June 27: Leaving New York, going to Washington D.C., looking at a few monuments

Writing this blog a bit late so I might have forgotten some things.

I woke up and packed my stuff up ready to leave. I didn't have enough time to get food before catching a bus so I was a bit hungry. I caught the subway down to the 'Port Authority' something to get to the greyhound bus station. I got in there and then found the place that said it was the greyhound place. There were two employees standing around looking like they were supposed to help people, so I asked where I go to pick up my ticket. He told me to use the computers, so I did that and it printed out the ticket and a receipt. I went back to him and asked if he knew where I had to go to get that bus because the ticket didn't say anything about that. He starting freaking out at me that I'd done something wrong because I should have two bits of paper. I told him that I had two. I just didn't bother showing him the receipt because that'd be a bit pointless. Then he spoke really condescending to me, asked if the ticket was express or not, explained in a very patronising tone how the system works, pointing out all the intricacies of the board behind me showing that buses to Washington D.C. leave from gate 37 or somewhere. I don't know how I could be too upset at such ridiculous rudeness. It was too absurd to take offense. So I gave him a very friendly thankyou and then went on my way. It seems that if people in NYC are going to be rude then they'll be absurdly rude. Otherwise they seem to be quite nice people. After that I walked around to find some food, didn't find any, and then waited by the gate.

The bus journey was pretty good. We went out through Manhatten, through the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River to New Jersey. Then we drove along a few highways, past some cities along the way, and then made it into Washington D.C. The bus has wifi internet connection, so I used the internet for a while! I also listened to the Jimi Hendrix album called Blues. It is just him playing a lot of bluesy stuff with really great guitar tone and fuzz and wah. My favourite song on the album is Jelly 292. It has amazing guitar sounds on it, and puts the wah after the fuzz so that at one point there is some really great bad sounding feedback. I sat next to a kid who was hogging the arm rest! But I won it back. This is the first greyhound bus I went on, and I found that the people were all fairly respectable. I'd been told that people on greyhound busses can be a bit not so respectable. So this was good.

We took off from underground.

Through the Lincoln Tunnel.

Picture of the bus with an innocent by-stander looking very happy to be in my photo.

Great view of Manhattan from New Jersey.

Listening to some tunes.

We went across some cool rivers and sometimes saw some industrial things. The US seems to have had lots of great industrial things going on at one stage. I think that has probably declined. It's interesting.

More cool rivers to cross.

We landed in Washington D.C. and I walked down the road for a little way and found my hostel. I walked in and got checked in etc. I was a bit annoyed because the guy at the hostel asked me for my credit card which I gave him, expecting him to just charge it for the amount that was due. But I noticed that he was copying down the three digit security number on the back of the card which I've always been led to believe is supposed to be some kind of extra piece of security to stop people from being able to use your card to purchase whatever they want online. I told the guy that I wasn't really alright with him copying that into his computer. He told me that it was alright because that's just what they do in the US. I told him that with that information he can now purchase whatever he wants from my bank account. He agreed and said that that is why they do it, for the event that I cause some damage, they can then charge me some money for it. I said that I wasn't really happy with that information floating around and that anyone with that information could easily send it off to anyone else if they wanted and that it was absurd. He said that it was all alright because in the US they have full insurance coverage for this type of thing, so if someone steals your credit card information and then purchases stuff with it, then you can be completely refunded for all of those costs taken from you. I thought the entire situation was absurd. There wasn't really anything I could do about it. When I get back to Australia I will be getting a new card with new numbers on it.

I went upstairs to my room and talked to another guy in there. I told him about the credit card thing and he confirmed that that is just what they do here. The guy in the room seems quite nice. He is called Tre. He is from South Carolina and is soon starting university at one of the universities in Washington D.C. . Eventually I went out to find some food because I was very hungry. I think I bought Fruit Loops at this time because Fruit Loops didn't exist at least in Tesco's in England, so I hadn't eaten any in many months. It was great to eat Fruit Loops again. Then I went out to see some things. I headed to the Capital Building first and then walked along the 'mall' and saw the Washington Monument and then the Lincoln Monument.

Walked down the street. I think I met some hobos a little past here. They asked if I'm a musician. I guess I play guitar and stuff like that sometimes, so I said yeah kind of. They said they could tell. They asked if I knew who Randy Rhodes is. I said yeah and then his daughter said that she liked my accent. Then the guy told me about how he was in jail once with a guy from Cockney in England, and he really liked his accent. Apparently his accent meant that he had a nice ride through his time in jail. They were really good friends. He asked me for some money. I gave him 40 cents or so. He was a nice guy. I kept walking.

Lots of government buildings.

Capital Building, or Capitol Building. I'm not sure.

The grass here is weird.

Reflecting pool? At one end of the mall thing.

Squirrel.

Guy on a horse.

in front of the capital building.

Lincoln Monument.

in front of the Washington Monument. When I was sitting in front of this thing, a guy was telling his family about how it's amazing that this thing was built in the 18th century or something like that. His family agreed, and his daughter asked if that was before or after the Pyramids. She seemed fairly sure it was after, but needed some confirmation. She was about 17 I think.

Lots of people play sport out in this green area.

War memorial. I think this one is for world war two.

In front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Abraham Lincoln sitting on his chair. It was pretty cool actually. On the walls there are parts of some of the speeches that he gave. They sound a little epic and inspiring and were fairly idealistic in their apparent intention.

Looking back down across the reflecting pools thing to the Washington Monument with the capital building in the far distance. The reflecting pools aren't very reflective today. They're repairing them.

Place where Martin Luther King did his speech. Pretty cool.

Vietnam Memorial. Quite sad. Lots of names of people who died.

Lots of these sorts of buildings in Washington D.C.

This barricade is blocking people from walking to where they could see the front of the White House. There is a police car sitting up there, and if you make it look even slightly like you will go past this fence, the guy in the car will tell you to turn around and go back the other way, through his loudspeaker.

Guys in suits.

The other side of the White House. It looks a bit small!

Someone. There are lots of statues around Washington D.C.

The traffic lights give you a time indication for how long you have to cross before the light will go orange.

A bit of China Town.

I made it home and I was very hungry. I made a big plate of pasta. I used 'tomato alfredo' sauce. I mixed in a lot of tasty cheddar cheese. It was very very good.