Thanks to my friend Kiran and the cherry blossom festive event, if not for them I wouldn't have planned my washington trip. This was really a pleasant weekend after a hectic week of work (lol, please dont ask whether it was really hectic!!!)...
This trip reminded me of the trips that were made during my stay in Switzerland. Basically thats because I started out early in the morning to get my bus to Washington from NY. In Geneva we used to do the same, wake up early on a saturday take a train to reach different part of the country and roam around. For a difference here I used bus transportation. Now I have to board the bus. It was a different experience to see 42nd Street TIMES SQUARE early up in the morning as there is not much of people and the only vehicles that crowd up the streets are the cops cars. I should say that I had my own good time watching the flashing lights of times square.
The bus was on time and it also didn't take much time for me to spot some Indian SE ( :-) Software Engineer) and we all sat on adjacent seats...so tamil all through the ride... My first ride in an American bus, was just curious to know will there be some difference in it. Not surprised to note that no big difference except for a good foot rest and one Mini TV screen (that was never switched on!!!) for every 3 or 4 seats. I should not miss telling about the Chinese population here. There are a lot of chinese people here in US and there are some areas which are completely occupied by them like Flushing in Queens NY, Chinatown area on Washington etc., The bus which I went is completely operated by Chinese. I wonder at their spirit towards work and though they (the driver and employees of the bus) are not so fluent in english they manage well.
In 4 hrs the bus reached Washington and somehow managed to meet my friend Kiran in the not so busy streets of Washington. Was really happy to see him after 3 1/2 yrs (we last met in college during our convocation). Plan, plan and plan!!! wondering what,, we both were planning so hard to decide where to roam around. Atlast decided to park his car and took the metro train with a day pass. Have to tell you this..if New York has subway trains like 1,2,,...A,B,C.. Washington keeps it simple.. Red, Blue, Orange, Yellow and Green are the trains that act like blood vessels and move throughout Washington DC..
Kiran was telling me that he will take me to a place from where I can see all of Washington! I was amazed to hear that and its a place called Smithsonian. When we just got out of the metro station I was thrilled to have such a wonderful view of huge open space (Madrasa iruntha plot pottu vithudalam!!!!, excuse me here for using regional language) surrounded by museums on both the sides. One end of it has the washington memorial and the other end of it has the Senate building, The CAPITOL. As we rightly thought one needs to have good stamina to roam around that place. Eveything looks good that you are templted not to leave anything unseen. Considering the time constraint we decided to skip a couple of museums and went to Air and Space museum where everything from moonlanding till latest stealth crafts were on display.
Then we moved on to the senate building which is by default the logo of washington, or maybe sometimes the logo of US. Remember, if you want to go inside the senate building you need to book your tickets in advance. Pls google it for more options. Behind the CAPITOL is the "Library of Congress". World's biggest library is true to its name. having all ISBN marked books and the one that has one of the original versions of bible called the Gutenberg bible are some of its uniqueness. The library was architectured so well and to our surprise it holds close to 3 centuries of newspapers. Book lovers please do visit.
Then we saw washington court and then galloped to see the other side of smithsonian, the washington memorial and most of all the cherry blossom. Washington memorial is the world's tallest stone structure and is built in memory of George washington. After seeing all this we were heading towards the cherry blossom fest, it was expected that there would not be much cherry flowers still hanging out onto the trees as it rained heavily the last week. So, we were just seeing the trees half filled with cherry flowers. Its a good feast for one's eyes. Following that we tuned over to world war II memorial where all the member states of US has memorials around a fountain. We thought we had enough for the day and then pushed off to Kiran's house which is in Vienna/fairfax. This is about 30 minutes drive from Washington D.C. After having good indian dinner (lot of indians in that neighbourhood in fairfax, vienna) we had a deeeeeeeeep sleep.
Being the tamil new year the next day (April 13th) we decided to go to a temple in Maryland which is around 40 minutes drive from his house. On the way, having a starbuckcoffee were discussing how Starbucks became an integral part of every american. Its a Siva Vishnu temple and its very big in space and I enjoyed being there and praying. Starting from there we came to washington D.C again as we missed to go to an imporant house in town, the WHITE house. Actually speaking I was thinking it to be veryyy huge and unimaginable in size, but it was in the size of a PANNAYAR veedu, I mean a bungalow (medium sized). The maintenance is really good. All over the place they had pictures of Bush with his family, so we were thinking as and when President changes their pictures would be put up. We had some special entrance that day and we visited the white house garden. Amidst tight security we were allowed to enjoy the park's beauty.
Here ends my washington trip. More than anything I really enjoyed the company of my friend we were meeting after 3 1/2 yrs and it really felt good when we discussed about the good old college and project days. Have fun and enjoy. Take Care.
