36 hours in the city of the free...

So I spent the last weekend on a last minute trip down to Washington with a friend, Debbie, who is moving back to Sydney. We had a great time, I got to see New York at a different hour, 5am.. as we made our way to the train station. We had our customary cream cheese bagels in hand and we claimed our double seats on the train, fell asleep, and in what seemed to be 5 minutes we arrived in Washington... with such minimal time we aimed to pack in as much as we could.. we went from the holocaust museum (which was awesome) (note use of american word 'awesome'... what is happening to me!!) to arlington cemetery, saw the grave of JFK and a few other hundred thousand soldier graves, saw the changing of the guard at the unknown soldiers tomb, and saw a horse drawn carriage with a hearse... got some great pics of washington from high on a hill, and then headed back downtown. In the afternoon we headed to the Air and Space Museum for an hour, hoping to get some more great shots climbing amongst some aircraft... sadly not much to climb on but was fun nonetheless.

Being the nations capital all the museums/galleries/memorials are free of charge. You can literally pack in as many museums as possible into a day and not pay a cent... comes in handy when you travel with someone who needs the bathroom every five seconds :P

The city remimded me a lot of canberra, just with more stone columns and more buildings... the city shines of marble and stone, and is dotted with museums and memorials, with each one better then the next. In a city which looks so pristine it is hard to imagine it also has one of the country's highest poverty rates. Too busy showing itself off it forgets to look after its own.. sad.

There's not much to be said about the taxi drivers in DC either... of the 4 we got in to the first one didnt know where Arlington Cemetery was (its like one of the biggest tourist destinations in the city!!!) and later in the afternoon the taxi we were in broke down, he made me pay for the ride and then made Deb and I help him push the taxi! I pushed a car!!!! crazy.

Friday night one of Deb's work acquaintances ( a 60 year old father of a few... but young at heart) picked us up and took us on a night tour of the city. He took us to the white house and capitol hill, was great all lit up and with noone else around we were able to get some great pics. We also headed to Georgetown which is the suburb of the DC university, it was a fun area with a great vibe, we then headed back to the area around our hotel (the Grand Hyatt no less.. ) went to a local bar, heard a sob story from our waitress about how her ex-husband used to beat her (shes only 21...) and we grabbed a drink and pizza.... And that was Friday!

Yet to come was Saturday!!! Saturday we went on a bus tour around all the monuments and memorials, it was really interesting and I learnt a heap of American history which was great too... Saturday afternoon, we visited more bathrooms and went to the Natural History Museum which was fun. They had a live butterfly breeding room where you got to go through and if you were as lucky as Deb you got a giant butterfly landing on your nose! Despite the 90 degree heat in the atrium it was incredible to be in their habitat. After making sure we hadn't picked up any 'hitchhiking' butterflies as the lady called them, we left the museum and headed to a sculpture garden next to one of the art museums. Took numerous silly photo shots, got in trouble from a mean lady for touching the sculptures, and then collapsed in the middle of the park for some much needed rest before heading back to our hotel, grabbing a bite to eat and boarded the bus back to the NYC!

We had a great weekend as you can see... well read... and with only the two of us traveling together and so much to see and photograph we made it our mission to take some arty photography... with debs trusty purple bag as our tripod, and the handy-ness of self timer we think we did pretty well! Check them out here: Album 1 and Album 2

Shana Tova

As 5769 rolls in and a new Jewish year begins, I find myself in a new country with new experiences and a challenging but exciting year ahead.. who knows what will happen to any of us, but lets hope it is all full of good, character building and enjoyable occasions.

My year started with a great dinner at Jeremy and Nicola's, with Tim, Tali and Lex we ate apple, honey, and other new year mandatories and it felt strangely familiar. Very different to the same family rosh hashana I have had for the past 28 years in sydney but still got the same 'friday night fullness' that I think comes with any jewish meal where ever in the world you are. It was a fun night and lucky for me I had to only walk a few steps (about 25 to be exact...) to get home afterwards :) Unfortunately I didnt get to shule, but i did feel guilty as i walked past a few synagogues on the way to work.

So as part of my new year excitement I have signed up to two new ventures, one personal and one communal... the personal one is that I joined a gym this week.. it was expensive, as things are in this city, but with the winter coming i need to keep fit! and if I cant do it outside, the gym it is... I've been to a couple already and i can spin like nothing else.. so we'll see how long the enthusiasm continues.. they have some really good classes so it should be a lot of fun!

piece of trivia: my flatmate saw renee zelwegger running on the treadmill in big black sunglasses at my gym! so if my fitness doesnt get any better at least my star spotting might (i am still on nil!!)

So the second thing i have started is volunteering. I have joined an organisation called New York Cares. Lots of Americans volunteer to help out in a range of different activities across the city everyday of the week. The activities range from pruning gardens to playing bingo in old peoples homes, helping disabled kids play sport to feeding the homeless. I have to go to an orientation this week, and in a couple of saturdays time i am volunteering at New York Cares Day, a day dedicated to painting murals at schools around the city... I don't know where the urge I have to give in this city is coming from, maybe its to do with all the homeless people i see and begars that i get acosted by on the street and train everyday...im excited to do it so I'll keep you posted with how it goes!

Until next entry... cheers!