Washington D.C. & Connecticut

Happy Fall break!

It seems like I had no sooner made plans for this and it was already here.. 2 whole days off Uni (wohoo) so I obviously had to extend it by and extra 2 plus the weekend which made 6 days off!

The Sun rising over D.C.

I set off on the overnight Megabus from Knoxville to Washington D.C. on Wednesday night with my roommate Joanna and there were 3 of the other International girls going there too - 2 from Finland and one from Spain, so we managed to attract alot of attention on the bus with a funny array of accents. It was mostly University of Tennessee students going there, so the bus was fine and I managed to sleep most of the way (of course I did), it had a short stop in Christiansburg, Virgina so I was more than happy to have another state ticked off. Arriving into DC at 8am meant that even though I was only there for a day I got plenty of time to see things. We headed to Capitol hill which is only a few blocks away and managed to get some good  pictures before it got busy.

State Capitol

D.C. was really nice, loads of big fancy buildings and lots going on. I expected it to be like New York, but it was really different, probably more like London. We spent most of the day wandering round, in and out of museums, shops (we found H&M!!), cafes and tat shops. I just enjoyed exploring and playing tourist for the day. I think we made it to most of the main attractions, including the Washington Monument, The Supreme Court, The World War II Memorial and of course The White House - not bad for a days work!

The White House

Stopping for a cuppa with Barack

Washington Monument

We walked past the World War II memorial and there were loads of people gathered and were clapping for this little old man, thanking him for his service (so American). He was a Veteran, there with his family and it was his dream to visit the monument before he died, so they'd drove all the way from Wyoming. It was so sweet, but it made what would otherwise be just another statue seem very real. I felt like a bit of an intruder, it was a strange one to stumble on!

Big American Basilica, D.C.

After a busy day we dodged the many homeless on the streets to get back to Georgetown where Joanna's sister Elenor lives. We were so tired so got a McDonald's and a pretty early night ready for the next days adventures. I had to be back at Union station for 10am to catch my train to Connecticut and I was wondering if it would be worth all the travelling ... it so was! On a 4 hour train journey I went through Pennsylvania (Philadelphia!), Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York to get to Connecticut so there was lots to keep me going. I was enjoying just looking out of the window all the way and noticing how different things seemed to the South, although I did miss the Southern hospitality and really noticed the difference between people's friendliness with a lack of conversation on the public transport, this would be unheard of in the great friendly state of Tennessee!

Philadelphia - I'd love to go here some day!

I finally arrived at Stamford, Connecticut and my friend Melissa was there with a few of the other girls to pick me up, we drove about 20 minutes away to this beautiful 'villa' - it was definitely a mansion(!) where the retreat was and once again, my accent worked a treat. Everyone was really nice and it was so funny realising how much of a small world it is as we worked out who knows who, mostly friends who I've met through going to Youth2000 in Walsingham. It was so good to be able to meet people from all over the North and I found out about loads of stuff going on that I'm sure I'll look into getting involved with some other time. I've been playing my 'meet someone from every state' game and I was happy to tick off a Miss Delaware, Miss Maryland, Miss New York and even a Miss California, who believe it or not is a nun!

'Villa' Maria Guadalupe, Stamford CT

Retreat in Stamford Connecticut

I had a great time and it felt like I'd been away for ages which made the travelling worth it, Sunday afternoon/evening meant that I just had the epic journey to repeat to get back 'home'.

Passing through/visiting 9 states in 5 days is admittedly quite impressive and slightly crazy. I don't think I could have squeezed much more into my fall break if I'd have tried. This is probably the most travelling I'm going to be able to do whilst I'm in the States, so I'm really glad I went for it now.

Here's to the half way point of my adventure!