Tools used:
www.gotobus.com (to book your bus)
www.wmata.com (washington DC metro train)
some biscuits ( LOL)..
Regards,
Sriram Srinivasan
This trip reminded me of the trips that were made during my stay in Switzerland. Basically thats because I started out early in the morning to get my bus to Washington from NY. In Geneva we used to do the same, wake up early on a saturday take a train to reach different part of the country and roam around. For a difference here I used bus transportation. Now I have to board the bus. It was a different experience to see 42nd Street TIMES SQUARE early up in the morning as there is not much of people and the only vehicles that crowd up the streets are the cops cars. I should say that I had my own good time watching the flashing lights of times square.
The bus was on time and it also didn't take much time for me to spot some Indian SE ( :-) Software Engineer) and we all sat on adjacent seats...so tamil all through the ride... My first ride in an American bus, was just curious to know will there be some difference in it. Not surprised to note that no big difference except for a good foot rest and one Mini TV screen (that was never switched on!!!) for every 3 or 4 seats. I should not miss telling about the Chinese population here. There are a lot of chinese people here in US and there are some areas which are completely occupied by them like Flushing in Queens NY, Chinatown area on Washington etc., The bus which I went is completely operated by Chinese. I wonder at their spirit towards work and though they (the driver and employees of the bus) are not so fluent in english they manage well.
In 4 hrs the bus reached Washington and somehow managed to meet my friend Kiran in the not so busy streets of Washington. Was really happy to see him after 3 1/2 yrs (we last met in college during our convocation). Plan, plan and plan!!! wondering what,, we both were planning so hard to decide where to roam around. Atlast decided to park his car and took the metro train with a day pass. Have to tell you this..if New York has subway trains like 1,2,,...A,B,C.. Washington keeps it simple.. Red, Blue, Orange, Yellow and Green are the trains that act like blood vessels and move throughout Washington DC..
Kiran was telling me that he will take me to a place from where I can see all of Washington! I was amazed to hear that and its a place called Smithsonian. When we just got out of the metro station I was thrilled to have such a wonderful view of huge open space (Madrasa iruntha plot pottu vithudalam!!!!, excuse me here for using regional language) surrounded by museums on both the sides. One end of it has the washington memorial and the other end of it has the Senate building, The CAPITOL. As we rightly thought one needs to have good stamina to roam around that place. Eveything looks good that you are templted not to leave anything unseen. Considering the time constraint we decided to skip a couple of museums and went to Air and Space museum where everything from moonlanding till latest stealth crafts were on display.
Then we moved on to the senate building which is by default the logo of washington, or maybe sometimes the logo of US. Remember, if you want to go inside the senate building you need to book your tickets in advance. Pls google it for more options. Behind the CAPITOL is the "Library of Congress". World's biggest library is true to its name. having all ISBN marked books and the one that has one of the original versions of bible called the Gutenberg bible are some of its uniqueness. The library was architectured so well and to our surprise it holds close to 3 centuries of newspapers. Book lovers please do visit.
Then we saw washington court and then galloped to see the other side of smithsonian, the washington memorial and most of all the cherry blossom. Washington memorial is the world's tallest stone structure and is built in memory of George washington. After seeing all this we were heading towards the cherry blossom fest, it was expected that there would not be much cherry flowers still hanging out onto the trees as it rained heavily the last week. So, we were just seeing the trees half filled with cherry flowers. Its a good feast for one's eyes. Following that we tuned over to world war II memorial where all the member states of US has memorials around a fountain. We thought we had enough for the day and then pushed off to Kiran's house which is in Vienna/fairfax. This is about 30 minutes drive from Washington D.C. After having good indian dinner (lot of indians in that neighbourhood in fairfax, vienna) we had a deeeeeeeeep sleep.
Being the tamil new year the next day (April 13th) we decided to go to a temple in Maryland which is around 40 minutes drive from his house. On the way, having a starbuckcoffee were discussing how Starbucks became an integral part of every american. Its a Siva Vishnu temple and its very big in space and I enjoyed being there and praying. Starting from there we came to washington D.C again as we missed to go to an imporant house in town, the WHITE house. Actually speaking I was thinking it to be veryyy huge and unimaginable in size, but it was in the size of a PANNAYAR veedu, I mean a bungalow (medium sized). The maintenance is really good. All over the place they had pictures of Bush with his family, so we were thinking as and when President changes their pictures would be put up. We had some special entrance that day and we visited the white house garden. Amidst tight security we were allowed to enjoy the park's beauty.
Here ends my washington trip. More than anything I really enjoyed the company of my friend we were meeting after 3 1/2 yrs and it really felt good when we discussed about the good old college and project days. Have fun and enjoy. Take Care.
Tools used:
www.gotobus.com (to book your bus)
www.wmata.com (washington DC metro train)
some biscuits ( LOL)..
Regards,
Sriram Srinivasan
