Washington D.C. (again)
After four nights in Millinocket, it was time to join the real world again and head to Boston. We traded our zipoff pants for jeans and jumped on a bus heading south. No more hiker discounts. No more hitch-hiking. No more eating out of eskies (coolers) left on the side of the road. No more pints of ice cream. Needless to say, we were going to have a hard time adjusting.
We spent three nights in Boston and saw... nothing. We basically just relaxed in the hostel before heading to Washington to do the tourist thing.
One thing we discover in Boston was that it was possible to get to Washington for only $35 (greyhound was about $80). One of our fellow hikers told us about the Chinatown buses, a group of bus lines that travel between major cities on the East cost for a fraction of the price of the more major lines. The only difference is that these buses stop in the Chinatown district. We arrived at the address from where the bus was supposed to leave, but it was deserted. There was not a bus in sight. We rounded the next corner to be ambushed by a group of street vendors from different bus companies. They were all yelling, "twenty dollar! twenty dollar!" but even when we asked would not tell us where the bus was going. We eventually handed over $40 and again asked where the bus was heading. "This way!" and we were shoved on a bus none the wiser as to its destination.
Six hours later we arrived in DC and we were quite proud of the success of our budget traveling. We made our way to the hostel and were surprised to find that our room had been upgraded from a 12 person dorm to a 4 person dorm. Things were shaping up well for Washington. We headed across the road to the nearest pub and ate the money that we'd saved on busses.
We saw all the essential tourist attractions that we'd missed on our first visit to Washington; Arlington cemetery (Kennedy graves, tomb of the unknowns and Gen. Robert E Lee's house.), the presidential memorials, various war memorials, the Holocaust museum and the spy museum.
We jumped on the train to Pennsylvania and met up with Mark and Karen. It was great to see them again and we spent three relaxing days in their home and exploring Downingtown. Mike even got a haircut!
Finally it was off to New York.
We spent three nights in Boston and saw... nothing. We basically just relaxed in the hostel before heading to Washington to do the tourist thing.
One thing we discover in Boston was that it was possible to get to Washington for only $35 (greyhound was about $80). One of our fellow hikers told us about the Chinatown buses, a group of bus lines that travel between major cities on the East cost for a fraction of the price of the more major lines. The only difference is that these buses stop in the Chinatown district. We arrived at the address from where the bus was supposed to leave, but it was deserted. There was not a bus in sight. We rounded the next corner to be ambushed by a group of street vendors from different bus companies. They were all yelling, "twenty dollar! twenty dollar!" but even when we asked would not tell us where the bus was going. We eventually handed over $40 and again asked where the bus was heading. "This way!" and we were shoved on a bus none the wiser as to its destination.
Six hours later we arrived in DC and we were quite proud of the success of our budget traveling. We made our way to the hostel and were surprised to find that our room had been upgraded from a 12 person dorm to a 4 person dorm. Things were shaping up well for Washington. We headed across the road to the nearest pub and ate the money that we'd saved on busses.
We saw all the essential tourist attractions that we'd missed on our first visit to Washington; Arlington cemetery (Kennedy graves, tomb of the unknowns and Gen. Robert E Lee's house.), the presidential memorials, various war memorials, the Holocaust museum and the spy museum.
We jumped on the train to Pennsylvania and met up with Mark and Karen. It was great to see them again and we spent three relaxing days in their home and exploring Downingtown. Mike even got a haircut!
Finally it was off to New York.
posted by Mike & Zan :-) | 1:30 am
1 Comments:
no more ice cream? are you kidding? how will you possibly survive the rest of the trip?!?!?
Post a Comment
<< Home