Washington D.C.

I went on a two week trip with two of my friends around America in June 2012. In the two weeks we went to Washington, New York, Boston and Chicago.

First stop: Washington D.C. When I first arrived here after a horrific flight (I was delayed for hours and hours and flew separate from my two friends and had no way of contacting them - stressful!) it was a relief to be in a taxi heading for bed. But even better than this, the taxi driver we had also turned into our tour guide and pointed out a lot of cool and interesting things, including the place the plane crashed into after the 9/11 attacks. He was a brilliant start to our trip and despite our jet-lag and tiredness he got us rather excited for the oncoming days.

There is so much to do in Washington. So many historic sights and museums, quite frankly it was hard to decide which was the better thing for us to do. We wanted to get in as many of the famous monuments and memorials as we could, then slide in a museum or two in any spare time that we had. And to be fair to us, we did manage to get a lot done.

I won't go into detail on each memorial that we saw, as there were just to many! They were the Lincoln memorial, Jefferson memorial, Korean War Veterans memorial, Roosevelt memorial, Vietnam Veterans memorial, Washington monument, Martin Luther King Jnr memorial and the World War 2 memorial. The ones that stood out the most to me were the Martin Luther King Jnr memorial (it is a HUGE statue carved into one side of a big rock over looking water), the Roosevelt memorial (it is a walk-through park with lots of quotes and features and information - very pretty) and the Lincoln memorial (this was the one I was most looking forward to - especially after watching Planet of the Apes before I went!).

Another obvious thing to visit when in Washington is the White House. We did go to see it on our second day there and, although it was amazing in the fact of what it represents and how pretty it was, I felt it was too far away to get a real feel for it. Luckily, the next day when we were heading back to our hostel we accidentally passed it again but this time, instead of passing it from the front, we passed it from behind, and it was actually a lot closer and the view was miles better! So if you do plan on going to see it, I would suggest going to the back (there is a lot less people here too!).

We also went to visit the Botanical Gardens which, for someone who admires flowers but knows nothing about them or does not have any keen interest, was really good. It is separated into different areas of the world with different climates and these change as you walk through it. It is rather cool!

Overall, Washington is an interesting city full of history and information - do be warned, there is a lot to do and an awful lot of walking around involved! Well worth it though.