great, although they were working hard to restore things. At that stage they anticipated a 2 hour delay. So we decided to jump back in a cab and look for the lost camera.

We clearly did not find the lost camera. I even asked the white house security guard, he came at me with a metal detector/baton thing and I almost asked him to search me. He was cute...

So back to the station we go. We decide to have a drink and wait out the delay. As we sat there we sent our tour guide back to get an update on the status of our train - disaster!!! All cancelled!!! We were stranded in the murder capital of America!!!!

After a frantic text to my travel guru Sharon - we went to look for a hotel! The only thing we could get was the Hilton garden inn - sounds nice doesn’t it. It wasn’t, it was AWFUL!!! But we had no choice we were stranded with a million other people.

After an awful night’s sleep we put back on our sweaty filthy clothes and headed for the station praying for a train. To our relief the service was back in order and we were on our way back to the big apple - this time wearing our Washington DC hoodies we had purchased to ward off hypothermia!

Time for our last day in the Big Apple

Part 2

After a short rest we decided that before doing any last shopping we had to send all the crap we didn’t want to carry home, so we packed up and went to the post office. You would think it would be a simple process - no way in hell. 1.5 hours later Zana and I left not certain that my 17.5 lb and her 12 lb would ever make it to Australia, despite the @$120 each we paid!!!

We then headed to Soho to meet up with our mates and do some last minute damage to our credit cards!!

That night we went to Tao for dinner with our NYC posse. We had a great last night and none of us wanted it to end, but alas we had an early flight. Farewell NY we will be back!!!