Day 7: Washington DC

As I've mentioned earlier, today would be an explosive day, and so our day begun with me waking up at 9 in the morning and did my usual morning chores (apparently, I got stuck on the toilet bowl longer than usual, maybe it was due to the chilli that I the night before :p). But anyways, all of us were ready by 10am and we were on the streets looking for food. Since we were all on a tight budget, Mc Donald's was the cheapest we could find and so Mc D it was. The moment we were done with our br-unch, we immediately went in search for a tour that will bring us around the city, and looks like we were in luck as we spotted a touring bus after walking across a few blocks. After enquiring for the price (which was a reasonable USD25 for a day's tour with unlimited rides), we hopped onto the tour bus and our adventure begins.


The tour bus that we took

What we had in mind was to complete one round of the tour first before we go on another round and stop at points of interests. So below are some pictures that I took during the tour.


The International Trade Center


The Old Post office


The Capitol from afar


The Union Station (which is the biggest of it's kind in the world)


Inside of the Union Station


Another picture of the inside of the Union Station (inspire by Roman architecture)


The National Botanic Garden


The National Museum of American Indian (and it's the Red Indians, not those from India :p)


The National Museum of African Art


The Washington Monument


The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (the place where they mint monies)


The Jefferson Memorial


The majestic Washington monument with a magnificent view (the best picture that I've taken so far :) )


The Lincoln Memorial


The World War II Memorial


The frontview of The WHITE HOUSE!!!


The Archives of the United States of America (remember National Treasure?)


The National Potrait Gallery


The oldest hotel in Washington (which was as old as Washington DC itself)

After a round of breathtaking tour (which lasted an hour plus) of the city of Washington DC, we were just amazed at the awe-inspiring architecture of the buildings of the city and as well as being able to see things that we usually see them only on TV. After we took our chance to catch our breath for a moment or two, we were back on the bus (but rather going on a tour again, we used the tour bus as a means of transport) and our first stop would be the Capitol building. For those who doesn't know, the Capitol is where Congress sessions are held (something like a parliament). There happened to be a free tour provided by the Capitol administration themselves, and we didn't hesitated to sign up for the tour at all (free stuff up for grabs, anyone? :)).


The Capitol Building up close


The Washington Monument from the Capitol Building


The Hall of Justice in the Capitol


The ceiling of the very dome of the Capitol

After we were done with the Capitol, we waited for our tour bus to arrive at the place they dropped us and it wasn't long before the bus arrived. We hopped onto the bus and our next stop would be the Lincoln Memorial.


The Lincoln Memorial building


A statue of Abraham Lincoln himself

Since the Washington Memorial was just within sight from the Lincoln Memorial, we decided to take a short walk there. Along the way, we stopped by the World War II Memorial and got ourselves some pictures.


The World War II Memorial

When we arrived at the Washington memorial, we wanted to take a tour of the monument itself, but we were a bit too late because they had ran out of tickets for the day (the tickets are free anyways), so what we could do was to fiddle with our cameras again.


The Washington Monument (isn't it magical?)

We then decided to continue the rest of our journey on foot and next up was the National Archives of the USA (where the declaration of independence is located). Again, we were just unlucky because the time when we were there, the building was already closed to the public. So again, all we could do was to satisfy ourselves with some pictures.


The National Archives


The grand entrance of the National Archives itself

After asking an officer at the National Archives, he told us that most of the museums would have been closed by that time (which was only 5.30pm), but he did told us try the National Museum of Natural History which was just across the street.


The Department of Justice which we passed by while walking towards the Museum of National History


The National Museum of Natural History itself

Well, the officer was right about it, but only for 15 minutes and we were again outside roaming (but there wasn't anything interesting in the museum anyways besides preserved animals).


The Smithsonian Castle (anything with Smithsonian is free, as in the museums :))

Since there wasn't anything much that we could do, Winson then suggested we take the bus tour again but on another line (the bus tour came with 2 lines which was red and blue, both which tour different parts of the city) and so we agreed and headed to the nearest stop of the other line. Along the way, we passed by a book shop and decided to have look inside. Soon, we got carried away reading magazines and books that we forgot about our tour totally (so guess we will just take the tour tomorrow since our tickets are valid until 11am the next day, 24 hours from the time of purchase). It was 7pm and we headed back to our apartment to take our bath before we come out for dinner again. While Winson and Dickson had their dinner at a Sandwich shop, me and Damien decided that we would budget our spending and had our dinner at Mc Donald's again (which cost me a mere USD 3.30 for 2 burgers and 2 apple pies). When we were done with dinner, we decided to spend some time at the book shop again and when the book shop closes, we decided to call it a day.